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Tea Ave Wenshan Baochong
Origin: Ping
Ling District, New Taipei City, Taiwan
Harvest: 2014
Cultivar:
QinXin Oolong
Elevation:
400-800m
I decided
finally write this review, I put off looking at another Tea Ave tea ever since
they launched their site, not because I do not like Tea Ave teas, but Tea Ave had
a very successful PR campaign leading to them being everywhere. I do not know
how many samplers they sent out before they launched, but I have a feeling they
sent out a lot judging by their presence on the various tea forums I regularly
read. In fact when I published my Tea Ave preview I did so prematurely. I have
not discussed why I publish my reviews or even what I get out of this blog. I
do not make any money off this blog, but I do get the occasional samples; for
every ten queries from tea vendors I reject nine of them for a number of
reasons. In fact the few companies that I accept samples from I regularly buy
tea from. If you have been an attentive reader of this blog you may notice I
always disclose at the beginning of my posts whether or not I received samples
for the sake of review.
As I
already said I do not get any money from this blog, the primary reason I write
this blog is that I enjoy having a space to record some of the teas I try and
recommending teas that I enjoy or think are interesting. While I do try to
limit the posts on this blog to teas I either enjoy drinking or at the very
least have interesting characteristics I try not to post my thoughts on teas
that I do not enjoy. This may come as something of a shock to some, but there
are quite a lot of teas that I do not like, even more scandalous there are teas
from some of my favorite vendors that I do not enjoy.
Regardless
I finally feel like the various tea forums I read are not oversaturated with
reviews of Tea Ave’s teas. Tea Ave describes their Wenshan Baochong as:
If oolong tea can be chic, Wenshan
Baochung is it: sophisticated, refined, unctuous (save it for your fanciest
friends—or for yourself). One of the most fragrant oolong teas in the world,
Wenshan Baochung is known for its rich, long-lasting aroma (we highly recommend
enjoying it with our aroma cup). Unroasted
with floral aromas, most of Wenshan Baochung Oolong’s tea leaves are
unoxidized, giving it a quality reminiscent of a green tea with a dash of Dong
Ding. Floral notes and aroma arise naturally from the tea leaves.
Wenshan Baochung Oolong grows in the
Wenshan region of Northern Taiwan, where the year-long mild climate and
fog-filled air give the tea a distinct, refined quality. Wenshan Baochung tea
turns a golden honey-green color when infused and has a delightful floral
flavor with a sweet finish.
Tea leaves are bright green and twisted
into long strands.
The only
statement I disagree with Tea Ave’s description is “save it for your fanciest
friends—or for yourself” makes this sound more like the kind of tea you
want to save for special occasions, but I feel this is more of a daily drinker.
I know some see the phrase “daily drinker” as a slight, as an inexpensive tea
perhaps of dubious origins, but I am not using it in that sense. I like to
describe some Taiwanese Oolongs (LiShan, DaYuLing, etc) as being like cotton
candy, something that is quite enjoyable, but you cannot live off them; while
daily drinkers are more nutrious. As much as I enjoy DaYuLings, I do not think
I could ever regularly drink them, while teas like this I could easily see
myself drinking this often.
Dry Leaves: The leaves are very aromatic, there are a lot of floral
notes, but the strongest is orchid. The dry leaves are pretty evenly blue and
green, generally in my experience in lower quality baochongs I often see leaves
that are mostly blue while in higher quality baochongs I often see mostly
greens; I rarely see baochongs that are equally balanced like this. While the
color of the leaves do not always telegraph the quality of a tea, for a
baochong I like to assess the quality by the aroma of dry leaves and the aroma
of these leaves is simply amazing. I can see the occasional stem which I do not
often see in Baochongs.
First
Steeping
Temperature:
190oF
Brewing
Time: One Minute
Aroma: Floral
and Vanilla
Flavor: Orchid,
Honeysuckle, Spinach and Honey
Tasting
Notes: As always with Taiwanese oolongs I did a quick rinse with boiling water.
I decided to not follow the recommended brewing parameters Tea Ave lists on
their website and their packaging, not because I disagree with what they
recommend, but I feel that brewing this in very short steepings will not
produce very different tastes and aromas in subsequent steepings and if I
brewed this for long periods of time I would undoubtedly miss out on some of
the subtler flavors and aromas. Long time readers may have noticed I have a
template for how I write my reviews, I generally only post my notes on the
first three steepings of any tea, and I feel that the first three steepings are
the most important. Not surprising this is a very floral tea, although there is
a bit of a vegetal notes coming out.
I rather enjoyed the honeysuckle notes
more so than the orchid ones, but I found the spinach notes lingered a bit
which was a nice contrast to the floral notes; while the vegetal flavors pale
in comparison to more vegetal teas like senchas (etc) I always enjoy Taiwanese
oolongs that have both floral tastes and vegetal ones.
Second
Steeping
Temperature:
195oF
Brewing
Time: Two Minutes
Aroma: Floral and Vanilla
Flavor: Orchid,
Honeysuckle, Violet, Spinach and Honey
Tasting
Notes: The floral flavors are becoming more intense! I’m rather enjoying how
these very strong floral notes are interacting with the spinach.
It was not until this steeping that I
realized how much I liked the vanilla aroma of the tea. I do not often
encounter vanilla scents in oolongs as green as this, but it was quite
enjoyable although it did kind of clash with the floral notes
.
Third
Steeping
Temperature:
200oF
Brewing
Time: Three Minutes
Aroma: Floral
and Vanilla
Flavor: Floral,
Spinach, Nutty and Honey
Tasting
Notes: I’m sad to say the floral notes are starting to become less distinct,
this tea still has quite a lot of life left, but from here on out it starts to
become simpler. Although I am happy to say the spinach and nutty notes do not
wane until the very end.
This is a very lovely Baochong, at the
time of writing this Tea Ave is selling this for $13.75 (CAD) for 25g is well
worth the price. It definitely ranks pretty high on the baochungs currently
being sold between $10-15, you can tell it is machine harvested, but it tastes
much more like a hand plucked tea.
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