A very special cup of tea

I'm crazy about tea.  By tea, I don't mean anything in a tea bag.  What I love is real, whole leaf tea.  I love black tea, green tea, but I especially love oolong tea.

My favorite oolong is some rare variety that shows up at my local tea purveyor only once a year.  If you miss this single shipment, you have missed this extraordinary tea for the entire year.

As with all good tea, there is a story associated with it.  I have no idea what the Chinese name of this tea is, nor exactly where it comes from.  I suppose these things could be discovered.  There must be records documenting the sale of this tea to my local tea merchant from their source in China.  If I thought this would help me find more of this marvelous tea, I would certainly investigate.

Wild Forest Oolong is what the local store calls this tea.  The story associated with it is that it comes from only a few wild tea bushes growing in the forest, tea bushes known to only two now rather elderly tea masters.  They are supposed to comb the forest in search of this tea every year.  All I know is that it is unlike anything I have ever encountered in my years of tea drinking.  It is a dark oolong, with large nuggets of rolled leaves, some the size of the last joint of your little finger (or even bigger).  I put a good amount of this tea in one of my tea pots that brews up about 8 oz., pour on boiling water, and steep only a minute or 2.  That is all it takes to release the amazing aroma and flavor of this Wild Forest Oolong, which are sweet and floral.  Wild Forest Oolong is NOT a flavored tea; this is simply the natural taste of this tea.  The flavor is quite intense, hence the short brewing time.  This is a hardy tea that can be brewed 6, even 8 times, with each repetition releasing some new variation on the amazing flowery taste and aroma.  It also tastes nothing like a "flowery oolong" I purchased recently.  My guess is that this tea is from a somewhat different variety of tea plant than commercially grown tea.  That the bushes grow wild in the forest also makes me wonder if this is not the local variety of tea?  I only wish I knew where it comes from in China.

I want to know more about this tea.  The story of the two old tea masters is quite charming, but, I wonder, is it true?  Is there more of this tea out there, and at what price?  This is the priciest tea I have seen for a wild oolong.

I have drunk some very fine, delicate Chinese and Japanese green teas, robust oolongs and mellow black teas over the years.  Nothing in my past experience prepared me for Wild Forest Oolong.  This tea is about as close as tea can get to the elixir of the gods.  Share with me your tea stories.