Bai Gu Four Seasons – light roast

Name: Bai Gu Da Shan Four Seasons oolong (白姑大山輕炭焙四季春烏龍)
Year: 2020 Autumn
Variety: Four Seasons
Baking time: 16 hours, light charcoal roast
Age of tea bushes is around 25 years

Weight: loose in zip bags, from 20 grams up you get a vaccumed pack with a zip bag, see picture, originally packed in 150 grams vaccum packs

Details:

A citrus lemon hints, a nice baked aroma of dry leaves, ripe lemon skin, amazing taste of tropical fruits almost lichi, these fruits reflected in the aroma too, very very subtle baking notes in the first brews, more of comes with longer steeps still this are super fragrant notes, I always loved 4 seasons variety but this is top, a light uplifting joyful body feeling, the taste of the tea created or rather contributed by the charcoal roasting is very unique, Cha Qi hits after 3-4th brews with shivering feeling in the arms, the afterstaste is simply gorgeous, thick and oily with the 5th brew and aftertaste simply builds up, the richness of tea keeps a great number of steeps

The tea comes from an organic tea garden of Mr. Zhang. The best start for telling the story of him is the quote of my taiwanese friend saying ‘super stubborn man who loves his teas’.  He indeed loves his tea, around his house are tea plots of all kinds tea varieties. His main tea gardens are on Bai Gu Da Shan mountain and some others I do not remember.

The thing I love about his way of tea making is that ‘everything has its own time’. The same the tea processing, some teas need to settle down after the harvest and processing, wait six months, then when it is right time, roast it and then wait another six months before putting them on sale. A very traditional master way of making tea.

When visiting this tea farmer I tasted with him and his son about 18 teas and all were giving me shots of Cha Qi. I was almost flying and then we had this farmer lunch that had a super powerful chicken soup. In that soup were cooked also new and aged white radish pieces. When eating them separately fished out of the soup another attacts of Qi thundered me.

The production of Mr. Zhang are micro lots/batches. These might me some 2 kg or 5 kg or 10 kg. Even I think 10 kg is super big lot for him. These tiny amounts teas gives a master time and space to create a master tea, a tea made with care, attention and time.

His teas are charcoal roasted with another old guy, who does the charcoal roasting whole his life. Living with tea and charcoal stoves 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 20-30-40 years.