Black oolong, organic

We are very excited for this unusual oolong that shares very many of its traits with Chinese small-leafed gongfu red tea, being a sort of a mind bender. The characteristics of being rather an oolong come out in the mouthfeel, the lack of astringency and in the way the tea opens up from steeping to steeping. It can easily fool you for a while. These sort of borderline teas, teas close to the edges of a genre are quite fascinating and as modern tea is very much global, more experimentation is done than ever before, in terms of (new developed) cultivars reacting to new environments as well as in processing - much of which results in simply weird, awkward feeling tea, but also in hidden gems. We consider this one as one. The tea comes from an organic tea garden near Anshun in Guizhou province, South-West China, growing between 500-1000 meters above sea level, harvested in the month of April. The bushes are of rare Ruan Zhi cultivar developed in Taiwan, which was made for producing heavily oxidized oolong teas akin to Oriental Beauty. The yield is very low as these plants are popular with pests. The processing has followed the steps as for oolong tea with a greater emphasis on oxidizing the leaves. The resulting tea is fine and delicate, sweet, light-bodied and berry-like. The tea is EU certified organic.

Brewing suggestions: 3 grams of tea per 200ml of 95C water, 1st steeping 1-2min, 2nd steeping 2-3min, 3rd steeping 3-4min etc.