what should it taste like

What Should It Taste Like: Oriental Beauty

December 22, 2013 by Jason

Part of a series: What Should It Taste Like?

The legend behind this tea includes a story of Queen Victoria giving this tea its name. Research suggests the tea wasn’t commonly referred to as Oriental Beauty until the 1970’s. Before that, it was called peng feng (膨风) tea (braggart’s tea). Records mentioning Peng feng tea go back to the 1930’s, so the tea was likely developed and popularized long after the death of Queen Victoria.

Oriental Beauty, or dong fang mei ren (东方美人) wulong tea is generally known for:

…

What Should It Taste Like: Keemun

December 5, 2013 by Jason

Part of a series: What Should It Taste Like?

Years ago, Keemun was the go-to black tea in the West. It was used in some blends of English Breakfast. It won awards on its own merit back in the early 1900’s. All from a tea that is relatively young for Chinese teas and created by a failed government official.

Keemun black tea is generally known for:

…

What Should It Taste Like: Ali Shan

September 28, 2013 by Jason

Part of a series: What Should It Taste Like?

It is tempting to pile all the Taiwan high mountain oolongs into the same heap. After all, there can be strong similarities across them. These higher elevation mean some of the highest tea gardens in the world- even higher than Darjeeling estates.

But lumping them together would be to ignore the variety that is created. Mountain location can be an important issue. As tea bushes respond to longer days in the Spring, they shoot out new leaves. New leaves marks the time to pluck. If the mountain is too northerly, leaves are sprouting before the warmer, dryer air has arrived. And so tea processors may have leaves to process, but terrible weather withering and drying a final product. Ali Shan, being further south than Li Shan, has the advantage of getting that warmer, dryer air in time for optimal growth and processing conditions.

Ali Shan wulongs are generally known for:

…

What Should It Taste Like – Darjeeling

July 3, 2013 by Jason

Part of a series: What Should It Taste Like?

It is becoming increasingly difficult to pin down a tight range of characteristics for darjeeling teas. For one, there are multiple harvests, or flushes. 1st and 2nd flush are not the same. Production errors can get in the way of the expression of characteristics. And to a certain extent, differences in variety used and the estate where darjeeling is grown can be a factor. More recently, Darjeeling estates are also offering wulong, green, and white teas which contain some of the essential darjeeling characteristics.
…

What Should It Taste Like – Tie Guan Yin

June 4, 2013 by Jason

Part of a series: What Should It Taste Like?

There are so many versions of tie guan yin wulong that it is difficult to describe what they all taste like.

More modern-style tie guan yins are generally greener in color and more floral in character, while the more traditional roasted can have toasted nut and caramel notes.

Perhaps because of the abundance of variations in processing, books on tea are reluctant to give a tighter description of the flavor profile.

Instead of trying to capture what a tie guan yin taste experience “should” be like, it would be more helpful to show what the average experience is like. Set your standards high, and look for something greater….

What Should It Taste Like: Da Hong Pao

April 15, 2013 by Jason

Part of a series: What Should It Taste Like?

One of the challenges of shopping for teas online is knowing whether you are getting the kind and quality of tea that you should expect. This challenge becomes even more compounded when you have never tasted a certain kind of tea before, or are not sure if you have formed an accurate impression of that tea to use as a basis of comparison.

Da Hong Pao wulong is a classic and popular tea that many tea drinkers encounter at one point or another. Due to its increasing fame, the tea is also one that is frequently imitated and adulterated.

Recognizing authentic da hong pao requires experience in detecting certain taste characteristics. Many people have tried to describe that set of characteristics.

A few tea references have sought to describe da hong pao’s flavor profile:

The Tea Enthusiasts Handbook included descriptors like: “peaty” and “earthy.”

The Harney & Sons Guide to Tea used “brown sugar,” “molasses,” and referred to stone fruitiness.

In a conversation with Peter Leong of Red Blossom Tea, he mentioned medicinal notes, but it is da hong pao’s balanced character that better defines the tea.

The Tea Drinkers Handbook employs words like “woody,” “velvety,” “osmanthus,” “tobacco,” “leather,” “sandalwood,” and “cinnamon.”

The Chinese note that da hong pao is known to have “yan yun“:

Yan Yun (岩韵): “cliff rhyme”, a balanced and musical sense to the tea. It is generally described as consisting of xiang, qing, gan, and huo.
1. Xiang (香):aroma; a harmonious balance between chun, lan, qing

chun (纯): pure; neither raw nor ripe
lan (兰): orchid; the fresh sensation felt just before a rain
qing (清): clear, clean, distinct; evenly and consistently roasted

2. Qing (清): lasting, sweet aftertaste with no off-aromas
3. Gan (甘): sweet, mellow
4. Huo (活): a liveliness of the tea that is, in a sense, spiritual

While these definitions can be very helpful, they do not go far in giving a clear picture of how these elements relate to each other, and how the intensities of these characteristics relate to each other. A combination of the descriptions above and my own experience has helped me create this profile wheel with lines indicating intensity of flavor components in relation to each other.

I tend to agree that overall flavor intensity may not be as profound as that found in many other wulongs, and that the silken texture and fuller, finer, aftertaste are major considerations in choosing better da hong pao.

Get even more in the Member Content.
Walker Tea Review- a tea blog with tea reviews and tea tastings.
Want to see a tea reviewed? Contact me: jason@walkerteareview.com

Subscribe in a reader or by email

What Should It Taste Like: Dragonwell

February 20, 2013 by Jason

Part of a series: What Should It Taste Like?

When tasting a new tea for the first time, a series of conflicting thoughts and feelings can occur.

On the one hand, there is the desire to start with a blank slate of expectations, and simply receive the tea for what it is.

But once you have to decide if the tea is a better than another tea, a set of defining characteristics and expectations help in the evaluation process.

Some frequently occurring characteristics do arise in describing dragonwell flavors. One of the most often used is “chestnut.” The wok-firing process that helps flatten the leaves and preserve the green character of long jing tea does endow many longjings with a nutty character. Toasty and nutty flavors can range from chestnut to cashew to freshly cooked rice.

Vegetal components are also regularly noted. Some associate the taste with green beans. Others feel the taste calls to mind leafy greens or sweet pea.

Other valuable elements in the dragonwell’s profile should be considered. Astringency levels are minimal in finer dragonwells. Even when over-steeped, better quality longjings have an astringency closer to having your tongue dusted with powder. Bitterness in good dragonwell should be essentially non-existent.

Many good teas are expected to create a sweetness, and longjing is no different. Like other fine teas, the sweetness is expected to concentrate mostly in the back of the mouth and upper throat. This has traditionally been preferred over sweetness concentrated near or under the middle of the tongue.

The longer the sweetness and light astringency pleasantly reside, the better. The importance of aftertaste should not be discounted.

A dragonwell’s profile can be shaped by several factors, one of which is its source. The running joke (that isn’t a joke) is that there is more dragonwell sold than the traditional dragonwell area (Hangzhou region) can produce.

Harvest time is another factor. Ming Qian (before the Qing Ming Festival) harvests are often lighter, some would say faint, in flavor profile. That is why others prefer the relatively stronger characteristics of longjing harvested closer to GuYu.

Thirdly, cultivar can be a major consideration. Gingko Seto has written extensively about the potential differences in Long Jing #43, Jiu Keng (九坑), and Wu Niu Zao (乌牛早) cultivars.

Ultimately, choosing any tea should be about finding a tea you appreciate. But when trying to choose a tea you have never tried, sometimes it helps to know what you should expect.

Get even more in the Member Content.
Walker Tea Review- a tea blog with tea reviews and tea tastings.
Want to see a tea reviewed? Contact me: jason@walkerteareview.com

Subscribe in a reader or by email

Main navigation

what should it taste like