Type of tea plant: Qingxin oolong tea plant variety, grown in Yunnan and made into red tea.
The meeting of Taiwan and Yunnan in a cup 🙂
Sweet, soft and incredibly fragrant. Located 20 km north of Menghaitian Puer, it is arguably Yunnan's "most boring" place, with nothing to see except for a power plant... until we see what's hidden behind it. What at first appears to be a swamp can sometimes hide an oolong tea plantation, as we learned in Menghaitian.
We found this abandoned plantation based on a tip from Li Chao Yuan, the maker of our Yingpan Shan black tea. Last spring, he managed to obtain fresh leaves from this plantation. Some of these abandoned gardens have been acquired by the locals and they produce a tiny amount for themselves every year. Mr. Li processed the tea at the Yingpan Shan factory using a traditional Yunnan black tea processing method.
The result is an outstanding, rarely found Qingxin 'oolong' tea processed in this style. If you brew it in a mug, its aroma easily fills the small room, just like a rock of oolong or other fragrant tea. Still, it has a thicker and stronger oxidation than a typical floral honeyed Taiwanese oolong (Mi Xiang or our Hong shui oolong teas), despite the leaves appearing purple and green.
You will notice that there are no buds on the leaves. This is because farmers allow the "clusters" to fully develop and harvest the top three leaves, which are considered adults. Traditional oolong style.
If you prepare the tea in the gongfu style, you will be able to make many concoctions out of it. Unlike most other Yunnan black teas, this tea is gently steeped, allowing you to extend the brewing time, even for early infusions. You can also finish the tea with longer steepings, as the tea will never become bitter. That's why I usually make it in the mornings in a hurry by putting a pinch of tea in a double-walled glass thermos, pouring 90-degree water over it and off I go. And on the way, I'm going to blackout it.
A wonderful black tea. Both dry and wet leaves are intensely fragrant. From the finished tea drink itself, I can smell some unusual aromatic woody notes, which are present in some Taiwanese black teas, but in the taste, raisins and oranges are the main characters, and the floral notes appear mainly in the aftertaste and aroma. It's a delicious thing. Soft, oily texture, I didn't expect it from a red tea to be honest. It is very fruity, with a hint of overripe blood orange, grape and some peach in the aftertaste, the latter is quite spectacular. Very unique, I recommend it to all tea drinkers.
A You can read about the red, i.e. black tea type in general here.
Making tea
Use soft water with a low mineral content to prepare it. The temperature should vary between 85-95 degrees. Start making tea with the lowest temperature and gradually increase the steeping time proportionally. In the beginning, proceed with 15-30 second infusions. Calculate 150-5 grams of tea for a 7 ml device, it also depends on individual taste, feel free to experiment! It's best if gaiwanyou use t to make it, but in a European instrument you can also make it with confidence.
