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. 

Tie Lou Han 2011 (Tea Urchin)

I have to admit, I was drawn to the Tea Urchin website and the story behind the business.  They don't sell inexpensive, or even moderately-priced tea, but you get the impression that you might just get an experience worth the price if you give their products a try.  Here's my impression of their Tie Lou Han.

This dry leaf is bold and nearly charcoal black.  Clearly, it was heavily roasted, but there is no burnt aroma, just the relatively mild scent of an aged rock tea.  The wet leaf is similarly dark, falling somewhere between black and deep mahogany.  There is no green or any significant variegation in color.  This is not necessarily a bad thing, as very traditional, unblended rock teas can be uniformly dark, but the wet leaf on the website shows much more diversity in leaf color, and for me, that disparity is disappointing.

The tea brews up a very dark amber/brown, and is impressively fragrant for a heavy roast tea.  The aroma is big, deep, and very traditional, with sweetness, roast aromas, dark fruit, woody resinous notes, and a hint of mustiness.  In short, it's rich and complex. 

The tea is very smooth on entry, and transitions to big and fat at mid palate.  It manages to have a great mouth feel and be almost velvety soft at the same time.  It's full flavored and quite deep, with  dark roasted fruit flavors, the woody/resinous flavors of traditional processing, noticeable Tie Lou Han varietal flavor, and some of the flavors associated with aging.  After the swallow, there is a noticeable coating in the mouth and a nice tang.

Not surprisingly, this tea has a fairly deep and persistent aftertaste, with notes of dark plum, caramel, roast, cocoa, and wood.  

The dry cup aroma is sweet and rich.

You can brew this tea many times. The tea leaves unfurl very, very slowly.  They're still  dark brown and in the process of unfurling after 8 infusions.  This is one of the most durable rock teas I've tried.   

Tie Lou Han is probably the most masculine of the rock teas, and this is probably the most masculine of the Tie Lou Han I've had.  It's a big tea, with the kind of aftertaste and dry cup aroma that you usually experience only in true Zheng Yan tea from the scenic central area of Wu Yi.  For lovers of big, traditional rock teas that possess some aged character, this tea should be on your short list.  For lovers of clean, nuanced and floral teas, this one might be too bold and straight at you.  While I think $29 for 100 grams is a lot to pay for any tea, considering what you're getting for your money, you might just consider it a bargain. 

A Brief Interlude

Up to this point, the Wu Yi teas I've blogged about have ranged from quite inexpensive to moderately priced, the most expensive being $9 for 50 grams.  The following four reviews--and yes I've added three more teas to the initial dozen I said I'd review--are of significantly more expensive teas, the cheapest of them priced at $29 for 100 grams.  These are, at least for me, special occasion teas.  They are the tea analog of fine aged Cognac.  This coming week I'll blog about these loftier cousins.   Are they worth all the extra dough.  I'll let you know what I think.

Shui Xian Premium AA Spring 2012 (Yunnan Sourcing)

This is Yunnan Sourcing's most expensive Shui Xian.  I had a very favorable experience with their significantly less expensive Guo Xiang Shui Xian.  Could this tea be worth nearly twice the price?  Let's see.

The tightly and uniformly twisted, medium length dry leaf looks typical of high-quality, modern-process Shui Xian.  Once wet, the leaf color and unfurling rate suggest that this tea has undergone a medium-to-medium-light oxidation and roasting.

The tea soup brews up a nice medium amber, and gives off a sweet aroma with components typical of modern-style Shui Xian (fruit, honey, floral).  It's not quite as aromatic as the cheaper Guo Xiang, but the aroma is tighter, classier, and more nuanced, and remains stronger through more infusions.

The tea is balanced in the mouth, fairly smooth on entry, with a nice medium body and grip at mid palate.  It's clean and has some dimension and complexity. There's a punctuating floral Shui Xian flavor at the swallow, followed by some of the chalky coating that is characteristic of rock tea.

The aftertaste is quite persistent, and fairly flavorful.  It's more elegant than overpowering, with a just a hint of chocolate, and an otherwise strongly floral nature.

The dry cup aroma is floral and quite strong.

This tea has a fairly strong constitution and produces several relatively pure tasting infusions.

This is clearly what it's advertised to be: a high quality Shui Xian that displays most of the best characteristics of a modern-style rock tea.  Some of its competitors have a bit more of the honey character, and others a bit more of the complexities associated with roasting, but overall this one is an excellent example of the breed.  It's cheaper ($9.00 for 50 grams) than just about all of the other similarly graded Shui Xian I've seen on the market, so it's a good deal.  However, it's not that much different or that much higher in quality than Yunnan Sourcing's Guo Xiang version, which at nearly half the price, is the product to beat.

Rou Gui AAA Spring 2012 (Ebay-cnteacup)

There's a big difference between this spring Rou Gui from cnteacup and their just-reviewed autumn version. Here's what I found.

The dry leaf is relatively small, with green clearly visible. Once wet, it appears delicate and supple, and a combination of hand and machine picked.  The leaf colors suggest a fairly light oxidation and a fairly light roasting as well.

The tea brews up a medium-light amber/orange.  The moderately strong aroma is that of a clean, minimally processed, modern-style rock tea.  There is a lot of floral varietal Rou Gui character, with a nice balancing fruitiness, but it's not as deeply fruity or peachy as some.  A light hint of roast rounds things out.

Right up front you're greeted with the tea's strongly varietal and floral character. It's clean and direct, and definitely leaning toward the greener side.  It's not quite as nuanced or complex as some of the other modern-style Rou Gui I've had, but it's quite good nevertheless.  After the swallow, there is some of the chalkiness and grip I associate with good rock tea.  More noticeable, perhaps, is the cleansing acidity that helps carry the aftertaste.

This tea has a very nice, lingering aftertaste, with a lemony element. Like the initial taste, it's clean and strongly varietal, and, as you might expect of a minimally processed tea, not terribly complex.

The dry cup aroma is generous and floral.

This tea has quite a bit of strength and can be brewed several times before fading into a pleasant lightness.

Clearly this is a high-quality tea produced in a very modern style.  If you are looking for a tea that's had a lot of complex processing and long roasting, then this is probably not the tea for you.  However, fans of modern-style Rou Gui will probably find this tea both charming and surprisingly affordable ($12.98 for 100 grams).