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Oriental Beauty, last chance

On my last trip to SF Chinatown I bought some Eastern Beauty from a well regarded Chinese vendor. I am happy to say it looks like and tastes like my only purchase several years ago from an Ebay vendor. I always questioned that taste when compared to what was described here as something special. All I can say the taste is more like Darjeeling than anything else. There are no subsequent infusions. If I ever run out of this tea I won't miss it. I think I might be able to pass this by my wife's quality control as anything but Chinese.

Jim

PS Why would a loose 1993 wild whole leaf Sheng be so uniform in dry and infused appearance. The infused leaves are the golden brown as described in older Sheng. If this is the real deal then I also won't miss it when I run out. My hat off to the Taiwan scientists that came up with the tea t*ts that make milk tea. That is something special.

Reply to
Space Cowboy
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Sorry, I don't understand. Why *wouldn't* the tea look this way?

/Lew

Reply to
Lewis Perin

I have completely passed by any and all Oriental Beauty for a couple of years now. I really just don't care for the flavor no matter the quality, freshness, processing, etc. I guess one could say kind of peppery/citrusy... it just isn't for me. Same goes for Puerh in my book, although I do enjoy a cup every rare now and then so it's a step up on OB.

Shui Xian is and has been my go-to Oolong, with Dan Cong's in a far second.

- Dominic

Reply to
Dominic T.

This is loose Sheng not compressed. I'd have to expect over the long haul you'd see different fermentation of the leaf dried or infused. The last thing I would expect is uniformity of color. I'll even throw in leaf size uniformity. Why wouldn't the edges crumble as they ferment. I'd say you could tell alot about the supposed age just by the looks of the leaf dry or infused.

Jim

Lewis Per>

Reply to
Space Cowboy

I get a slight wintergreen sort of flavour from OB. I like it a lot.

--scott

Reply to
Scott Dorsey

I would expect uncompressed tea to age more uniformly than compressed tea, because the outer leaves on a cake get more exposed to the ambient air than the inner leaves; this isn't a factor with uncompressed tea.

/Lew

Reply to
Lewis Perin

My loose and compressed shou has more color variation than this. Even with loose you'd expect the stuff on the bottom to be different than on top from breathing unless it was tumble dried fermented.

Jim

Lewis Per>

Reply to
Space Cowboy

OB is one of my favourite oolongs as well. To me a decent OB has a sort of honey/fruity/vanilla/caramel flavour that I like because it is not too heavy. I've come to realise over the last few years that the oolongs I like are the cooked ones rather than the really green ones, and every decent OB I've had has had some degree of fermentation involved (and a degree of colour variation among the loose leaves).

Kat

Reply to
KM

With which I whole heartedly agree, and add a sometimes malty spice flavor to all the others you mention. I used to say I never met an OB I didn't like, but unfortunately my run of good luck was broken with a couple really bad ones lately. Nonetheless, different as they may be from one another, those teas are among my favorites; the little leaf hoppers sure do work wonders. Michael

Reply to
Michael Plant

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