New Spring 2011 Teas

[Richard Kilgore]

Any thoughts on the new 2011 Spring teas from around the world?

The only ones I have tried have been those from China and Taiwan at norbutea.com. Greg did a tasting for me in order to select another set of teas for a later Tea Tasting & Discussion. By the end of the day my taste buds were blurring, so I can't provide a thorough review of each of those teas, but there are a few that were particularly memorable because they were against type. The 2011 Shade Grown Anxi Tie Guan Yin stood out due to the intensified flavor from using a shade growing technique common in Japan for gyokuro. Another was a Taiwanese White Oolong, that is a tea using a cultivar that is typically used in Taiwan to produce Oolongs, but in this case processed like a white tea. Also the 2011 Dan Cong Hong Cha, using a cultivar used in making the well-known Fenghuang Dan Cong Oolongs, but here processed as a black tea. Most of the teas we sampled were interesting, but not processed against the norms. The 2011 Jade Dragon Green Tea, for example, was similar to the 2010 (which many people liked a great deal, but I thought was only okay), but I actually liked the 2011 much better.

I am behind on trying Japanese green teas, but plan to order some before too long.

Anyone else tried any new 2011 Spring teas? Black/red, Oolong, White, Green? Whatever? Anything to recommend?

[Wholemeal Crank]

So far no 2011 teas for me. I have lots of 2010 to drink still! But I do have some 2011 in the house and on the way--some senchas from O-Cha and puerhs from Essence of Tea. And I need to get hold of some of that shade-grown TGY before it's all snapped up.

I hope to drink down the present inventory so that I'll be better able to take advantage of spring teas next year.

[Will]

I am not normally a big fan of oolongs on the greener side of the spectrum, but I really do like many of Floating Leaves Tea's gaoshan (high mountain) Taiwan oolongs. Winter harvest was pretty good this year, and apparently she has some good springs teas also, but I haven't tried any yet. I am looking forward to trying at least the Lishan and the Shanlinxi.

She doesn't have all the photos / descriptions up yet.

http://www.floatingleavestea.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=16