I recently noticed something quite strange. I drink a lot of Taiwanese
oolong, and the other day I was making some from a new batch from a
reputable seller, in an yixing pot that I dedicated to the stuff.
After I poured out the first steep, I smelled the wet leaves. To my
shock and surprise, they smelled awful - strong and rotten. My wife
was sitting about five feet away and actually asked me what the smell
was. I struck it up to a bad batch, but this morning I noticed the
same smell in a dongding that I got from another, also fairly
well-known, internet vendor. The teas are both greener Taiwan oolongs,
the first being plain old gaoshan, Spring 2006, that I bought as one of
a set of three from the same vintage but different farms at different
altitudes. These teas are purportedly very high grade but I have
serious doubts about that (doubts that I had before I smelled the wet
leaves, based on drinking the three side-by-side and noticing no
difference at all). The dongding is significantly cheaper, and is not
up to other dongdings I have.

Has anyone else noticed this? Any possible explanation?

Alex
....throwing out the dongding and rinsing the pot

Alex wrote:
I recently noticed something quite strange. I drink a lot of Taiwanese
oolong, and the other day I was making some from a new batch from a
reputable seller, in an yixing pot that I dedicated to the stuff.
After I poured out the first steep, I smelled the wet leaves. To my
shock and surprise, they smelled awful - strong and rotten. My wife
was sitting about five feet away and actually asked me what the smell
was. I struck it up to a bad batch, but this morning I noticed the
same smell in a dongding that I got from another, also fairly
well-known, internet vendor. The teas are both greener Taiwan oolongs,
the first being plain old gaoshan, Spring 2006, that I bought as one of
a set of three from the same vintage but different farms at different
altitudes. These teas are purportedly very high grade but I have
serious doubts about that (doubts that I had before I smelled the wet
leaves, based on drinking the three side-by-side and noticing no
difference at all). The dongding is significantly cheaper, and is not
up to other dongdings I have.

Has anyone else noticed this? Any possible explanation?

Alex
...throwing out the dongding and rinsing the pot

Is it.... your pot?

Have you tried pouring hot water into your pot with no tea in it, dump
the water, and smell the pot? It could've been because something's
growing in there?

Seems to be the common link. Did gaiwan brewing give you the same
results?

MarshalN
http://www.xanga.com/MarshalN

MarshalN wrote:
Alex wrote:
I recently noticed something quite strange. I drink a lot of Taiwanese
oolong, and the other day I was making some from a new batch from a
reputable seller, in an yixing pot that I dedicated to the stuff.
After I poured out the first steep, I smelled the wet leaves. To my
shock and surprise, they smelled awful - strong and rotten. My wife
was sitting about five feet away and actually asked me what the smell
was. I struck it up to a bad batch, but this morning I noticed the
same smell in a dongding that I got from another, also fairly
well-known, internet vendor. The teas are both greener Taiwan oolongs,
the first being plain old gaoshan, Spring 2006, that I bought as one of
a set of three from the same vintage but different farms at different
altitudes. These teas are purportedly very high grade but I have
serious doubts about that (doubts that I had before I smelled the wet
leaves, based on drinking the three side-by-side and noticing no
difference at all). The dongding is significantly cheaper, and is not
up to other dongdings I have.

Has anyone else noticed this? Any possible explanation?

Alex
...throwing out the dongding and rinsing the pot

Is it.... your pot?

Have you tried pouring hot water into your pot with no tea in it, dump
the water, and smell the pot? It could've been because something's
growing in there?

Seems to be the common link. Did gaiwan brewing give you the same
results?

MarshalN
http://www.xanga.com/MarshalN

Someone else suggested the same thing offline. I don't think so.
Here's why. Foul batch one was made in a pot that I keep at home, that
I have mistreated, and that I'm trying to rehabilitate. I am actually
trying to train it for TGY, but I thought, what the hell, gaoshan is
similar in some ways to TGY, so I made it in the 'wrong' pot. I made
TGY in it yesterday and it was delicious. Foul batch two was made in a
new, thin-walled zhuni pot that I keep at the office and only use for
Taiwanese oolongs. The tea that comes out of this one is regularly the
best tea I drink. The smell of the 'off' dongding was nowhere near as
offensive as the other bad batch, but that same stench was there. So,
I don't think it's the pot(s), although I do need to take better care
of the first one.

Stephane Erler (not the source of either tea, by the way) suggested
offline that it might be actually rotten tea. This is a possibility -
moisture could have gotten into the dongding, which I've had for a
while, and the other might have been packed wet or something. I'm
personally more inclined to look to the production process, for
instance not enough roasting. The smell is very odd, like wilt but
stronger.

Alex
drinking some excellent very heavily roasted TGY now, to exorcise the
bad dongding

I don't know if Spring 2006 was good or bad for gaoshan. I seem to
remember there was lots of flooding and landslides early this year.
I'd search the .TW sites for any discussion on the matter. I'd say if
the dried and spent leaf looks typical but the taste funny I would
contribute it to the weather and soil conditions.

Jim

Alex wrote:
I recently noticed something quite strange. I drink a lot of Taiwanese
oolong, and the other day I was making some from a new batch from a
reputable seller, in an yixing pot that I dedicated to the stuff.
After I poured out the first steep, I smelled the wet leaves. To my
shock and surprise, they smelled awful - strong and rotten. My wife
was sitting about five feet away and actually asked me what the smell
was. I struck it up to a bad batch, but this morning I noticed the
same smell in a dongding that I got from another, also fairly
well-known, internet vendor. The teas are both greener Taiwan oolongs,
the first being plain old gaoshan, Spring 2006, that I bought as one of
a set of three from the same vintage but different farms at different
altitudes. These teas are purportedly very high grade but I have
serious doubts about that (doubts that I had before I smelled the wet
leaves, based on drinking the three side-by-side and noticing no
difference at all). The dongding is significantly cheaper, and is not
up to other dongdings I have.

Has anyone else noticed this? Any possible explanation?

Alex
...throwing out the dongding and rinsing the pot

I was under the impression (from M. Erler, I think) that the weather
conditions for 2006 gaoshan made the crop a particularly poor one in
comparison to previous years. There's still some good gaoshan to be
had, though - it's all relative.

(I have a vague memory of it being incessently rainy during the season
in which warmth is required, or something similar.)


Toodlepip,

Hobbes

I recently noticed something quite strange. I drink a lot of Taiwanese
oolong, and the other day I was making some from a new batch from a
reputable seller, in an yixing pot that I dedicated to the stuff.
After I poured out the first steep, I smelled the wet leaves. To my
shock and surprise, they smelled awful - strong and rotten. My wife
was sitting about five feet away and actually asked me what the smell
was. I struck it up to a bad batch, but this morning I noticed the
same smell in a dongding that I got from another, also fairly
well-known, internet vendor. The teas are both greener Taiwan oolongs,
the first being plain old gaoshan, Spring 2006, that I bought as one of
a set of three from the same vintage but different farms at different
altitudes. These teas are purportedly very high grade but I have
serious doubts about that (doubts that I had before I smelled the wet
leaves, based on drinking the three side-by-side and noticing no
difference at all). The dongding is significantly cheaper, and is not
up to other dongdings I have.

Could be your pot, as others have said. The wulong you are drinking is
the qing xiang (lightly cooked) or the (heavily cooked) nong xiang? It
is specifically Dongding or something else. It could be that you got a
bad batch, but I've drank a lot of Gaoshan (brought to me by my
Taiwanese students from Taiwan; not mainland bought) in 2006 so far
and I have not been disappointed. Are you sure it's 2006 that you got?
If they re-fried some late season 2005, it could count for the bad
scent.

All things considered, you should make sure that you don't leave the
gaoshan leaves in your pot too long after you finish brewing. Many
teashop bosses told me that it helps to "raise" the pot, but actually
it doesn't do much even if you are using the higher grades. You should
also make sure you let your pot dry out before you put the top back on
for storage. The best way to do that is to turn it upside down on some
kind of surface that it can get some air; like maybe the corner of your
tea tray. If it turns out that it is your pot that has the odor, you
can reboil the pot in a large pot of water and some tea leaves and let
it sit for a while. I've had to do this a few times, and it works
wonders even on the most smelly pot.

It's probably that you dont' let your pot dry before you put the top
back on, though. I had a similar problem in the past. Some local
yixing guys that I've talked to about how to raise the pots actually
say that you shouldnt' leave the leaves in the pot for too long.

Okay which qingxiang is that?

Çá·Ò or Çà·Ò or Çå·Ò

My guess the last one.

Jim

Mydnight wrote:
The wulong you are drinking is
the qing xiang (lightly cooked) or the (heavily cooked) nong xiang?

"Space Cowboy" writes:

Mydnight wrote:
The wulong you are drinking is
the qing xiang (lightly cooked) or the (heavily cooked) nong xiang?

Okay which qingxiang is that?

Çá·Ò or Çà·Ò or Çå·Ò

My guess the last one.

http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcar...rase=qingxiang

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

All of those are qingfen.

On Nov 3, 8:16Â*am, "Space Cowboy" wrote:
Okay which qingxiang is that?

轻芬 or �芬 or 清芬

My guess the last one.

Jim



Mydnight wrote:
The wulong you are drinking is
the qing xiang (lightly cooked) or the (heavily cooked) nong xiang?- Hide quoted text -- Show quoted text -

Thanks. Somebody out there on the Internet used Xiang for Fen and I
followed suit. So when I use ÇåÏã I now get the results I expected
for QingXiang.

Jim

Alex wrote:
All of those are qingfen.

On Nov 3, 8:16 am, "Space Cowboy" wrote:
Okay which qingxiang is that?

Çá·Ò or Çà·Ò or Çå·Ò

My guess the last one.

Jim



Mydnight wrote:
The wulong you are drinking is
the qing xiang (lightly cooked) or the (heavily cooked) nong xiang?

Space Cowboy wrote:
Thanks. Somebody out there on the Internet used Xiang for Fen and I
followed suit. So when I use ÇåÏã I now get the results I expected
for QingXiang.


Well, ·Ò is also usually associated with some kind of pleasant scent
so that's why they may have gotten confused. Like ·Ò·¼(fang1)which
just means something with a good smell and nice appearance.

Mydnight wrote:
Space Cowboy wrote:
Thanks. Somebody out there on the Internet used Xiang for Fen and I
followed suit. So when I use ÇåÏã I now get the results I expected
for QingXiang.


Well, ·Ò is also usually associated with some kind of pleasant scent
so that's why they may have gotten confused. Like ·Ò·¼(fang1)which
just means something with a good smell and nice appearance.

Mydnight, I think what Space Cowboy actually meant was ·ßÇà.

Just as a follow-up to the original post, I brewed the offending tea in
a gaiwan today, to test out two theories: one, that the smell came from
the pot (unlikely, because I got the same smell from a different tea in
a different pot; however, the unusual pungency of the smell might have
had something to do with the pot); and two, my observation that both
pots were overfilled. So, I put a much smaller amount of the tea in a
gaiwan and brewed away. The smell was there, but much fainter. To be
a little more precise about it, it smells like cut grass that has been
rained on and then got wet and sat there for several days. Very
unpleasant. I also notice that the wet leaves did not have the same
shininess and strength that Taiwan oolong usually does, but looked kind
of sad, wilted and dishevelled. My theory now is that this smell is
due to a defect in the manufacturing process - maybe insufficient
roasting - that caused the tea to be too green. I'm going to think
about this more and hit the books about it tonight.

Currently enjoying (with the aid of Sudafed) some incredible Taiwanese
baozhong.

Mydnight, I think what Space Cowboy actually meant was ·ßÇà.

Ya, I know what he meant. I was just saying that ·Ò is also
associated with something that has a nice smell.

The smell was there, but much fainter. To be
a little more precise about it, it smells like cut grass that has been
rained on and then got wet and sat there for several days. Very
unpleasant. I also notice that the wet leaves did not have the same
shininess and strength that Taiwan oolong usually does, but looked kind
of sad, wilted and dishevelled.

I figured you would know if it were your pot or not. You can usually
get the bad smell to go away by boiling the pot or letting some of your
good tea brew in it for an hour or so. The cut grass smell sounds like
maybe the tea got wet or was exposed to moisture before it was sealed.
I got a bag of TGY that had that sort of scent before; the sort of
'been left outside in the rain' kind of odor. Also could be some very
old tea that had been re-roasted poorly.

Who knows. Keep us updated!

[Alex]
Currently enjoying (with the aid of Sudafed) some incredible Taiwanese
baozhong.

Is this year's outstanding? Winter presumably, right?
Can you recommend a source for a most excellent
offering? Wen Shan?
Michael

You both are right. Alex initially caught my misuse of Fen for Xiang.
Mydnight pointed out Fen is also acceptable. You get more Internet
hits using QingXiang than QingFen to describe the light TGY taste along
with medium Zhong and heavy Nong to describe the roasted shu taste. I
don't know if FenQing or FenFang is more correct but I got the results
I expected. Thanks to both of you.

Jim

Alex wrote:
Mydnight wrote:
Space Cowboy wrote:
Thanks. Somebody out there on the Internet used Xiang for Fen and I
followed suit. So when I use ÇåÏã I now get the results I expected
for QingXiang.


Well, ·Ò is also usually associated with some kind of pleasant scent
so that's why they may have gotten confused. Like (fang1)which
just means something with a good smell and nice appearance.

Mydnight, I think what Space Cowboy actually meant was ·ßÇà.