Sea Dyke Lao Chung Shui Hsien - Premium Tin

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Sea Dyke recently introduced their premium Lao Chung Shui Hsien that came in a small fancy gold tin.  Sea Dyke's famous yellow can Lao Chung Shui Hsien in the last pix (link) had been around for more than 30 years and remains today a favorite among many oolong tea drinkers, myself included.  

This premium edition tin has 4 gold foiled packets of shui hsien nicely packed inside.  Each packet holds 10g of tea meaning you get 40g of tea in each tin.  This tin retails today for US$10.  This a not a cheap tea as a kilogram of this tea would cost US$250.  This tea is to me, slightly expensive as this price point would also allow me to purchase much older oolong.  I do give credit to Sea Dyke for selling this amount of tea at a not too intimidating price of $10.

This Lao Chung is a very good tea.  The aroma is very strong and pleasant.  Taste of this tea is good with nice combination of sourness, sweetness with a floral hint in the tea.  There was good salivating sensation when I consumed the tea and there was a nice extended aftertaste of the tea that lingered in the mouth for quite a while after a tea session.  I suspect that Sea Dyke had used a slightly older shui hsien in this premium tin.   

Brewing a 10g pack of this set would cost $2.50 but you could mitigate the cost by using a 80-100ml teapot and this would enable you to use only 5g (half pack) of this tea.  I had a few good sessions with 5g of this shui hsien and I am into my 2nd tin now.  

I do not rate Sea Dyke oolong as a top shelf tea.  I find that Sea Dyke oolongs, especially the tinned ones very good.  It is my opinion, that starting or drinking Sea dyke oolong would give any tea drinker a good platform to appreciate traditional roasted oolong.  I recommend my readers to skip the boxed Sea Dyke oolongs as they are of a lower quality.  I had brought Sea Dyke tea to a few tea sessions with my serious oolong drinking friends and they were not willing to acknowledge the quality of the oolong after they had discovered that the tea drunk was a Sea Dyke oolong.  

If you like traditional high roasted oolong, I recommend you get a tin of Sea Dyke lao chung shui hsien.   No regrets.