A Tea Addict's Journal

One of the biggest changes in the 2+ years I’ve been blogging is that I no longer drink any Taiwanese gaoshan oolong.

Of course, with any statement like this, I am bound to break it — like today — but generally speaking, whereas I used to drink a fair amount of this stuff on a regular basis, I think today is the first time I actively made it myself since returning from Taiwan.

Mostly this can be chalked up to a phisiological change — I find myself much less able to handle this stuff than I used to. If it is dongding, with a suitable level of firing, I can still drink it, but if it’s say, Lishan oolong (which today’s tea is) then chances are I’ll feel pretty unwell afterwards. I either feel tired, or dizzy, or have a stomach ache… or all of the above. I was going through my tea stash today, and wanted to compare my tea with the two we had yesterday. Mine’s a little less harsh, but that could be because I didn’t stuff my pot, and it’s slightly higher roasted than the ones we had yesterday. Yet, after a few infusions, I could feel myself not really liking it, physically. The main attraction of gaoshan oolong, which is its aroma, is not something I find particularly alluring these days. Instead, I feel it’s mostly just something in the mouth that doesn’t last. If I want aroma, I can drink jasmine. If you want depth, qi, body, etc…. gaoshan oolong, in its easily obtainable form, usually doesn’t cut it. Not to mention that much of that stuff could be Vietnamese fakes.

Remind me not to drink these things again….