Gold Medal Rou Gui (Tea Urchin)

This tea supposedly won a gold medal at the Wuyishan Tea Expo, so it's inevitable that I have raised expectations for it.  I wouldn't normally spend so much for a tea ($50 for 50 grams), but I also believe that one can't really understand relative value until one experiences the extremes of the product spectrum.  This one is clearly positioned near the top; let's see what all the fuss is about.

The dry leaf is bold, quite uniform, and well twisted.  It's surprisingly long.  Once moistened and unfurled, you're greeted by mostly whole leaf that is well processed.  In general, the leaf is bigger, and more whole than that in other high-quality Zheng Yan Rou Gui that I've tried.  This is clearly a modern-style oolong, with medium-to-light oxidation and medium-light baking as well.  

The tea liquors up a medium to medium-light amber orange, and the fine aroma is that of a  less processed modern-style tea.  It's quite fragrant, clean, and mellow, with an excellent balance of fruitiness, floral overtones, a light yet piercing herbaceous quality, and a dose of the roast.  No doubt, it was processed to highlight the varietal character of the leaf, and not to develop a lot of complexity.   

This Rou Gui is very smooth and very flavorful.  Compared to the other expensive, modern-style Rou Gui that I've tried, it is comparatively mellow and soft, without much of the edginess I've come to expect from this cultivar. The distinctly varietal flavor is a bit sweeter than I was expecting, with a nice balance of the fruity and the floral.  The tea really blossoms during the swallow, and ushers in a surprisingly good aftertaste.

Up to the aftertaste, this tea struck me as just a very well made, and perhaps overpriced, Rou Gui. It's first rate, don't get me wrong, but it's without quite the nuance of one of my favorite Rou Guis, and lacking quite the floral beauty of another (neither reviewed in this blog).  However, its pedigree becomes evident after the swallow, when the tea essence is felt and tasted all around the mouth and in the throat.  The aftertaste is, to the best of my recollection, the strongest and longest lasting of any Wu Yi tea I've had.  Ten minutes after the swallow, one can still taste the tea.  

The dry cup aroma is outstanding.

It think this gives about as many cups as one can expect from modern-style Wu Yi Oolong, with clearly evident varietal character after many brews.  In general, however, I find that traditional-process teas fare better in later infusions, and, in that regard, this tea is no exception.  

I learned a few things from this tea and the other high-quality rock teas I've had recently.  One is the importance of the raw product.  Regardless of the processing style, great Wu Yi starts with great leaf, and great leaf is chock full of essence.  That concentration of rock essence is often expressed in fuller and mellower teas that coat the mouth and provide exceptional aftertastes and wonderful dry-cup aromas.  This tea also allowed me to appreciate just how good Rou Gui teas are in general.  While it's arguably better than any other modern-style version I've had, it's not so much better that I would drop another $50 to restock my supply.  Nevertheless, I'm still glad I blew my holiday gift money to experience it.  If you want to try a modern-style Rou Gui that's pretty much as good as it gets, loosen your purse strings and go for it.  

Aged Da Hong Pao 2008 (Tea Urchin)

Thanks to Tea Urchin for this generous free sample.  Da Hong Pao, sometimes referred to as The King of Oolong, is widely considered the most impressive of the Wu Yi cultivars.  At its best, it delivers a commanding combination of strength, balance, and charm.  I haven't reviewed any Da Hong Pao on this blog yet, and it will be a pleasure to review this one.

The dry leaf is fairly dark, well twisted, and just a bit shorter than I was expecting.  Once wet, the muted green/brown leaf appears rather heavily bruised, with a fair amount of it torn.  The colors indicate a medium degree of oxidation and a medium-to-medium-heavy baking.

The leaf brews up a deep amber-red, and the tea possesses a classic, sweet, and deep aroma with definite varietal character.  It even has some floral character, which I found surprising in a tea with this degree of processing and aging.  This tea must have been carefully aged and well sealed, as it carries few of the aromas often found in teas held in this humid part of the world.

This is a very smooth tea with a medium-heavy body.  It's full flavored and balanced, with an  unmistakable Da Hong Pao flavor.  It's fairly deep and mellow, yet surprisingly vital and tangy for an aged tea, with much of the fruit and floral character still intact.

The tea leaves a nice coating in the mouth, with a dose of tartness and a nice chalky dryness.  The aftertaste is strong, though not exceptionally so.  It is, however, very persistent, with a nice richness and a hint of cocoa.

The dry cup aroma is strong, complex, and sweet.

This tea can be brewed many times.

I am quite impressed with this tea.  While it's fairly big, it's not the sheer impact of the tea that impresses, but its quality of processing and balance.  Unlike some of the more heavy-handed examples, this one is complex without being particularly resinous, and it's carefully roasted to achieve depth, sweetness, and roundness, without leaving signs of burning or excessive smokiness.  If you are a Da-Hong-Pao fan who favors a full and mellow cup, you might want to give this one a try.  At $38 for 100 grams, it certainly isn't cheap, but it's definitely good.

Shui Xian (Verdant)

Today's Shui Xian comes from Verdant Tea. Unfortunately, this tea is no longer listed on their website, with the void apparently being filled by a new and comparably-priced Wu Yi Shui Jin Gui.  The Shui Xian was advertised as an autumn 2011 high-elevation, old-tree tea and sold for $16.75 for 2 oz. Anyway, here's what I think of it.

The dry leaf is a mix of compact near black and dark brown leaf.  The wet leaf is fairly small for Shui Xian, with much of it heavily bruised and processed, but also with some mid-process leaf, and a bit of the light-roasted green stuff.  It looks like a blend of several batches. 

The tea liquors up a dark amber and has an enticing, multidimensional aroma.  It's not a terribly strong aroma, but it's rather deep, dark, and sweet, with toasty notes, vanilla, coffee, honeysuckle, and some earthiness.

The tea is smooth and soft on entry, and fairly full on the palate for a Shui Xian.  It's quite flavorful, with some roast artifacts, some deep stone fruit, some honey, some wood, and some Da-Hong-Pao-like floral notes.  It grips on the swallow and coats the tongue and back of the throat nicely.

The aftertaste is long and tasty, with some chalkiness, a caramel-like sweetness, and a hint of coffee with cream.

The dry cup aroma is nice and sweet with the scent of toasted coconut.  

This tea can be brewed many times.  Later infusions have an impressive amount of color and a creamy fullness.  

I'm impressed that the producer was able to achieve this range and intensity of flavor from an autumn tea.  It makes you wonder what they do with their spring stuff.  In summary, this is a fine example of  a carefully produced, batch-blended genuine rock tea, marred only slightly by a bit of the autumn reticence.