Monday, August 9, 2010

Oolong Oops!

Yet another view of the Ravenna Church. Notice the barred windows.
I wonder if this was used as a sanctuary in times of invasion?



The weather bureau has promised lots of rain this week. The road to Hades is paved with those promises. Today is smotheringly hot and humid.



I thought I would try a nice light Oolong. I still have a lot of samples from the Golden Moon Tea Sampler I bought a while ago and Orchid Temple Oolong from the Wuyi Mountains looked good. It is quite pretty tightly rolled balls, striped green and white. The directions said to brew it for 2-3 minutes at 212 degrees. So I did it for 2.5. I first rinsed it, which seems to be the thing to do with Oolongs. As it brewed it smelled very green and seaweedy, but with a nice overlay of orchid scent. The liquid was a pretty pale good.



I am afraid that is where praise ends, as it was just too seaweedy for me, with too little floral to redeem it. It was nasty and somewhat bitter, so I pitched it out. The second cup which I brewed less time was just as bad. Sad, as Golden Moon sells good teas.



Now I'll tell you what I think went wrong. My cup was too small for the amount of tea in the sample. The water could have been about 180-195 and the brewing time was too long. Partially the problem is theirs for giving probably incorrect instructions, part of the difficulty is mine for following them. By now I should be able to use more sense. But if I were new to tea and brewed it their way I would have a nasty cup of tea. The samples in this package are generally only enough for one mug, so I didn't think about it - I will be more careful with Oolong samples in the future.









2 comments:

michele said...

The old churches are so beautifully made. The bars on the windows were probably used either to keep people in or out, or both.

Marlena said...

Probably, depending on if it were a time of invasion or not.