Vietnam Red Oolong Kim Tuyen - WS
Vietnam Red Oolong Kim Tuyen - WS
This exquisite oolong comes to us from Northern Vietnam, where some of the old tea plants are still partially grown wild. Local villagers traditionally process these leaves and the resulting tea is unique and delicious.
The large leaves resemble a black tea, however, the brewed cup is distinctively oolong in character. The aroma is bright with slight spice and floral notes. The amber cup imparts a toasty aftertaste with a slight honey sweet flavor.
Brew tea at 212º - steep for 4 minutes.
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I am very pleased with this blend. I first had kim tuyen from h&s, but they don't carry it anymore. It was one of my favorites, and i was so happy to see s&v have it. It is a very deep rooted earthy tea with dirt, bark & light stone fruit notes. It's just so unique. Other favorites from s&v are the violet and lilac teas...heavenly with cream & sugar.
I find it interesting that while this one is a rolled style the others I have come upon are shaped into balls. So it makes me wonder why the farmer decided to make that change. It is a gorgeous leaf. Dark chocolate in color with light brown flecks here and there. The flavor is mineral, musty, and filled with wet wood notes. There is honey in the after taste. It isn't strong but the way it lingers is very unique. My aroma cup doesn't reveal much for the liquid but the wet leaf is earthy and kinda mineral. I say kinda because it hides. Sometimes you sense it and sometimes you don't. Some oolongs can last for many steepings but this one seems to have had its limelight in the first and second steepings. Though as I'm coming upon my 7th? infusion now I'm find some of the sweeter notes are really shining. The instructions also say to brew four minutes, which I assume would be western style. I've tried both western and gong fu but so far I prefer the gong fu. It offers the ability to test it out more at more stages, not that you can't in western but it just doesn't steep the same.
For me this falls in between a black and an oolong, darker and richer than a typical oolong but mellower than a black. My dad used to taste supermarket and restaurant and even local tea purveyors oolongs and say that oolongs just werent what he remembered and I just thought his taste had faded with age. I also thought those oolongs were kind of boring myself. This magical tea makes me think he just never found a source of really rich oolong again.