Last November, Eco-Cha Tea Club members got to experience the original unroasted flavor profile of a Leafhopper High Mountain Oolong, also referred to simply as "bug bitten tea", or "yeh nah day" in the Taiwanese dialect. When we sourced that batch of tea, we conceived of a "secret" plan to first share half of this batch of tea unroasted, then roast the other half in order to give our members the opportunity to taste the difference between the unroasted and roasted versions of the very same batch of Leafhopper High Mountain Oolong Tea.
The fresh vibrant unroasted flavor profile in the November batch has now been cured and balanced by the roasting effect, and a mildly roasted character has been attained. If you look back at the appearance of the dried leaves in November's tasting notes blog, they had a distinctly greenish-yellow highlights resulting from the bug-bitten effect on the leaves. Now the leaves are considerably darker, yet still maintain deep green hues.
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