I've been doing well. These days I stay busy taking care of my home and family, playing ukulele and guitar, cooking at a busy neighborhood vegetarian cafe, and drinking lots of great tea. I mostly drink oolongs and black/reds, but I'll happily drink some green tea or puer in social settings.
My tea blogging goal for 2019 is a minimum 300% increase in posts compared to 2018. That should not be too hard because I only had one post in 2018! Hashtag "setting the bar low" am I right ?!
Today I cupped up a couple of fresh, high quality, Winter Wenshan Baozhong teas (文山包種茶) from my friend's farm in Pinglin, Taiwan! (Check out my previous post for a photo of my daughter looking out at the very tea bushes these teas were picked from!)
-I'll call them Tea #1 and Tea #2.
-Tea #2 is about 25% more expensive than tea #1.
-Both teas were made by @Pinglin54 in November 2018.
-For each tea I used 4 grams of dry leaf in identical ceramic bowls.
-Water at about 200° F.
Ah! I love that sweet Baozhong fragrance!!!
Tea #1
... and Tea #2
(I realize they both look pretty much exactly the same :)
Let me just start by singing ♪♫♬♪♫♬ I LOVE WINTER BAOZHONG! ♪♫♬♪♫♬
Both of these teas are superb but they did cup up very differently for me today.
Tea #1 had a grassier, thinner liquor. It was refreshing and crisp with a pleasant honeydew melon aroma, and pine-forest flavor notes. The body was good compared with most Baozhong teas, especially most Spring Baozhong, but it lacked mouthfeel and body compared with #1. It did win for throat-feel though. It left a really wonderful, peppery, sparkly aftertaste in the back of my throat that I didn't get much from #2.
Tea #2, as I just mentioned, was tops for mouthfeel! It was very thick and buttery and much more floral than its less expensive sibling. #2 was also more fragrant off the spoon too. I enjoyed its alluring flavor notes of lilac and mock orange.
In my happy place!
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