“Guess
what tea this is, I bet you’ve never had anything like it before!”
I hear this all of the time and it’s usually true. Really good teas are memorable and unique. Great tea makers often have a signature taste or note, but whether this is done on purpose or is a product of one’s technique is a delicate matter to bring up with the tea’s maker.
Mr.
Noodle used to be a farmer. He grew vegetables that were, in his
estimation, the fattest and most delicious in all of Nantou county! He
also loves to eat traditional Taiwanese foods, like minced meat rice and stinky
tofu. But he really loves to eat noodles: beef noodles; egg
noodles; dan dan noodles; vermicelli noodles with oysters, on and on.
名师出高徒 - “A famous
teacher ‘produces’ talented students.” This is a well known Chinese idiom and students search for great
teachers to help them transform into great artists. Mr. Noodle’s first
master is very well known and has won a ton of awards. His teas are
expensive, easily triple the average market price for each type of tea he
sells. He is a tea genius. One would not be wrong in thinking that
Mr. Noodle is, too.
“My
master wouldn’t teach me how to finish the tea, though, so I had to leave him
and go learn that elsewhere. But me? I would teach anyone my
technique. Whether or not you can learn and master it, though, is up to
you!”
With a
big grin and a booming voice as he speaks, Mr. Noodle pours hot - but not
boiling - water into his pot for the 6th infusion of his high mountain oolong.
He specializes in high mountain tea, which is his favorite type of tea.
His technique utilizes a very high temperature and multiple roasting
cycles to give his high mountain tea a characteristic floral fragrance and
ripe-fruit taste. Most high mountain oolongs are floral; some have light
fruit flavors (like Lishan). His tea has ripe-fruit flavors that are
usually found in moderate-to-high oxidation oolongs, like Dong Ding or Hong
Shui, except that the body of his tea is not deep and rich.
In my own
tea roasting experience, I have never been able to turn a low-oxidized and
relatively delicate high mountain oolong into something that has both a mild
body and ripe fruit flavors, all the while keeping an intensely fragrant floral
aroma. The Younger, a tea distributor that I’ve known for years and who
has taught me a lot about tea making, says that Mr. Noodle is pulling my leg.
“I have been making tea for over 20 years. I have touched every
type of tea you can make, and I’m certain there is no way to roast at the
temperature and duration of time that Mr. Noodle stated. You will make
charcoal!”
I don’t
know what the truth of the matter is, but Mr. Noodle’s tea is pretty tasty!
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