Note: translation of store sign: 苦茶 屋“Bitter Tea Hut (Cabin/house)”
“Bitter” is one of four tastes in Chinese culture:
Tian – sweet, Shuan – Sour, Ku – Bitter, La – Spicy.
So the literal translation to: Bitter, loses some of its cultural impact.
Last week I purchased: “Tie Guan Yin”, Superior Grade from: Fujian, China.
Today, opportunity knocked, and we managed a: 茶採樣, Cha, cai yang, Tea Sampling
I had three TGYs teas to compare:a) My personal supply of TGY, from my friend’s (Da Xia) garden in FuJian
b) Taiwan High Mountain Oolong
c) Ku Cha test purchase of TGY
d) TGY supplied by the owner (personal supply) of King Wah restaurant, our new home away from home. .. It came in a distant third.
I used the Taiwan Oolong as a basis to demonstrate the distinct differences to a TGY, and let my 3 friends’ blind taste test the three TGYs.
The tea from Ku Cha (c), held up to my personal TGY (a).
All of us enjoyed the tea, it had less; xiang wei 香味 (fragrance) than my TGY, but the taste was on a par.
Aroma: Clear and distinct, not strong but firm.
Soup: Clear and Golden
Taste: Ranked as GOOD.
Spent leaves: Clean, good size, hand picked, rich green colour with no wilting.
All in all, a very good tea.
Price and Quantity are not a factor, ($34.95/100g) this is Boulder Colorado, not Dongguan China.
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