Golden Sail Yunnan Tuocha?

I just checked TaoBao. No additional information from anybody just basically Golden Sail Brand is a product of the CNNP GuangDong export company. A 2 year old sheng 100g tuocha was 35y or 4 bucks and loose change.

Jim

Dom> I happened across a tuo the other day in a hexagonal red and yellow box

Thanks, that's more than I dug up. That sounds exactly like what I have here, the guy said it was "a few" years old. I have not opened the seal on it yet to peer inside, but there are no dates on the outside just a bit of Chinese (the only symbol I know is the last that says "cha") and the number "S 305." Should it be decent? Or should I expect very basic quality?

- Dominic

In my experience, most "Golden Sail" brand is generic cooked puerh, nothing exotic. They are not bad at all though especially if aged about 7 years. The one thing about many of their bings is that they are often shrink wrapped which keeps them from breathing well, so the yeast-like fermentation flavors/aromas are still strong, so they benefit from a good airing out for a couple weeks after opening the shrink wrap.

-- Mike Petro

Thanks Mike,

Since the info was pretty low on this, I kinda figured it was nothing special... but at $4 I'm not too worried. I was wondering about that shrink wrap, which it does have on it. I think I'll unwrap it but leave it in the box for a few years and check it out then. I figure if it is

2-3 years now it won't be much of a wait. I'm not much for the cooked puerh's so holding off shouldn't be tough.

Good info and knowledgable as always, it's much appreciated. OK now for one quick question, I want to buy a bing of the best uncooked I can buy (within some reason) if you had to pick one what would it be? I've now tried a number of uncooked pu's but I'm actually starting to move away from puerh and back to greens and oolongs more and more lately. I still enjoy puerh (cooked and uncooked) every now and then but not as enthusiastically as a few months back... so I'd like to check out a top-notch pu to either make or break puerh's place in my cupboard.

- Dominic Drinking: Dan Cong Mi Lan Xiang teasphere.wordpress.com

That's a nice one. Is it fully fruity with overtones of spice and a touch of wood? A good Mi Lan Xiang is lovely. I'd been experimenting around with drinking less roasted versions over the past two years, but find myself wending ever back to the darker offerings. I still adhere to the chockablock stuffed little YiXing and faster than instantaneous steeps for best taste. Michael

It's excellent. Probably one of the best Mi Lan Xiang I've experienced. I made a quick post about it as my daily update on what's in my cup, but the review and description I gave there are not complete. The more I sat with this and enjoyed it I noticed a number of great things. It had a nice vegetal almost green taste, with a nice smooth taste and almost a nutty/almond aftertaste... but then the more I sat with it and paid attention I noticed a nice slightly citrus note with a touch of wood as you say. Not so much spicy as citrusy thought I'd say. This particular tea had come from that Zhong Guo Cha site that had been brought up here a while back and I looked further into and ended up speaking with the owner and being sent a generous care package. Their price for this particular tea is mid-high though IMO at ~$11-12 for

50g, and I plan on buying more as well as from a few other places to do some more further comparison. I have realized that the Mi Lan Xiang (generally sold as the English "Phoenix Oolong") I had before from a few different local vendors was nowhere near where this is, and I think my love for oolongs is starting to outpace the brief fascination I had with Puerh... which my fiance is loving because she loves oolong and relies on me for her fix which used to be a fairly rare occurance or some mid-grade oriental beauty bought on the side of a more "serious" order. I was brewing in gaiwan, since I had only a sample and nowhere near enough to overflow even my smallest Yixing properly... but rest assured it will be soon. :)

- Dominic Drinking: Nada yet, just got to work. Planning some Numi Oriental beauty since posting this. teasphere.wordpress.com

Hi Michael, I like the milan alot too but have found it to be on the light side, but lucsious just the same..I love both the light and dark dancong, I guess it depends on my mood. I think I go back to the darker ones because the darker aroma and body that I crave sometimes, And the darker ones usually have a lovely chocolate aroma and others of couse... I dont know if a red robe is dan cong or wuyi, but I really like that one and I have tasted darker and lighter red robes too. Both good but I prefer a darker version yum,... Jenn

Hi Dominic, My eternal love will always be the oolong, I am finding new ones all the time and so many are so different from each other. I hope I like long enough to have at least a cup of every kind, or at least every kind I can get a hold of. Jenn

[Dominic on his MLX]

It's almost hard to go wrong with them. Phoenix Mountains is the region where these teas are grown. Mi Lan Xiang, the varietal, means Honey Orchid Fragrance. I got this from my usual source whose URL is:

There ya go.

Michael

snipped-for-privacy@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com10/2/06

16: snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com

The words Dan Cong have taken off into odd corners, and I haven't yet teased out the newest and broadest meanings, which I think have tenticles in WuYi Mountains as well as Phoenix Mountains. Da Hong Pao (Big Red Robe) is definitely WuYi, though never Phoenix. That much I know. Michael

I have a lovely one from Jing Tea Shop: beautiful up-front peach/apricot flavors for the first few steeps, later a spiciness emerges. $15/100 gm, and worth every penny.

I trust your taste - any other vendors you've come upon lately that have good oolongs?

BTW, remember Kyela Teas? Kevin has merged with some friends to form

In addition to Darjeelings, they also offer Chinese and Taiwanese teas. I got some lovely first-flush Darjeeling recently, and a AliShan oolong. (Usual disclaimer: no commercial interest/satisfied customer.)

Regards, Dean

DPMdDQUg.2697$fI1.153@trndny0410/4/06 11: snipped-for-privacy@junk.com

Dean, I've got no recommendations for you at the moment because I've been buying my tea primarily from local vendors who are not internet connected. Your recommendation was valuable to me though; I'm placing an order shortly, and I'll include a Milan in it.

Sad about Kyela, I think. Like so many tea companies, an excellent specialist with a tight and well controlled theme becomes a generalist, and quality collapses. Let's hope not in this case.

Michael

I'm not seeing any Mi Lan for sale by this Kyela, am I missing something? And also a big *thanks* for getting me and my fiance hooked on the Shui Xian from Singapore that can't be bought anywhere :) That's worse than a crack dealer, at least they have the goods to keep you going once hooked... I planned on ordering that same one as Dean from Jing... it seems similar to me, what do you think? The only other two I've found were at Teaspring, and goldenmountain.

And just for an update to my original post, the decision was made to remove the shrinkwrap from the box and leave it to age for about 3-4 more years. The wait won't kill me since I'm not a big cooked puerh fan, the oolongs have me sidetracked at the moment.

- Dominic Drinking: Shui Xian from NYC (The Tea Gallery) teasphere.wordpress.com

Dominic,

Sorry, I confused you - the MiLan DanCong I spoke about initially was from Jing Tea Shop. But my first tea love was, and still is, Darjeeling, and several years ago Michael recommended a vendor in Montreal called Kyela who sold ONLY Darjeeling, and first-flush almost exclusively. He has now joined forces with a few others to form camilla-sinensis. I've only placed one order so far, but I was impressed with the tea I received. On the pricey side, but good. I believe his colleagues are the ones who added the Chinese/Taiwanese connection; they lean more toward Taiwan than China, though.

I'd like to find a vendor, conceptually similar to Kyela, that specialized in oolongs, but that may be asking too much.

Regards, Dean

Ahh, I see said the blind man who pissed into the fan, it all comes back to me now!

Got it, now I'm on the same page. I too am looking for a solid oolong vendor who is priced fairly and has quality tea. I'm not a fan of the more floral oolongs and TGY, etc. but I do enjoy Bai Hao, Mi Lan and newly Shui Xian and my fiance has always been an oolong fan. I generally neglect the oolongs and would just order her some low-mid grade stuff to keep her happy along with a real order of greens, etc. for me. But I'm slowly seeing the light on a few oolongs, except since it is not my forte I'm at a loss for a solid vendor. Oolongs seem to vary a lot even within the same type and it makes it hard to shop online only for it... which unfortunately is my only option.

So far I'm down to Teaspring, Jing, or possibly stoop to Adagio. Any thoughts or guidance from anyone is welcome!

- Dominic Drinking: Nestle Hot Cocoa w/mini marshmallows (the mini marshmallows are key) teasphere.wordpress.com

I enjoy the full range of oolongs (or, to be precise, the range I've experienced). I agree that some can be excessively floral; like wine, I like things to be in balance. I'm also not fond of the heavily roasted versions - I think the roasting cooks the complexity out of the tea, but perhaps I've just not had a really good one. I consider most Darjeeling the way it's produced today to be a form of oolong in the sense that it's partially oxidized, especially the first flushes.

So, right: Teaspring and Jing. I'm open to alternatives, too!

Dean

Have you tried "Legend of Tung Ting" from TeaHome:

? or "Heirloom Lishan" from Red Blossom Tea Co: ?