Although I still drink quite a bit of black tea in the morning, I'm on another one of my Oolong binges. I brought a few on my trip, including Formosa Oolong and something Kröger in Hamburg calls Choice Oolong, but my tastes keep leading me towards the less oxidised sorts of Oolong.
One of the nicest is one I've written about here before, and continue to believe is a really good intro to Oolongs. It's called Dung-ti Oolong. The more I experiment with these delicious teas, the more astounded I am that they can be steeped so many times. And the taste on the third or fourth time around can sometimes be even more interesting.
I love how fresh and clean the Dung-ti is. It's definitely vegetal, but in no way grassy. It also tastes fresher after several infusions.
One tea I found in Athens was only 10% oxidised, and I'll be writing about that in the next few days. Stay tuned.
Taiwanese oolongs are the stars of less-oxidised category. They are some of the most interesting teas I have ever run across!
ReplyDeleteYes...it was a Taiwanese oolong that first roped me in to the joys of less-oxidized oolong and now I'm hooked. But I've found many Chinese ones that I've enjoyed as well.
ReplyDeleteI find that although they brew a lighter color, they really resemble green tea very little at all. I've never had much grassiness in one.
I have yet to appreciate the standard darker "Formosa Oolong" quite as much. For one, I've tried a lot of different grades of this tea and, although they all taste subtly different, I can't say for sure that I like the higher grades better.