While I was cleaning up my bookshelf, I found a notebook with a bunch of told tea notes. My goal is to post the notes so I can finally recycle the notebook and clear up some space. The notes are pretty bare compared to what I use now but I’d still like to share them. This is a great opportunity to reacquaint myself with my older teas by tasting them again, if possible. I haven’t done a re-tasting of this gaoshan xiaozhong yet, but I remember I didn’t like it very much. They came from my “tea lady” in Laoximen Tea City. I’ve since learned that her tea’s quality is questionable.
Tea: According to the seller, this tea is “gaoshan xiaozhong /高山小种.” Though her explanation was not very clear (or at least, I didn’t quite understand it), I believe she meant that this is a high mountain variety of lapsang souchong (“zhengshan xiaozhong/正山小种” in Mandarin). I couldn’t find anything called gaoshan xiaozhong online or in my Chinese tea books so I had to use powers of deduction to figure out exactly what I was drinking.
Typically, lapsang souchong comes from Wuyi Mountain in Fujian province. However, the alternative Chinese name for lapsang is “lishan xiaozhong/立山小种,” which leads me to believe the tea may also come from Li Mountain (not to be confused with Li Mountain in Taiwan). Li Mountain is still in the same neighborhood as Wuyi Mountain, so I believe both are very plausible origins. Since “gaoshan” simply means “high mountain,” it makes sense to me that this tea came from a higher altitude than ordinary lapsang, regardless of which mountain it came from. High mountain tea is usually low-yield and generally has a more bold aroma and flavor profile. People usually refer to certain Taiwanese oolong teas as “gaoshan;” I’ve never heard anyone describe black tea as “gaoshan” before.
Lapsang souchong is either smoked (yan/烟) or unsmoked (wu yan/无烟). Based on the flavor, I assume this lapsang is unsmoked. “Xiaozhong” means small leaf, which is a bit counterintuitive because xiaozhong teas actually come from larger leaves. The “small” must refer to the leaves’ position on the plant. Xiaozhong leaves are picked near the bottom of the branch, rather than the top. Leaves near the top of the plant are more valuable and flavorful. “Small leaf” is a pretty common descriptor for black tea. That said, “xiaozhong” rarely finds its way into a tea’s name, so teas called “xiaozhong” almost always belong to the lapsang family.
In short, I believe this tea is a high-altitude black tea from one of Fujian Province’s two major tea mountains.
Company: Because I bought this tea from Laoximen Tea City, it does not belong to any specific company.
Price per Gram: According to my February 2018 Tea Haul post, I bought Gaoshan Xiaozhong for roughly 1 RMB per gram (about $0.15 per gram at current market rate).
Brewing Method: I didn’t write brewing notes for this tea, but based on how I usually brew lapsang, I most likely used 95 – 100 degree water and brewed for 30 seconds. Then I probably added 10 – 15 seconds for each brew thereafter.
Appearance & Smell of the Leaf: Gaoshan Xiaozhong’s dry leaves were long, thin and twisted. They were dark brown with just a few highlights. The dry leaves had the aroma of a typical black tea. It smelled a bit like chocolate with some higher, sweeter notes on top. Whereas many black teas have a deep, hearty fragrance that really gets in your chest, I noticed that gaoshan’s aroma was very shallow. There were hints of dried apricot.
First Steep: My tasting notes simply say “underwhelming, flat.” I wrote that Gaoshan Xiaozhong did not have a strong aftertaste. It was rather sour and frankly, almost as bad as a teabag. The wet leaves were a lighter brown than the dry leaves. Brewing the tea also dampened the high notes, giving the tea a much darker aroma. I detected soapy flavors with a hint of sweet potato. The tea liquor was bright orange. On my second or third cup, the tea started to taste like pickle juice to I poured it out.
Though I didn’t like this tea very much, I enjoyed the journey of trying to figure out exactly what it was. How do you all usually figure out what your mystery teas are?
Dawuye’s leaves were beautiful. They were long, dark and twisted. They were mostly dark green with a few flecks of grass and hay-yellow leaves mixed in. The leaves reminded me of a higher grade Shou Mei (white tea). Before I heated the gaiwan, the leaves smelled like smoked dried plums or waxberry or similar dried fruit. After I heated the gaiwan, the leaves smelled green. I’d compare it to Fukamushi tea of Biluochun. Overall, the leaves smelled grassy and vegetal, a little like asparagus, but not overwhelmingly so. You could also compare the smell to cooked cabbage.
the internet that you can’t really start to fully appreciate phoenix oolong teas until the third steep, so I wasn’t about to give up so soon. I hoped the second steep would be better than the first.
Perfect Leaves 
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