Steeping this slightly hotter than usual in the gaiwan starting after a rinse at 15 sec and increasing in 5 second increments.
My cleaning people unplugged the Zo, so it took a while to get water heated this morning and it went all the way up to 205F. On its way back down now at 200F but I didn’t want to wait until it cooled down to 195F as I have to go get a haircut later.
This is unlike a lot of other Tieguanyins I’ve had lately. First, it doesn’t smell at all buttery or milky, and it’s only just slightly floral in the tin. Mostly it smells grassy-green.
The color starts pale yellow on the first steep and deepens to a clear medium gold on subsequent steeps.
The tea has a roasty aroma that on subsequent steeps has a brown sugary quality. In the earlier steeps it had some mineral aspects. But then it might be because I keep thinking iron, iron, iron….
The flavor hits the tongue in a way that announces complexity. It’s not buttery, not milky, not terribly floral. It has a taste all its own. I don’t really get the pine that others have mentioned. I sometimes do get pine from tea, but I can only get it here if I throw my mind out of focus and stretch.
I do get something that by the third steep I’ve identified as a salty but not salty quality. It seems salty, but it isn’t. This is probably because of its roasty-toastyness.
It holds up well through four steeps, and shows no signs of quitting. If I didn’t have to move on because of today’s schedule, I’d love to sit with it longer.
This is a lovely, tasty tea. As it’s type goes, I tend to prefer the more buttery and floral and less toasty greens. But it’s a great change of pace.
Flavors: Floral, Grass, Mineral, Roasted, Salty, Toast
