Spring Break Session #3: Xue Da Wu Ye (Wudong Teas)
During Spring break, I want to do a proper tasting session every day. You can read all about my plans and the other teas I tried this week in this post.
I wanted to try an oolong tea on day three. I still have some samples from Wudong Tea so I picked one of those. I did not pick a specific one because all of them are supposed to be delicious. All of the samples I have left are Dan cong teas, which means that these teas come from the Phoenix Mountains in Guangdong Province.
Xue Da Wu Ye
Xue Da Wu Ye is a Dan Cong oolong tea that is not as popular as other Dan Cong varieties due to its limited yearly production. The name itself translates as ‘big dark leaf’ and signifies the larger and dark tea leaves. The tea is produced at an altitude of 600m above sea level on Fenghuang mountain in Chaozhou, Guangdong Province. This specific tea is known for its honey, light orchid and floral flavour profile. I’m tasting a sample from Spring 2018, so it’s quite fresh.
You can see that the leaves are large and complete.
The colour of the dry leaves is a really dark green. The leaves are rather large, hence the name of the tea (big dark leaf).
After the final infusion, the leaves show their real size. They are really massive in comparison to other oolong tea leaves.
Tea tasting
Brewing details
- Water 90°C
- 5g of tea for 100ml Chaozhou teapot
- 1 rinse
- 6 steeps (15 sec + 5 sec each steep)
Before rinse
The dry leaves smell like buttery asparagus and I’m getting some floral notes as well.
After rinse
The smell reminds me of flowers on a summer’s day and some light hints of asparagus.
Steeping
1st steep: subtle hints of asparagus and light floral notes as well. Pleasant and fresh taste. The aftertaste is vibrant fresh flowers.
2nd steep: really buttery taste and smell. Floral notes all the way! This steep reminds me of flowers in a field during a morning walk on a Spring day.
3rd steep: still an intense buttery taste in combination with floral notes. The floral notes, however, are not as prominent anymore.
4th steep: unfortunately, the butteriness is almost gone during this steep but the aftertaste is more buttery than the previous steeps. Clean floral taste with some light hints of asparagus.
5th steep: very buttery aftertaste. Light asparagus with floral notes. The butteriness of the aftertaste is more dominant than the other flavours.
6th steep: butteriness is completely gone. Light floral notes. You can taste these notes but it seems like they are somewhere far away. You can feel their presence but it’s not really prominent.
1st steep
2nd steep
3rd steep
4th steep
5th steep
6th steep
Conclusion
This is without a doubt one of the best oolong teas I have ever tasted. The butteriness in combination with asparagus and floral notes was just perfect. It’s a complex tea that plays with flavours and some of them disappear for one steep and come back a steep later. It’s really interesting to discover what this tea has to tell you. This is one really amazing tea!
Do you want to buy this delicious tea? Visit Wudong tea’s website!
