I have been lead astray trying several times trying to identify a tea by
taste from a fuzzy memory.
All the teas that rang the bell were excellent, but none looks right. The
tea I am looking for has
long twisted leaved that are mottled green and bronze. I can't say which
color predominates.

My taste-memory has "accepted" bao zhongs, green ti kuan yins, and yellow
teas as being "it".
The liquor was a pale yellow after 3 min steeping in water brought to the
boil. The tea had a
tremendous aroma that really got up into my nasal cavities when slurped like
wine, and a long
vegetal aftertaste. I don't recall any flowery elements in either aroma or
taste. My sense of taste
and smell might have changer over the years but my memory of what the leaf
looked like hasn't.

WEL

lubarsky wrote:
> I have been lead astray trying several times trying to identify a tea by
> taste from a fuzzy memory.
> All the teas that rang the bell were excellent, but none looks right. The
> tea I am looking for has
> long twisted leaved that are mottled green and bronze. I can't say which
> color predominates.
>
> My taste-memory has "accepted" bao zhongs, green ti kuan yins, and yellow
> teas as being "it".
> The liquor was a pale yellow after 3 min steeping in water brought to the
> boil. The tea had a
> tremendous aroma that really got up into my nasal cavities when slurped like
> wine, and a long
> vegetal aftertaste. I don't recall any flowery elements in either aroma or
> taste. My sense of taste
> and smell might have changer over the years but my memory of what the leaf
> looked like hasn't.
>
> WEL

Sounds like it could be a lighter Wuyi rock tea? The "up my nasal
cavities" thing sounds plausible for a Wuyi tea.

If it has no real floral notes, then it's probably not a dancong.

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

MarshalN wrote:
> lubarsky wrote:
> > I have been lead astray trying several times trying to identify a tea by
> > taste from a fuzzy memory.
> > All the teas that rang the bell were excellent, but none looks right. The
> > tea I am looking for has
> > long twisted leaved that are mottled green and bronze. I can't say which
> > color predominates.
> >
> > My taste-memory has "accepted" bao zhongs, green ti kuan yins, and yellow
> > teas as being "it".
> > The liquor was a pale yellow after 3 min steeping in water brought to the
> > boil. The tea had a
> > tremendous aroma that really got up into my nasal cavities when slurped like
> > wine, and a long
> > vegetal aftertaste. I don't recall any flowery elements in either aroma or
> > taste. My sense of taste
> > and smell might have changer over the years but my memory of what the leaf
> > looked like hasn't.
> >
> > WEL
>
> Sounds like it could be a lighter Wuyi rock tea? The "up my nasal
> cavities" thing sounds plausible for a Wuyi tea.
>
> If it has no real floral notes, then it's probably not a dancong.
>
> MarshalN
> http://www.xanga.com/MarshalN

I would have guessed a Taiwanese baozhong, particularly based on the
color. The honey smell can be quite "high" too. I've never had a Wuyi
that light, or that I would call vegetal, but I'm sure they exist.

Alex wrote:
> MarshalN wrote:

> I would have guessed a Taiwanese baozhong, particularly based on the
> color. The honey smell can be quite "high" too. I've never had a Wuyi
> that light, or that I would call vegetal, but I'm sure they exist.

But the OP ruled out Baozhong based on the looks.

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

MarshalN wrote:
> Alex wrote:
> > MarshalN wrote:
>
> > I would have guessed a Taiwanese baozhong, particularly based on the
> > color. The honey smell can be quite "high" too. I've never had a Wuyi
> > that light, or that I would call vegetal, but I'm sure they exist.
>
> But the OP ruled out Baozhong based on the looks.
>
> MarshalN
> http://www.xanga.com/MarshalN

Sorry, I should have been a little clearer. According to my limited
experience, there is quite a range of appearance for baozhongs, with
some being almost green and some heavily roasted like Wuyi. Based on
the other things the original poster said about the tea's
characteristics (absence of floral or fruit tastes, and yellow color),
I would be very careful about ruling baozhong out.

Have you seen Wuyis that are that light in color?

Alex wrote:
> Have you seen Wuyis that are that light in color?

In terms of dark green/bronze colour for the dry leaves? Yes. Do they
brew yellow instead of orange/reddish? Yes, they can.

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

Hi WEL,

What is interesting in your description is the appearance of the leaves
which include "bronze"...is there a Wuyi or Baozhong that has bronze leaves?

Can you explain the tremendous aroma (which, you mentioned is not floral)
that really got up into your nasal cavities? Can you recall the character of
the aroma? Fruitty? Heavy? Spicy? This might help MarshalN & Alex reduce
their areas of speculation.

Danny


"lubarsky" > wrote in message
. net...
>I have been lead astray trying several times trying to identify a tea by
>taste from a fuzzy memory.
> All the teas that rang the bell were excellent, but none looks right. The
> tea I am looking for has
> long twisted leaved that are mottled green and bronze. I can't say which
> color predominates.
>
> My taste-memory has "accepted" bao zhongs, green ti kuan yins, and yellow
> teas as being "it".
> The liquor was a pale yellow after 3 min steeping in water brought to the
> boil. The tea had a
> tremendous aroma that really got up into my nasal cavities when slurped
> like wine, and a long
> vegetal aftertaste. I don't recall any flowery elements in either aroma or
> taste. My sense of taste
> and smell might have changer over the years but my memory of what the leaf
> looked like hasn't.
>
> WEL
>

"MarshalN" > wrote in message
ups.com...
>
> Alex wrote:
>> Have you seen Wuyis that are that light in color?
>
MarshalN replied:
> In terms of dark green/bronze colour for the dry leaves? Yes. Do they
> brew yellow instead of orange/reddish? Yes, they can.
>
>
In what manner of processing will they brew this colour? The OP didn't
describe specifically which range of yellow - is it a dark yolky yellow,
bright yellow, yellow with a green tinge (that would be closer to Baozhong,
unroasted), etc. Perhaps WEL would like to clarify further?

Danny

samarkand wrote:

> In what manner of processing will they brew this colour? The OP didn't
> describe specifically which range of yellow - is it a dark yolky yellow,
> bright yellow, yellow with a green tinge (that would be closer to Baozhong,
> unroasted), etc. Perhaps WEL would like to clarify further?
>
> Danny

In the ever-lightening tastes of the Chinese consumer market for tea,
every kind of oolong has been made lighter and lighter. I have some 06
Shuixian sitting on my desk right now that I tried a few days ago,
which brews a golden yellow colour (orange if you put lots of leaves
in) and is quite light in taste. No roasting was done, or at least
none that is obvious. The leaves range from oxidized bronze to a
darker green/black.

So.... it really depends on what the OP drank. I am going by the
"twisted long leaves" shape that he described.

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

> In the ever-lightening tastes of the Chinese consumer market for tea,
> every kind of oolong has been made lighter and lighter. I have some 06
> Shuixian sitting on my desk right now that I tried a few days ago,
> which brews a golden yellow colour (orange if you put lots of leaves
> in) and is quite light in taste. No roasting was done, or at least
> none that is obvious. The leaves range from oxidized bronze to a
> darker green/black.
>
> So.... it really depends on what the OP drank. I am going by the
> "twisted long leaves" shape that he described.
>
>

I have tasted many Wuyi processed to attract the tastebuds of the younger
generation in China; most of these range from the sea level plantations to
machine harvested leaves.

The dried leaves are dark in appearance, but once brewed, the green showed
through. Bronzed leaves? None at all. The colour bronze indicates the
result of one of several processes, and high heat roasting is one of them -
which in this case from the appearance of the brew as described by the OP,
didn't appear to be the case. the other possibility is that the leaves have
undergone post production high heat treatment to breakdown more thoroughly
the chlorophyll groups a & b and chlorophyllin into xanthophyll groups and
carotene.

The "rock-green" bruising period for oolongs would largely increase enzyme
activity and change the chlorophyll into chlorophyllin, and in the drying
process, chlorophyllin changes into phrophorbide, the leaves at this stage
is a colour between dark green and yellow, and the liquors yellow with a
green tinge, or green with a yellow tinge, depending on the length of period
for the bruising and the drying. Roasting the leaves will alter the
chemicals in the leaves further and present us with a brew of darker colour
leaning towards yolky yellow and brownish red.

But seriously, who cares for such jargon?

What is interesting is that the OP mentioned the lack of floral notes.
Light fermented unroasted oolongs might process a yellow liquor, but lack of
floral note? This is almost unlike light fermented unroasted oolong.

Danny

samarkand wrote:

>
> What is interesting is that the OP mentioned the lack of floral notes.
> Light fermented unroasted oolongs might process a yellow liquor, but lack of
> floral note? This is almost unlike light fermented unroasted oolong.
>
> Danny

That's why I thought a lighter Wuyi can be a candidate -- it could be
construed to lack a floral note. It's not flowery in the way a light
TGY is flowery.

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

No, but the flowery note is still quite distinct.

WEL has mentioned 2 oolongs and oddly, a yellow tea. Can it be a yellow tea
after all?

Well, the OP will have to come forth...

Danny


"MarshalN" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> samarkand wrote:
>
>>
>> What is interesting is that the OP mentioned the lack of floral notes.
>> Light fermented unroasted oolongs might process a yellow liquor, but lack
>> of
>> floral note? This is almost unlike light fermented unroasted oolong.
>>
>> Danny
>
> That's why I thought a lighter Wuyi can be a candidate -- it could be
> construed to lack a floral note. It's not flowery in the way a light
> TGY is flowery.
>
> MarshalN
> http://www.xanga.com/MarshalN
>

samarkand wrote:
> No, but the flowery note is still quite distinct.
>
> WEL has mentioned 2 oolongs and oddly, a yellow tea. Can it be a yellow tea
> after all?
>
> Well, the OP will have to come forth...
>
> Danny
>
Exactly....

Preferably with a picture of what the tea might look like, as the
current description is quite... vague.

It also depends on how it was brewed.

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

"MarshalN" > wrote in message
ups.com...
>
> Alex wrote:
>> Have you seen Wuyis that are that light in color?
>
> In terms of dark green/bronze colour for the dry leaves? Yes. Do they
> brew yellow instead of orange/reddish? Yes, they can.
>
> MarshalN
> http://www.xanga.com/MarshalN

I think the dry leaves were sort of an oolongy brown. The bronze-green
bicolor
was only visible on the used leaf. When I described the flavor/smell to a
someone
at the time I remember saying it tasted like an evergreen forest in New
Hampshire
smelled during the summer. Poetic, but I can't describe it better than that.

WEL

"samarkand" > wrote in message
...
>
> "MarshalN" > wrote in message
> ups.com...
>>
>> Alex wrote:
>>> Have you seen Wuyis that are that light in color?
>>
> MarshalN replied:
>> In terms of dark green/bronze colour for the dry leaves? Yes. Do they
>> brew yellow instead of orange/reddish? Yes, they can.
>>
>>
> In what manner of processing will they brew this colour? The OP didn't
> describe specifically which range of yellow - is it a dark yolky yellow,
> bright yellow, yellow with a green tinge (that would be closer to
> Baozhong, unroasted), etc. Perhaps WEL would like to clarify further?
>
> Danny

It looked like urine (sorry).

WEL

"MarshalN" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>
> samarkand wrote:
>> No, but the flowery note is still quite distinct.
>>
>> WEL has mentioned 2 oolongs and oddly, a yellow tea. Can it be a yellow
>> tea
>> after all?
>>
>> Well, the OP will have to come forth...
>>
>> Danny
>>
> Exactly....
>
> Preferably with a picture of what the tea might look like, as the
> current description is quite... vague.
>
> It also depends on how it was brewed.
>
> MarshalN
> http://www.xanga.com/MarshalN


This was back in the 1970's; I didn't know how to treat a good tea:
I put a teaspoon full of the tea in a tea strainer, put the strainer in a 6
oz. cup,
poured fresh boiling water in the cup,and set a timer for three minutes.
I had never seen tea leaves go from these narrow twisty things to full green
(mostly)
leaves. I had also obtained another new tea at the time, one which I know
now quite well:
Dragon Well. It struck me that the aftertaste of this unknown tea was very
much like the taste
of Dragon Well, that "water you cooked spinach in" flavor.

WEL