Recipe Tag: Gongfu-cha

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Horse Meat Wuyi Oolong (馬頭岩肉桂, Mǎ Tóu Yán Ròu Guì)

Horse Meat Wuyi Oolong (馬頭岩肉桂, Mǎ Tóu Yán Ròu Guì, "Horse Head Cliff Cassia") - In the grand tradition of naming teas, especially oolongs, after bizarre or unappetizing things (see: Duck Shit), the name Horse Meat comes from an abbreviation of this tea's full name, Mǎ Tóu Yán Ròu Guì, which means "Rou Gui from Horse Head Cliff." Mǎ Tóu Yán Ròu Guì is a mouthful, so in Chinese it gets abbreviated to Mǎ Ròu 馬肉 ("Horse Meat"), which takes the first character of the location and the first character of the tea breed. This is because Ròu Guì 肉桂 literally translated means "Meat Osmanthus" and refers to a cinnamon-like plant called Cassia. Ròu Guì is an ancient breed that has emerged in recent years as one of the most sought after high-end Wuyi Oolong breeds, and the finest Ròu Guì comes from Horse Head Cliff. The terroir or dì wèi 地味 ("earth taste") of Horse Head Cliff brings out the natural minerality and birch bark and cinnamon notes of the breed.

Recipe

HONG YUN RED (Black) – UNYTEA

This tea in my opinion is our boldest brews, mostly Assamica this tea has a bite but the Taiwanese side of this tea is juicy and sweet. This tea always amazed me by the cornucopia of notes.

Recipe

Sticky Rice Shu Pu’er 糯米香熟普洱

Sticky Rice Shu Pu'er (糯米香熟普洱, Nuò Mǐ Xiāng Shú Pǔ'ěr, "Sticky Rice Fragrance Ripened Pu'er") - This traditional style of scented Pu'er is popular with the Báizú 白族 ("Bai Ethnicity") minority peoples of Yunnan. Starting with high quality small-pile 小堆子 fermented Pu'er leaves from Nannuo mountain, the tea is scented with the leaves of Nuò Mǐ Xiāng, an herb with a sweet cereal fragrance reminiscent of fresh cooked glutinous rice. The herb is said to aid in digestion, and complements the rich earthy character of Nannuo Shu Pu'er. It produces a dark, red-brown infusion combining the loamy depth of Shu with the pleasant toasted grain aroma of the sticky rice fragrance plant, set against a background of characteristic Nannuo Mountain minerality.

Recipe

Tulip Garden Green Tea

The spring version of the popular Sunset Garden. After several tries to bring out the essence of Georgian green tea, this tea is the best result so far. It has a grassy, vegetal taste with hints of flowers. The most balanced green tea in our selection.

Recipe

South African Wild Rooibos – Rare Tea Co.

This is no ordinary tea harvest. But then Rooibos (Afrikaans for 'red bush') is no ordinary tea. Strictly speaking a legume, the needle-like leaves produce a deeply delicious caffeine-free drink. It has been used as a medicine to cure innumerable ills and drunk for pleasure for many thousands of years by the people of this area.

This is real bush-tea - it's beyond organic and indigenous. To protect the delicate ecosystem of the Cederberg Mountains it's harvested on horseback with machetes, ensuring no damage is done to the fragile local environment. This is sustainable farming at its best.

We source it from a farmer who is also the local GP - Dr Strauss. He is an amazing man who is not just interested in saving people but the environment and the endangered local Cape Leopard.

Recipe

Prodigy Mesame Oolong

The aroma is fresh and quite floral, you can feel the sweet aroma of butter biscuits and sweet summer flowers. The taste profile is well-balanced, not too much to the green nor to the black side. Though it has quite a strong floral flavour at the same time. Mesame means third in Georgian languages and represents the third try for Prodigy. We think that the third is here to stay ;)

Recipe

Malawi Antlers White Tea

Rather than being made from the leaves of the tea bush, this incredibly rare tea is made from the velvety stem of finely plucked spring shoots. These antlers wonderfully express the unique terroir of this extraordinary tea garden. Only a few kilos can be produced each year.

One of the most remarkable things about Antlers is that they get better and better with each infusion. The water penetrates deeper into the stems and the flavour changes with each steep. The apricots remain, but a deeper, woody, umami taste gently reveals itself behind the soft, sweet fruit. It truly becomes more and more divine.

For the first infusion, use 3g per cup and add 150ml boiling water to soften the stems and steep for two minutes. But don’t worry if you overdo it. The woody stems take time and don’t contain much tannin, so leaving them for five minutes or longer won’t be at all disastrous.

You don’t need to re-boil the kettle between each infusion. Each cup will be cooler, but the stems will be softer. You may need to lengthen the infusion times as the stems start to exhaust, and reheat the water if it cools too much, but don’t give up on them. I’ve made eleven infusions from the same pot.

Recipe

WINTER – DONG DING UNROASTED 百年茶园原味

Sitting between a green and a black tea, traditional Oolong is withered by the sun and air, bruised through rolling, semi-oxidized and baked, then twisted and rolled into small spheres with purple and green hues before a final roast.

Grown on Dong Ding mountain in Taiwan, this Oolong is harvested from a 4th generation farm and nurtured using a distinct set of cultivar to bring forth its optimized flavor. Handpicked and slow roasted over charcoal wood, our Dong Ding Oolong represents the coupling of impeccably grown leaves harvested under optimal conditions in the high mountains of Taiwan and traditionally processed by an expert tea master.

Naturally rich in probiotics, Oolong is optimal for a happy belly. Coupled with its caffeine this is the perfect tea to start your day.

Recipe

Chicken Cage Pole 雞籠刊

Chicken Cage Pole (雞籠杆, Jī Lóng Gān, "Chicken Cage Pole") is an obscure breed of Phoenix Oolong named for the shape of the mother tree, which has a reticulated structure and a thick-branched trunk reminiscent of a chicken cage. While uncommon in America, chicken cages are still regularly seen in China, often on the back of motorcycles in the countryside. Tea trees that are closer in proximity to the mother tree with respect to generations of clones are of higher quality and are more highly sought-after than clones of clones of clones. Being less-widely distributed than more common cultivars (we have not yet found anyone else in the region producing this tea other than A Long), this tea is grown from trees that are much closer to the mother plant than most standard grades. Notes of sesame oil and sushi salmon umami mixed with a bubblegum or starburst fruitiness and undertones of toasted corn. Taste of ripe starfruit upon sipping.

Recipe

Apricot Kernel 杏仁香

Apricot Kernel (杏仁香, Xìng Rén Xiāng, "Apricot Kernel Fragrance") is one of the ten original lineages of Phoenix Oolong, from which the hundreds of varieties of Oolong trees now living in the Phoenix Mountains descend. In Chinese, the term Xìng Rén 杏仁 refers to both the seed of the apricot, as well the closely related almond. In the West, the seeds of apricots and other stone fruits are often referred to as "bitter almonds" in a culinary context. We have chosen to translate the name Apricot Kernel as such because the fragrance of this medium high-oxidized Phoenix Oolong has as much in common with the flesh of the Apricot as it does with the almond. Robust, fruity, slightly malty, and with a rich, nutty character, this tea receives a stronger charcoal roast than lower-oxidized oolongs, such as Osmanthus or Magnolia Fragrance. Apricot Kernel Fragrance can become bitter if oversteeped, but when skillfully poured has a dynamic fragrance and flavor that traverses a landscape of floral, fruity, and almond notes.

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