This particular example comes from Houde, weighing in at 2oz for $22.50. A fair enough price, if the tea is good. The particular cultivar this tea was produced from, was the common baozhong choice of chin shin. In fact most Taiwanese oolongs are produced from the chin shin cultivar, specifically most oolongs at elevations >1200m.
The first thing I noticed about this tea was it's unusual dry leaf aroma. Slightly musky, dry plum, and overall a little muted. For brewing this tea I used 6g in my 120ml hong ni pot, which ended up being a good decision. I have also brewed this tea with 5g in my 100ml gaiwan. I think yixing pots make the biggest difference when brewing oolongs. The infusion times I ended up using were; instant rinse, 7s, 15s, 35s, 2m, 5m, 12m, 30m
The leaf is of good quality, being strong, healthy and soft. Carmaleized plum is the best way to describe this tea, but not overbearingly sweet like you'd expect. This is good because it also means that there isn't any of that nasty sourness associated with poorly stored/aged oolongs. There's also a little malty sweetness somewhat reminiscent of a slightly older dianhong which I am particularly fond of, but this is a lot more complex than that. The huigan is sharp, and really fast. It's good tea, but not quite $22.50 per 2oz good, especially seeing as how the mouthfeel is not as thick as I'd hoped, but it's definitely not a thin tea so overall it can be faulted for that. I'm definitely glad I was able to try it before Houde sold out though, and if it's still left as this is published then you might want to check it out. Coming within the next week or two I have some fresh baozhongs, and even one from the 70's.Taken from http://teajournaling.blogspot.com/
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