Roasted Rougui Baozhong from spring 2018

This roasted Rougui Baozhong was made from these fresh leaves. So, this new roasted Rougui Baozhong offers lots of interesting comparisons.
1. You can compare it to its unroasted version to see how the roast impacted the flavors.
2. You can compare it to a roasted Baozhong made from Qingxin Oolong to experience how the cultivar impacts the taste.
3. You can also compare it to a Rougui from Fujian to taste how Wenshan terroir changes the flavors.

But I did yet another experience when tasting it recently. I brewed it in different vessels.

Here, I used a small zhuni Yixing (and rather a lot of leaves). But it felt a little bit too powerful and harsh. One of the reason is that the roast has been done this month, so the leaves haven't really had much rest.

So, I also brewed it in a zisha dicaoqing teapot (see first picture) and used the same amount of leaves (for a teapot that's 30% bigger approx). This change made all the difference! The scents were well balanced between the spice, the fruity and the roasting notes. And the taste had a nice prolonged sweetness.

This is a good reminder that too many leaves can sometimes spoil a good tea!

And look at these wet leaves and how well they open up and turn green despite a strong roast!