Tea and Zen

I love Hojo Tea and Mr. Akira Hojo is always wonderful to work with. If you've never purchased any of his tea, I highly recommend him. This particular tea was a sample that came with a Kobiwako Hohin I purchased from him. Some of his teas are very expensive, but you get what you pay for. He has many very affordable teas as well. I am yet to have a tea by him that disappoints me so I went into this with the hopes it would have the same high standard as every other tea I've had by him.

Leaves soaking around the 7th infusion. Bright, plump, and beautiful.

There was 4.9g in the bag. I did not use the guidelines that are recommended on the website, but the method I used was very close since it's standard gong fu brewing.The gaiwan is 60ml.

I used 100C water and rinsed the leaves twice. The room filled with a soft, floral and lightly vegetale smell. Since I'm sitting in an 30C (≈ 85F) room, that made the heat bearable.

For the first brewing the tea had a very full, round, soft mouth feel. The first sip gave me strong notes of grass and hay. For a moment I had thought I was drinking a nice gyokuro is sencha, but much less intense. There was a small, honey-like sweetness at the back of my tongue. It was exactly as he describes on his website.

I had difficulty catching the true color. In person it has the usual light green of a "green" oolong.

The second cup was much less vegetale and the honey sweetness began to flower more. It was very smooth and pleasant.

The third brewing was wonderfully floral. A sweet, but not overwhelming taste rolled over my tongue. It reminded me of a nice, gentle jasmine. They honeyed aftertaste became stronger on the sides of my tongue.

The fourth was very similar the the third, except that the liquor was much softer and buttery than the prior three.

Come the fifth brewing and the flavor was beginning to disappear. The aftertaste remained as it was before and the liquor was still incredibly buttery and smooth.

Liquor for the second brew

I had thought that perhaps I wasn't brewing the tea for long enough, so for the next two infusions I let the leaves soak several seconds longer. I was right. The liquor was once again deeply floral and sweet.

From there on out the liquor remained deeply floral and sweet but it did not change very much. While this tea was pleasurable, at the same time it didn't strike me as anything particularly special. I enjoyed the floral, honeyed taste and the buttery feel of this particular Dong Ding.

However, something I've begun to notice lately is that greener (so lightly roasted) oolongs aren't quite doing it for me anymore. I had my first one several years ago and then didn't touch them much for the last three or so. I spent most of that time drinking Japanese greens, various whites, and familiarizing myself with the very wide world of Chinese greens.

Wet leaves after the second brewing.

As I've continued to drink greener oolongs a lot the last year or so, they've begun to lose their zing to me, again. They're good, but they lack the complexity of many other teas I drink. A good TieGuanYin can do it for me, but even then, it has to be an exceptional one for me to say it's anything more than average. I find that greener oolongs are more about aroma than they are complexity and flavor.

Rating

Overall, I'd give it an 8.5.

Part of the reason I've been drinking greener oolongs an awful lot for the last year or so is because I've been introducing my friends and family to the world of fine tea.

Japanese greens are one of my absolute favorites, there's just one caveat with this: most people detest the green flavor of a rich Japanese green the first time they taste it, so I tend to stay away from that. I understand why a lot of people don't like it, it is admittedly and acquired taste. To avoid this I'll start by giving them something less intense like genmaicha, wakayanagi, or perhaps some lower grade sencha in the event I am dead set on having a Japanese green.

I normally let my friends and family decide what they want me to prepare by letting them smell the aroma and examine the leaves.
Even though I let them examine everything I can always make an educated guess as to what they'll choose. I'm almost always right.
It'll be one of my greener oolongs or a jasmine. If they're not overly sensitive to the green smell of Japanese greens (and some Chinese depending on what I have in stock) and pick up on the floral notes one person may choose that, but not the whole group.

The point I'm trying to get across here is that I think green oolongs make for a great introductory tea. Their aroma is incredibly pleasing. I never tire of the smell of TieGuanYin and I don't think I ever will. There are some very fine green oolongs out there I've experienced and would love to again, but a vast majority that are affordable are a little above what I'd call average in terms of liquor complexity.

If you like greener oolongs or tea that is very floral and sweet, I recommend this tea. It was very pleasant and was exactly what I expected. Mr. Akira Hojo never fails to please with the quality of his teas.

If you would like to purchase this tea, please email Mr. Akira Hojo at info2@hojotea.com

Here is the pdf with prices for all his teas.