On my last trip to SF Chinatown I bought some Eastern Beauty from a
well regarded Chinese vendor. I am happy to say it looks like and
tastes like my only purchase several years ago from an Ebay vendor. I
always questioned that taste when compared to what was described here
as something special. All I can say the taste is more like Darjeeling
than anything else. There are no subsequent infusions. If I ever run
out of this tea I won't miss it. I think I might be able to pass this
by my wife's quality control as anything but Chinese.

Jim

PS Why would a loose 1993 wild whole leaf Sheng be so uniform in dry
and infused appearance. The infused leaves are the golden brown as
described in older Sheng. If this is the real deal then I also won't
miss it when I run out. My hat off to the Taiwan scientists that came
up with the tea tits that make milk tea. That is something special.

Space Cowboy ix.netcom.com> writes:

Sorry, I don't understand. Why *wouldn't* the tea look this way?

/Lew

On Oct 1, 8:55 am, Space Cowboy ix.netcom.com> wrote:

This is loose Sheng not compressed. I'd have to expect over the long
haul you'd see different fermentation of the leaf dried or infused.
The last thing I would expect is uniformity of color. I'll even throw
in leaf size uniformity. Why wouldn't the edges crumble as they
ferment. I'd say you could tell alot about the supposed age just by
the looks of the leaf dry or infused.

Jim

Hi guys,
(oriental beauty is bai hao?)
I thought that this was one tea that would always be a good purchase,
as my past experience had been good. Had, I say, until I bought a nice
big bag from a seattle company, online and was very disappointed. This
was one weak tea. Too bad for me cause I remeber this tea being fruity
honey and very classy. Maybe a few bad years....
Jenn

Dominic T. gmail.com> wrote:

I get a slight wintergreen sort of flavour from OB. I like it a lot.

Space Cowboy ix.netcom.com> writes:

I would expect uncompressed tea to age more uniformly than compressed
tea, because the outer leaves on a cake get more exposed to the
ambient air than the inner leaves; this isn't a factor with
uncompressed tea.

/Lew

My loose and compressed shou has more color variation than this. Even
with loose you'd expect the stuff on the bottom to be different than
on top from breathing unless it was tumble dried fermented.

Jim

OB is one of my favourite oolongs as well. To me a decent OB has a sort of
honey/fruity/vanilla/caramel flavour that I like because it is not too
heavy. I've come to realise over the last few years that the oolongs I like
are the cooked ones rather than the really green ones, and every decent OB
I've had has had some degree of fermentation involved (and a degree of
colour variation among the loose leaves).

Kat

On 10/02/2007 05:36:17 "KM" donotspam.com.au> wrote:

With which I whole heartedly agree, and add a sometimes malty spice flavor to all the others you mention. I used to say I never met an OB I didn't like, but unfortunately my run of good luck was broken with a couple really bad ones lately. Nonetheless, different as they may be from one another, those teas are among my favorites; the little leaf hoppers sure do work wonders.
Michael