Aged 2009 Oolong Cake

Description

Aged 2009 Oolong Tea Cake (烏龍老茶茶餅) is a beatifully clean and complex aged oolong from Mingjian Township, Nantou County, Taiwan. It is made from Si Ji Chun ‘Four Seasons’ (四季春) cultivar leaves that were handpicked in 2009 and aged for 10 years. It was then pressed into 100g cakes in March 2019. We source directly from the tea master who aged and pressed this oolong.

You may be interested in other Aged Oolong teas that we currently offer.

These cakes are well-aged so you can enjoy drinking them straight away but they can also be put away for further ageing. Unlike our other two aged oolong teas from the same tea master (Vintage 2001 and Vintage 2011), this tea is not a mixture of various harvests and cultivars. Rather, it was picked from single cultivar plants, processed and set aside to be aged. Generally when oolong tea is aged, it has to be periodically mixed and baked not only to keep the tea from spoiling, but also to reinvigorate the tea leaves and to further develop flavours. So prior to being pressed into cakes, this tea had a lot of labour and love put into it over the 10 year period.

Our Aged 2009 Oolong Tea Cake consists of compressed oolong leaves that have achieved approximately 20% oxidation and have been very lightly baked. The overall impression is of complex florals and fruits. The liquor has a bright colour and good clarity with a smooth and lightly drying mouthfeel. There are notes of cereals and spices running through the taste, similar to the flavour of hot cross buns. The golden flavours progress to more tangy red fruit notes and a lightly mineral aftertaste. This is a fantastic aged tea that still has plenty of bright flavours yet showing wonderful complexity imparted by the ageing process.

It is best brewed at 90°C for 3-4 minutes. This tea should be brewed multiple times. For best results, brew gong fu style.