Oolong Tea - Triumph and Tragedy!

This month's tea from the tea tasting club was Tie Guan Yin Oolong tea. I was particularly happy when this one arrived in the post, as I have never tried oolong tea and had no idea what it was going to taste like.

The dried tea comes as tiny little balls.. each smaller than a pea. When you add hot water, each little ball slowly unfurls in the water to reveal the complete whole tip of a tea branch.. two leaves and the unopened bud. Today's blip shows the dried tea and the opened out 'tea leaves' from the pot.

Oolong tea is semi-oxidised, which means the tea leaves have been allowed to only partially turn black (they are about 40% oxidised). This creates a very unique tasting tea which is somewhere between a delicate green tea and a bolder black tea. You may not be able to see it in my blip but if you look closely, you may just be able to see that the edges of the leaves are darker than the middle, where the oxidation has taken place.

One of the things I am finding hard about tasting all these different teas is trying to find words to articulate how the different teas taste. Up until now I've only managed things like 'nice', 'flavousome', 'like tea', and when I'm really going for it 'floral'. Today was a tea-tasting-triumph as I tried really hard to find the right words to describe the taste of oolong tea and went through nutty, earthy, forest floor and aftershave before finally settling on cedar wood. When I checked my tea tasting manual (..yes, I'm afraid I own a tea tasting manual!) I was delighted to find the tea described as 'spicy with a roasted and woody background (dry wood and cedar)!!

Maybe I am starting to get the hang of this tea tasting malarkey!

..and the tradegy??

I burnt the dinner (again) while faffing about taking photos for today's blip!!