Wenshan Baozhong is Taiwan's answer to green tea. And although other green teas such as Bi Luo Chun and Long Jing are grown in Taiwan, Baozhong is the only tea that uses the Qingxin cultivar ( the cultivar common to most high mountain oolong tea processes).
Wenshan Baozhong is typically grown in Northern Taiwan, in and around Taipei, but principally in Pinglin, a small town which derives most of its infrastructure from tea agriculture.
Ah Pinglin, I think I’ll retire here
Baozhong is very famous for being light in flavour, strong in perfume, and being a very smooth daily drinker for many people who like Taiwan tea. What you may not have known is that there really are many different types of Baozhong and ways to drink them.
Let me just start by saying that Baozhong was really the first Taiwanese oolong that I learned when I began studying with my teacher in Shanghai. She suggested Baozhong because it is easy to brew and doesn't become bitter easily. I remember spending a lot of time with this wonderful tea, analyzing its sweet perfume and soft tastes of cooling fruits and spices. Baozhong also has a lovely “cha qi” or body feeling associated with drinking it, and I want to touch on this more a bit later.
We took a trip to Pinglin recently to check out what the tea scene is like there and even though we weren't planning to purchase anything, we came back with bags bursting of really great tea. We couldn’t even zip up one of the backpacks!
The shop we visited is called “Wen De Cha Zhuang” which basically translates to “Virtuous Culture Tea Shop.” “Wen De” is a phrase associated with Confucian culture and it insinuates that things associated with it are of a high level of literary and social refinement. Wen De Tea Shop was not a let down in this department. The aged owners (I prefer buying tea from old folks as they usually have the good stuff) let us sample several types of fresh Baozhong and also some aged tea along with this year's finest Oriental Beauty tea.
This is where I want to jump off briefly...
Baozhong is a very interesting specimen because it can both be enjoyed fresh and aged. Each providing a unique flavour profile distinct from the other. Earlier this year, we came into possession of some 24 year aged Baozhong from 1991 and a small amount of 40 year old Baozhong from 1975. When compared against fresh Baozhong, one might not even imagine that they came from the same bush. The 24 year old specimen tasted of Chinese medicine and had a long lasting and large perfume. Hints of refined sweetness were also noted. The 40 year old sample tasted like the finest of aged Pu'er along with some very subtle notes in the perfume which made it clear that we were still drinking an oolong tea.
New and Fresh vs. Old and Refined
I have recently come into possession of some Roasted Baozhong from the Muzha region’s winter harvest. This has similarly proved extremely interesting. I have put about 400 grams of it away to age for a year to observe the gradual changes in the nature of the leaf.
Visiting Pinglin helped us fill in some blanks in our Baozhong knowledge and now we have the missing link between youthful freshness and aged refinement. The owner at Wen De Tea Shop gave us a sample of a 3 year aged Baozhong to try. It still had a bit of that “Chinese medicine” flavour, but also had notes of green freshness which tasted much more similar to the other teas they were serving us that day.
Altogether I think we cupped three Baozhong's and two Oriental Beauty oolongs and ended up liking one of the mid-priced green Baozhongs so much that we bought some to take home with us. We also got a bit of the three year aged tea to help customers compare against the older examples.
While being extremely impressed with the Oriental Beauty, we didn't commit to a purchase as it isn't something which we normally drink. Another, more technical reason, is we already have several teas that follow Oriental Beauty's “Mixiang” honey flavoured manufacturing style (essentially caterpillars eat the tea on the leaf and thus speed up oxidization pre-production).
In any event, we are building up a small army of aged Baozhong teas and are looking forward to sharing with you soon.
Stay tuned for next week's installment on Mixiang flavoured Dongding tea.
Love and Cha Robert James Coons Tea Adventurer