Oh, I mainly was referring to the Shui Xian. I have had a number of
specimens that were so amazing it is almost hard to put in words (but
I'll try ;) To start I always kind of enjoyed oolongs, never the green
flowery ones, until an acquaintance shared two Shui Xians with me that
simply blew me away. The greatest was from Singapore and was so
heavily roasted and re-roasted that it was brittle and almost like
charcoal... which doesn't sound nice but I assure you it was ethereal.
I'm not a fan of smoky/roasted teas like a Lapsang so the best I can
say is that it was very reminiscent of raisins, a touch chocolaty, and
maybe even a bit of flavor similar to the scent of a good quality
tobacco (not smoke but the tobacco itself). The other was a high-fired
version I believe came from The Tea Gallery in NYC. They were my true
introduction to Shui Xian even though I had tried low-mid quality ones
before that weren't even remotely memorable. I was hooked, and Kelly
even more. It instantly rocketed to the top of our lists.
I have since had the pleasure of trying a few that were hand crafted
in what I consider an artisan manner, by a man who personally fires,
stores, and re-fires his tea to perfection. I've also ordered some
from a few other boutique vendors that has that higher fired, brittle,
texture which just outclasses even the Teaspring offering... but are
way too expensive to drink daily even if I had the money to throw at
it. I have ordered more than I required from Teaspring though, and I'm
looking forward to re-firing some myself to try to achieve similar
results. I'll surely post my results and trials.
As for BLC it is less about artisans and more about differences. Since
I came from a Japanese green background it was a hard sell to retrain
myself to Chinese greens, but I'm glad I did. As much as I hate to say
it, I think the tide turned at Teany in NYC. The water was the wrong
temp, the BLC was good quality, and even still it managed to capture
my attention and caused me to start sampling and learning. I have to
admit that I've only sampled maybe 12 different BLCs as I get pulled
back to the same 2 all the time, Teasprings is one of them. I've yet
to really dig in and sample a ton just because I'm stupidly happy with
what I have.
I added their Huo Shan Huang Ya (yellow tea) to my order to try theirs
as well, as it is a favorite.
(sorry for the abnormally long followup to an already long post, I
just realized how much I typed in response)
- Dominic
http://teasphere.wordpress.com
