GREEN HILL TEA: "JADE OOLONG (PREMIUM)"

{ That's some jade there, all right. }  

Jade Oolong, (Premium) by Green Hill Tea.

My students wanted to know what "jaded" meant. Of course, I knew the basic meaning: to be tired, cynical, unenthusiastic. But going to the more obvious meaning, it means a faded green, a pale echo of the bright color we see in our mind when we imagine that color.

Green Hill does not identify the source of their Jade Oolong, other than to say it's a high-mountain (2200 feet) crop from China. Generally speaking, I like to know where a tea is from, because I'm still learning and want to educate my palette as I taste. 

So in this case, I rely entirely upon my observations. I infuse with water just below boiling. Unfortunately,  here at work, I rely upon an electric kettle of filtered water, rather than my Japanese white charcoal setup I have at home. 

Dry, the leaves are tight and richly green, and quite fragrant. Wet, they take on a seaweed aroma, not unpleasant, which reminds me of the scent of the seashore. I depend on my sense of smell for my first introduction to a tea, and this is . . . okay, but not an unadorned delight. So this tea is not all about the aroma of the wet leaves, then. Good to know.

The wet leaves are a characteristic Chinese oolong: large leaves, which have readily opened up in the first steeping. So not very tightly twisted. Quite a bit of complete leaf, some broken, very little stem.

FIRST STEEPING. The liquor is -- wait for it -- a pale, jade green. You didn't see that coming at all, did you. The tea is good, quite good. It's a straight shooter, with a moderate vegetal quality, a flowery high range, and very little at the bottom of the register. Smooth, but with a hint of drying, a touch of an edge, which sharpens the senses. This tea wants you to stop and pay attention to it, rather than sitting good-naturedly and minding its own business. I enjoy its smoothness, and the huigan, or aftertaste (one of the few Chinese words I easily remember, so I use it often) holds in the mouth for minutes. Again, quite a straight shooter. The flavor of the tea and the huigan are closely linked, and I do not get a wide variety of flavors that develop in my mouth and nose over time. Though the tea liquor itself is green, it doesn't taste green, if you catch my meaning. It tastes golden-orange: mellow, a hint of brightness, burnished, open, not overpowering.

SECOND STEEPING. On the second steeping, I went rather long, with a moderate amount of leaf. The appearance of the cup is still a clean, pale green, as transparent as you would hope it would be. The cutting edge of the tea has arrived, and the vegetal note is more pronounced. This is not an especially assertive tea, so if you want a tea so strong you can stand a spoon up in it, you'd be better off with a meaty assam or an opinionated Ceylon mix. But even here, the smoothness and laid-back quality of the first steeping is long gone. This oolong is balanced between the acidic brightness, the slight dryness, and the overarching floral smoothness. Nicely done.

SO WHAT ARE THESE OBSERVATIONS ALL ABOUT? you may ask. I want to remember what I drink. I want to remember what I think when I'm cupping tea. Flavor and aroma are tightly bound to memory and place, and I want to capture some of my life I pass through it. This moment is green oolong, lightly sharp flavor, blue sky, end of winter, bare trees, deadlines I need to meet, anxiety I'm holding down, beloved by family, enjoying my teaching job, quiet moment in the midst of some familiar struggles, needing more sleep, wishing I were traveling, enjoying Shakespeare's "As You Like It," and trying to get back to work captioning. In other words, pretty much a normal morning, with a lovely cup of tea worthy of attention, rather than just let slip by unnoticed and unmarked.

REVIEW: Jade Oolong Tea, from Green Hill Tea

Jade Oolong tea, from Green Hill Tea
http://greenhilltea.com/id23.html

Thank you, George, for sending me this tea. My wife is requesting some tea, and I thought I'd make your Jade Oolong as this afternoon's review.

The Web site reads:

Jade Oolong Tea

Oolong tea is a partially oxidized green tea, and has some of the qualities of both green tea and black tea. Jade Oolong is not baked as long as Dark Oolong, the steeped tea has a light golden hue, sweet flora aroma, fresh initial flavor, and a sweet floral aftertaste which lasts after the sip. Oolong tea is a world famous natural health drink that is loaded with anti-oxidants and thus, many health benefits.

Brew hint: Place one tea spoon into a cup; add boiling water for 3-7 minute.

Okay, I'm surprised that we add boiling water to an oolong, but I'm certainly game.

THE PREPARATION
4 tsp tea leaves, 4 cups, steeped in cast-iron Tetsubin at boiling water temperature, with filtered H2O. Rinse leaves first in near-boiling water for a few seconds, before steeping.

I wish I had a decent Yixing purple-clay pot to prepare the oolong in, to allow it to control the temperature better. But the tetsubin shall have to do!

THE LEAVES
The dry leaves are various shapes, from irregular balls to oblongs, but the leaves seem to be a quite large size. They range from a light sage green to more of a dark, forest green. They are nicely aromatic, like freshly mown hay, and like spearmint, and grass. because the leaves are large, I'll have to use big, heaping teaspoons to keep the mass about the same as smaller, denser teas.

Nope, I can't do it. I can't pour truly boiling water on these beautiful leaves. I'll let the water cool down a bit, to maybe 200F, before steeping.

While I wait, I am aware of a very strong scent of honeysuckle. The leaves are waking up, and they are quite large-- some as large as the final digit of my thumb.

APPEARANCE
The cup itself is a very pure orange-gold, with only the barest hint of green. Pure, clean all the way to the bottom of the cup.

AROMA
the smell of the tea is that same honeysuckle scent. Quite fragrant.

THE FLAVOR
Very smooth, tasting of hay and grass. There's the faint bitterness I associate with green teas.

My lovely wife had the following interchange:

Me: "How do you like it?"
She: "It's good."
Me: "But how do you like it?"
She: "I like it."
Me: "But HOW do you like it?"
She: "Tastes like oolong."

At that point, I gave up and came back down to finish my review.

THE SECOND CUP
I know that typically with oolongs, you do multiple steepings. I will probably experiment with that next time I review this tea. But this time, I will follow my own advice and not pronounce on the tea until I've let it sit a bit, and then review the second cup. By letting the tea sit, it allows the complex catechins and flavinoids and theanine and other Tiny Tea Molecules to combine and recombine, making the taste richer and fuller.

The second cup is very grassy and clean, with just the faintest hint of the burn at the back of the throat. (Do I just have a sensitive throat? Who knows, but I like the sensation.) It really makes me think of being outside by a stream of clean water. There's a vegetal flavor up front, under the grassiness, followed by a taste of green apple, perhaps; or maybe other sweet fruit. The aftertaste is achieved by the slow diminishment of the vegetal and slightly bitter notes, leaving behind a sweet honey and grass flavor. But this tea is most alive at that first vibrant instant when the tea hits the tongue (whereas some teas are best discovered by the development of the flavors in the mouth over time). It's great as it hits the nose and mouth simultaneously, right up front.

Thank you, George and Green Hill Tea, for sending me this gift of tea. I've very much enjoyed slowing down my afternoon and listening to my senses, with a pot of your tea. I'll try a more gongfu approach (with multiple short steepings) in future, to see how this tea behaves.