A short note on EoT's Bai Rui Xiang and energy of wulongs

The tea I'll be writing about may be found at: http://www.essenceoftea.co.uk/tea/oolong-tea/wuyi-yancha-rock-tea/2011-handmade-bai-rui-xiang-wuyi-yancha.html

Let me start elsewhere (elsetime is a better word) today - in history, to be exact. Many (i.e., 6-7) years ago, I used to drink roasted wulongs mostly. I'd say the ratio was 70% wulong, 20% sheng and 10% the rest - green, red and shu. Now it is 90% sheng, 9% wulong (as an "easy drink") and 1% is the rest. Why did this transition happen (it happened about four years ago)? The answer lies in the so often mentioned energy of tea and mouthfeel. Most commercially available wulongs lacks any interesting mouthfeel or energy, even though the taste may be very pleasant. I still sometimes drink them for their taste, when working or, in general, when I could not get deeper enjoyment of any tea. We used to drink darker wulongs with my girlfriend a lot, but I corrupted her already and she also says that she sort of lacks "something that puerh has and wulong does not".

This is not to put wulongs down - I also keep a good reserve for not-so-educated guests who tend to enjoy wulongs the most. But they often lack something (the wulongs, not the guests).

Luckily - often is not always. Wu Yi provides some wulongs with energy and mouthfeel (while I haven't had any from Anxi and very few from Taiwan and Dan Cong). One of counterexamples is the Wu Yi Bai Rui Xiang from Essence of tea. It is handmade (or declared as such). That still does not imply it will have a good energy, but it suggests it may have it.

It is a very pleasant tea, the taste is strong, long and full (many lower quality Wu Yi teas are sort of "hollow", compared to, e.g., roasted TGY from Anxi). It has some tones I've yet never met in Wu Yi tea, yet it is distinctly Wu Yi. It is vibrant on the tongue, gives the "tickling" feeling and it does have clear cha qi. "Heureka", I shouted in my head - at last. 

The tea is definitely not cheap and as I "quit" heavy drinking of wulongs, I feel I may not appreciate such quality enough, thus I don't plan buying more of it in near future. But I would like to express my gratitude to Essence of Tea here for generous providing of sample of this beautiful tea.