Verdant Tea
Bai Ji Guan Wuyi Oolong 2017
ORIGIN: Wuyisha, Fujian, China
TYPE: Oolong
FORMAT: Loose
METHOD: Grandpa style
WEBSITE: verdanttea.com
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Pretty. Leafy leaves unfurl and get vibrant green with reddish highlights in my mason jar. Liquor has a tint of that on a crisp golden canvass. While dry, the leaves nose mineral earthy with a bit of smoked tobacco. Wet is a richer deeper that. Earthier.
Very brisk until it isn't. Mineral forward sips with an underneath that briny lilt, seen on the slurp, more usual to Japanese Green tea than Chinese Oolong. Herbaceous top to bottom, sip to slurp. White to yellow floral bits sweet lightly toasted vegetal goodness. I did mention mineral, yes? Bigly.
Aroma shows all that vegetation sweetly, with mineral cleanliness. Body-wise this is a smooth operator of a brew. Minimal if any astringency and quite pillowy. While the nose is clean, there is a slight cloying of a burgeoning salty sweetness as cuppa cools. This smooths to buttery rather quickly, then back, then repeat.
Complex and lively-so. As transitional a tea as you can imagine. If you aren't a mineral fan, avoid. Finishes long and lip-smackingly of body. Maybe a tick of drying astringency would have been nice. Still, nice. It's a spectrum --- but what isn't?
FINAL GRADE: B+
A 90-100 B 80-89 C 70-79 D 60-69 F 0-59
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