The Melting Teapot

This is a tale of a finicky tea, one that took some time and a bit of thoughtful coaxing to bring forth its unique characteristics.  It was my first time trying this oolong, which I purchased from Brett of Black Dragon Tea Bar:  Lishan Ming Gang Tea Garden Winter 2009 High Mountain Oolong. Brett’s tasting notes listed “fruity (mostly peach and pear), rosy, sulfur (as in natural hotsprings), buttery, and mineral.”  

I filled my kettle and boiled the water, then prepared the tea gongfu style. The creamy, buttery texture of the tea was nice, but the aroma and the flavor were quite distant.  I hadn’t been able to tease much out with the first steeping.

Second Try: Longer Brew Time

I filled the pot with boiling water again.  This time the tea steeped for quite a while, perhaps even three minutes.

Unfortunately, while more flavor came through, it was now overly bitter from being overbrewed. Plus, as the temperature of the tea cooled in my cup, the flavors diminished even further.  I could still make out the minerality that seems to be a characteristic of all the Lishan teas I’ve sipped, but the higher floral and fruity notes just weren’t there. I sipped from my small cup but knew the tea wasn’t showing itself as well as it could.

It was definitely time to start over!  Perhaps I needed to use more leaves in order to get a bigger flavor without it going bitter from oversteeping?  

As I pulled the wet leaves from the ceramic teapot, the aroma of sulfur was very evident.   I’ve been told that Lishan Mountain has many natural hot springs, and I’ve gotten this sulfur aroma before from the region’s oolongs.  It is not a nasty rotten egg smell, more of a musky mineral element.  It really gives one a sense of the terroir of the tea.

Why was the fragrance of the leaves in the pot so strong, yet none of that was coming through in the cup? I began to wonder if I needed to switch to a different pot, so I pulled out a yixing to try instead.

Third Try: New Pot

I chose a yixing that I have used for Lishans and Alishans in the past.  It has a very wide mouth with a snub nose,  and it is round and squat (which I was hoping might allow the tea leaves to expand and unfurl easily and evenly).

Ahhhhhhhhhhh . . . much better!

I’m not sure if it was the shape of the pot, or if it was the yixing clay, but already this first short steeping had more character than what I'd tasted before.  I’ve noticed that yixing pots hold on to the heat more than porcelain ones, and it could be that this particular oolong needs to stay hot while it is steeping.  It could also be that using an unglazed clay pot helped work through the mineral flavors, promoting them at the same time as pulling the other elements out of the tea.

The fragrance was very nice, with a light touch of the sulfur, surrounded by wildflowers and something that is a bit grassy or weedy.  If this were a wine, I’d identify it as French or at least “old world” in style.  It was dry, tannic, kind of funky, and filled with complex secondary flavors.  The buttery element on the tea provided a creamy contrast to the drying sensation in the throat.

I’m very happy to have started over with this tea.  Let this be a personal lesson for me - - it is important to select a brewing vessel that compliments and enhances an individual tea.