Hannerz Send Message

Hannerz drank Organic 'Kuan Yin' by Vashon Tea Shop

19 tasting notes

Small, semi-beaded oolong. The dry leaves have a somewhat vegetal, slightly bitter aroma. They’re a pretty mix of light and dark greens.

Steeping #1 (1m @ 175F/79C)
The liquor is a very light hay-ish green, with a grassy, vegetal odor. (I don’t particularly care for it.) It’s a very classic tieguanyin flavor that seems to linger in the bridge of the nose.

Steeping #2 (45s @ 175F/79C)
Brighter yellow than before- the grassy is gone from the smell and it is now very much just vegetal with a new and very, very faint touch of floral.
The flavor is quite vegetal and somewhat more floral than many tieguanyins, but very strong on the vegetal.

Steeping #3 (45s @ 175F/79C)
Much greener liquor than before. The smell is more floral and less vegetal, now. I enjoy this steeping the most, as the planty flavor has backed off some, and it’s intriguingly sweet and floral. The leaves are about as open as they’ll get, and the flavor is barely there, so no #4.

Preparation

175 °F / 79 °C 0 min, 45 sec

I Like This

2 likes

0 comments

People who liked this

Profile

Bio

I live with my paternal family on a small, family-owned alpaca farm in the Pacific Northwest. I’ve been drinking tea, not considering tisanes, since I was relatively small and first allowed caffeine. Here, we are lucky enough to have two lovely, non-chlorinated wells, so I have relatively unlimited access to nice water that doesn’t influence the taste of my tea, and it certainly feels like a privilege. I prepare tea gong fu style, sometimes with an Yixing pot, and sometimes with a small porcelain pot or gaiwan, as that works best for many of my greener oolongs. I love learning, talking about and making tea.
One of my favorite things about making gaoshan oolongs is the focus and care that takes to make them truly shine. If I’m having a rough day, I can sit down and just focus on the time, temperature of the teaware, etc, and it is completely distracting from whatever is upsetting me.
I think that, however, the most fun is in trying new teas (particularly oolongs; they’re just too wonderful) and working with them to learn how to make them taste their best.
I had a job at the island’s tea shop for a while, and enjoyed the opportunity to learn and teach about teas, and to taste anything I wanted of the stock.

Location

Washington State

Following These People

Moderator Tools

Mark as Spammer