Winter 2015 Dong Ding competition Hung Shui Oolong

What's my favorite tea? It's a question I'm often asked and I like to answer that it's the next tea I'm going to brew! There are so many different teas out there. Listening to oneself to find out which is the best fit for a particular season, day, hour, mood... is key to enjoyment.

Nevertheless, if I had to pick just one type, it probably would be a Hung Shui Oolong like this one. 3 reasons for this choice:
1- partially oxidized and medium to strong roasted, this is a complex and refined tea that has lots to offer,

2- it's like a person who educates himself: the leaves becomes better with time,

3- like a person, this type of tea is particularly sensitive to how it's brewed. Each brew is a lesson for your life: be prepared, practice, observe (how the leaves open) and act (brew) both with care and without hesitation. The leaves are like life: precious and full of potential. If you make a mistake, accept responsibility and learn from it.

A great brew in a gaiwan is better than a so-so brew in a top Yixing teapot! There's no pleasure when the chaxi is beautiful, but the tea comes out flat. It's actually even more obvious and disappointing when the brew doesn't live up to the expectations of an aesthetically pleasing setup.

Still lots of freshness in these open leaves!

A wonderful tasting cup remains the priority of the chaxi. That's why it's essential that the accessories that are paired should improve (or at least not deduct from) the taste of the tea.

In tea, like in life (and politics), it's still substance over style. What a joy when you get both!

Fenqi Hu - Oolong de haute montagne

Qingxin Oolong du printemps 2015, récolté le 25 avril à Fenqi Hu, dans le terroir d'Alishan (1700 m). C'est d'ailleurs l'une des plus hautes élévation d'Alishan. Aussi, il a droit à un fond turquoise, proche de la couleur du ciel de haute montagne!

Il nous faut patienter encore 2 mois environ avant les prochaines récoltes printanières. Si certains Oolongs de 2015 semblent éventés, ce n'est pas le cas de ces feuilles, car elles eurent droit à une légère torréfaction. Leur pic de maturité n'est pas simplement décalé, mais prolongé et plus haut.

Contrairement à la plupart des Oolongs frais modernes et grand public, cet Oolong de haute montagne s'affine avec le temps. C'est assez rare pour que ce soit souligné. Cela explique aussi pourquoi il ne fut pas aussi gouleyant que d'autres au printemps dernier. Il lui fallait une période de repos plus longue.

Mais maintenant, il est frais, fleuri et intense comme un Oolong fraichement récolté! C'est le printemps avant l'heure, avec la finesse en plus. C'est l'avantage de boire en intérieur au lieu de la plage: on est plus sensible aux détails et au raffinement!

Raw energy

1999 '7542' raw puerh

It's probably unfair to simply qualify this 1999 raw 7542 puerh from Menghai Tea Factory as 'raw energy' only. After all, it has aged over 16 years already. Its flavors are complex (wood, camphor, earthy notes...). Its taste is rich and surprisingly sweet when it's well brewed.

At the beach, however, there's that one component that really outshines them all: its raw energy translating into a very long, powerful aftertaste!

Whaaoooh! It's good to feel alive and kicking on the beach! With this raw puerh tea, it feels like a communion with the energy of the sea and the sun.

I often drink tea to have a kind of paradise feeling. Pure and simple. So it feels so nice and natural to brew this great puerh when I'm in a paradise like place!

One of my most beautiful vacation moment!

Unforgettable and full of energy.

Parallel brewing tea lesson

For today's tea lesson with 3 visiting guests from the US, I set up 2 similar chaxi for some parallel brewing. Like this, the student can see how I brew and brew right after me.

To spice things up and make it a little bit more challenging, I chose to brew my spring Alishan Oolong and gave Carl my spring Lishan Oolong, a tea twice as expensive. Carl even used a few more leaves than me, but we all felt that my first Alishan brew had a more powerful and smooth taste than the Lishan! So, I proposed to exchange our teas and continued brewing the Lishan Oolong. And now it's the Lishan that tasted finer and the Alishan rougher!

This little experiment shows that it's not just how good the leaves are that matters, but that the brewing technique can make even an Alishan taste better than a Lishan.This is a reason why I recommend that beginners don't start right away with the best leaves, because they are not likely to brew their full potential. 

For our second Oolong, we brewed the same winter 2015 competition Dong Ding Oolong. And even with the same tea, we obtained very different results. However, with this roasted tea, Carl did a very good job and the differences were more in strength and character than in quality, I felt. However, here we realized that sensitivity to bitterness wasn't the same for each of us.

Our third Oolong is neither low oxidized or medium roasted, but high oxidized: Oriental Beauty from Hsin Chu. These 3 teas give a good overview of the incredible range of flavors that can be found in Oolongs. This time it's Lopa who is parallel brewing this tea with me. Again, the results are very different. Lopa's first brew was astringent, but she improved in her second brew. My cups tasted sweet and rich.

When we brew alone, we don't always realize the importance of each detail of our brewing technique. Parallel brewing allows us to experience how a steady pour of the water in the gaiwan impacts the taste of the tea. The goal is to allow the leaves to open up at the same rate, so that they occupy the gaiwan evenly. The pouring of hot water on the leaves changes with each brew and each type of tea. But the first step to learn about the brewing technique is to become aware of how big an impact it can have. I think this was particularly well demonstrated with the high mountain Oolongs!

Thanks for your all your interest. It's great to meet my Internet/Facebook friends in person!

Contre la fuite du temps

Le Hung Shui Oolong est un thé anti-stress pour l'amateur et le professionnel de thé. J'en avais amené quelques sachets pour mes vacances, dont ce dernier reste d'hiver 2013 de Shan Lin Xi, malheureusement épuisé.

Au lieu d'avoir une date de péremption, au-delà de laquelle il ne serait plus apte à la consommation, c'est un produit qui va en se bonifiant (si on le conserve au frais et à sec).

Voilà qui change complètement la perspective et l'approche qu'on peut en avoir. On sort de l'hantise d'en avoir de trop, de l'obligation de le boire rapidement. Un thé vert ou un Oolong non torréfié sera chaque jour de moins de moins en moins frais et qui dit qu'on en retrouve un aussi bon aux prochaines récoltes?

Ces thés frais sont modernes comme tous ces produits high tech qui n'en finissent pas d'évoluer rapidement et qu'il faut remplacer à des intervalles de plus en plus courts.

Avec le Hung Shui Oolong, on change de paradigme. Le temps n'est plus un ennemi, c'est votre ami. Les feuilles s'annoblissent avec le temps. Ce thé ne suit pas la mode, l'air du temps, mais s'ancre dans la tradition du gongfu cha, intemporel.

Etre hors du temps sied aussi à un premier matin de vacance. Et son caractère mi frais mi torréfié est aussi celui du jour qui se lève, quand les rayons de soleil apportent plus de clarté que de chaleur.

Moment de plaisir pour les 5 sens et intime conviction que cet art du thé quotidien m'offre des brefs aperçus de l'infini créateur.

Un petit coin de paradis...

Sans cesse recréé et partagé.

Postcards from the beach

Summers on Taiwan are so hot that it's best to head to the high mountains and their cool nights. And during the grey winter months in Taipei, the closest escape is Kenting, at the southern tip of the island. Its special climate makes it possible to swim all year around, even in February. So, that's where we headed again this year!

From experience, an unroasted high mountain Oolong, here from Alishan's Changshu Hu mountain, is a great choice on the beach. It brings sweetness, lightness and a lasting freshness.

Water just quenches thirst. High moutain Oolong also brings life and energy! The contact with nature is felt with the sun on the skin and warm tea in the body. It's an amazing feeling, especially when the tea is well made.

Repeat tea experiences at the beach also help to get better results. The more difficult, I guess, is the first time. But if you like tea and the beach, then the potential joy of mixing both brings more than the addition of 2 pleasures. Tea brings meaning and mindfulness to the -otherwise often- shallow beach experience. And the sun and the sea provide a soft and magnificent environment to enjoy tea.

The sun is in the tea cup!

Retour des vacances du Nouvel An chinois

La semaine fériée du Nouvel An s'achève ce soir. Demain, la vie reprendra son long cours tranquille à Taiwan. Enfin, ce n'est jamais très tranquille avec les tremblements de terre, le changement de parti au pouvoir et les montagnes russes de la bourse locale!

Ce thé rouge de Hualien, dégusté ici dans mon appartement il y a 2 semaines, m'a souvent accompagné le matin durant ces vacances. Malgré le caractère subtropical de Taiwan, il a fait particulièrement froid ces derniers temps, et ce thé oxydé, rempli de soleil, apporte beaucoup de chaleur et de douceur.

Chaque coupe de porcelaine resplendit de pureté.

Il est aux couleurs du soleil couchant, moment de calme entre le jour et la nuit. La nature s'offre en spectacle pour notre plaisir, notre sérénité.

Joie simple de boire un thé en accord avec la saison et notre état d'esprit.