foul-smelling Taiwan oolongs

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

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 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

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.

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