19 January 2009

Wuyi Duet: Will's Bei Dou and Jing Tea Shop 2004 Bei Dou

I wish I had taken more photos of these teas.

Last Sunday, we drank these two Bei Dou Wuyi oolongs to break up the pu'er sessions and freshen up our palates.

Will brewin 2

The first tea was sourced from a local farm not located on the Wuyi Scenic Area. Its roasting falls on the high end of medium fire, still a bit green. However, its nicely high oxidation made it fruity in addition to roasty, and only a bit bitter.

The second is Jing Tea Shop's Aged Bei Dou (2004). We drank this in between the two pu'er sessions. The scent was roasty and sweet. After 4-5 years, it indeed tasted aged with a dried fruit flavor that went a little sour, maybe from being in humid Guangzhou. Spicy, too: Davin noted black pepper. I really enjoyed it.

Wuyi pot

3 comments:

Wes Crosswhite said...

Jason, can you enlighten me to what caused the discoloration on the pot? It looks like dust got caked on, or like it never got polished.

Bearsbearsbears said...

We weren't sure, Wes. It's Will's pot and I think it's a recent acquisition from Taiwan. An odd patina, mos def.

Will said...

They're just tea stains, which in this case have built up somewhat unevenly. I have been pretty careful with polishing it (soft, wet cloth while hot), but the patina hasn't really built up that evenly. I'm not sure what the cause is, but I'm taking a wabi sabi approach (though I may post some better pics and ask for advice later on).

The pot's from China, not Taiwan, possibly originally '90s, and I've had it for a little over a year; it's mostly been used for medium and high fire yancha, which it seems to brew pretty capably.