(Melinda) writes:

Hi all,

Well I got a sample of this oolong with an order several weeks ago and
would like to know if others have tried it. I did do a group search
and saw some older reviews. I have a storebought Tai Kwan Yin that is
going south, so getting to try another oolong was good for my
tastebuds. The leaves in this are different from anything I myself
have seen before, in the dry form. They're very...angular. I want to
say very crispy but I don't mean in texture or quality...they have a
lot of sharp edges, defined edges. The leaves remind me of apple peels
that have curled up when toasted or baked. Even though I am really a
relative beginner to the world of tea, and though my tastebuds aren't
refined much at all, there is one thing I can definitely say about
this Bai Hao. After I drank it out of what passes as my
smelling/reserve cup, I put the empty cup down and forgot about it for
about thirty minutes. When I smelled it (the liquid had dried) I was
amazed by the sweetness of the scent in the cup. The wet leaves have
that scent but to me it's way way under woody smells, and the tea
liquid itself doesn't have that pronounced sweet smell to me. But the
dried smelling cup....wow! I've never experienced anything like that.
I mean it was like dried apricot jam or something. So anyway, I
thought I'd share. I know that my sensitivity to nuances in tea
tasting aren't where others' are (based on some of the detailed
descriptions I've read of various teas and then trying to pick out
those qualities myself) but this was definite enough to even me to be
worthy of comment.

Hey, you weren't hallucinating, and you have every right to expect to
similar experiences in the future. Welcome to the world of oolong
sniffing!

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html