10-Year Aged Lao Cha Oolong Tea (Taiwan)

One chilly autumn morning in the hills of Lugu, young Lin couldn't settle in for meditation. Sifu Lao Cha set a small cup of dark amber tea in front of him.
– Sifu, it smells like toasted cocoa, and it's sweet like vanilla. My mind is calm, but I'm wide awake.
– That's what ten years of rest and patient charcoal roasting will do. The farmers here call it Lao Cha.
– Like you, Sifu?
– Old, mellow, and still worth sitting with. Now, let's begin.

• Place of Origin: Lugu Township, Nantou County, Taiwan
• Altitude: 1,000 m
• Harvest: Autumn
• Aging: 10 years
• Picking Standard: Three leaves
• Cultivar: Qing Xin (青心), also called Ruan Zhi (軟枝)
• Roast: Dark, charcoal; re-roasted annually during aging
  
  
• Aroma: Cherry tobacco
• Taste: Cacao, chocolate, vanilla

Lao Cha (老茶 – Old Tea) is what Taiwanese call aged oolong: tea that's roasted, stored, and looked after for years before it is sold. Ours is a Qing Xin oolong from Lugu, the Nantou township that's home to Dong Ding, aged for 10 years and taken back over charcoal along the way.

The tea is sweet, mellow, and thick. Cacao and chocolate come first, vanilla follows, and the wet leaves smell like cherry tobacco. The roast is rounded and smooth, and all of the astringency of a young oolong has faded with time. The liquor runs from orange-gold to deep amber, and the sweetness stays in the mouth and on the bottom of the cup long after the tea is finished.

There's no official age at which oolong becomes "aged" – the tea keeps changing for decades. What matters more is the starting point. Only a well-made, properly roasted oolong gets better with time; a mediocre one just goes flat. During storage, the maker checks the leaves and re-roasts them over charcoal whenever they pick up moisture, keeping an aged oolong clean and sweet, not letting it go stale.

If you've had aged pu-erh, don't expect the same thing here. There's no earthy, fermented note. And despite the likeness in the name, it has nothing to do with Lao Cha Tou (老茶頭 – Old Tea Heads), the ripe pu-erh nuggets.

The Cha Qi (茶氣 – Tea Energy) of this oolong is calm and settled: it slows you down without making you sleepy. Brewed Gong Fu style in a small gaiwan or Yixing pot, it holds up for well over a dozen infusions. It's also forgiving enough to brew grandpa-style in a mug or thermos.

Brewing guidelines: