Leaf: before & after

This week I've been sipping a medium-roast oolong from Floating Leaves Tea. Some oolongs have a late summer or fall vegetation flavor (tomato leaves, falling leaves, mosses), but this tea is on the other end of things -- the end with flavors of fresh spring, early blossoms, and young grass. It's very fresh in the cup, and it brews up easily and quickly.

The first time I tried this oolong, I used way too much tea and the resulting brew was too bitter. What I hadn't expected was the dramatic change in size when the leaf unfurled; I ended up with a cup full of leaf and nowhere for the water to go. Now I know to only use 6-8 of the rolled leaves. Here are a few photos that demonstrate the change between leaf in the bag and leaf 2 gaiwan steeps later.



Click either photo to see it as a larger, more detailed image.


The smaller, furled, "before" leaf is circled.


note added: a few people have asked where I found the glass gaiwan. I purchased it from TeaSpring, one of my favorite online tea shops.

CW