This slowly grown 'organic' Baozhong contains leaves of various Oolong varietals (Luanze, Jinxuan, Tsui Yu, Si Ji Chun..). The size of those whole leaves is quite impressive. The harvest happened mid April 2007. Oxidation is very light. 
The infusion is light yellow and greenish. Clarity is OK. Fragrances: light smells of fresh grass, some light forest scents and even marshmallow.
Taste: The pure and clean taste lingers for quite a long time. Thanks to the whole leaves, this tea has no bitter taste and can therefore be brewed for long times without risk of overbrew.
Wet leaves: The big size of these handpicked leaves is obvious.
This makes it a good light Baozhong for every day. The mix of different varieties helps to create a more cost effective balance of light scents and long aftertaste. I recommend to fill the gongfu teapot/gaibei with leaves for this tea. Anyway, with dry leaves as big as that, you won't be able to put that many inside!
(Same price as last year's high quality lily Baozhong. Available by packs of 150 gr.)
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4 comments:
hello, a few question about this tea:
1) organic grown - does this mean this tea was grown without using fertilizer, or using natural fertilizer (manure or other, for instance), and was some kind of natural pest-control method used to prevent insects chewing on the leaves (or are the leaves chewed like with oriental beauty)...it being only light oxidized would mean no leaf-chewing?
2) blended leaves: is it usual to blend different varietals for this type of tea (or other taiwan tea for that matter). I imagine the this is more cost effective since the different varietals cover each others defects and it is therefore easier to achieve a good balance of taste/fragrance/aftertaste?
thank you...
1) Thanks for your question. It gives me the opportunity to add what I had written in French a few days ago about this 'organic' tea: I hve no way to guarantee that it's fully organic!!
Usually, fertilizer is always used. Natural fertilizer based on cut grass, branches is then used for organic Baozhong.
I don't know what pest control was used. I noticed very little chewing on the leaves.
The best sign of organic growth I found is the long length of the leaves and the pure taste.
2) At the lower price spectrum, blending is more common. It can be a blending of varietals, sometimes origins or even seasons! In this case, I found the blend was not just a way to lower the cost, but that it did achieve a nicer unity than the 100% jinxuan or the tsui yu based Baozhongs I also tasted that day.
Bonjour Stéphane,
J'ai une question par rapport au mélange des variétals: dans le cas d'un oolong torréfié (baozhong par exemple), certains variétals sont-ils mieux disposés à un bon vieillissement?
Bonne question Axel! Oui. Le luanze Oolong et toutes les sortes qui ont de la longueur en bouche sont meilleures pour le vieillissement.
Les nouvelles sortes (Si Ji Chun, Jinxuan et Jade Oolong) sont surtout bonnes fraiches et jeunes.
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