Anxi Tie Guan Yin

When Derk said this tea might be losing its edge, I thought I’d better start sipping down my remaining 45 g. It’s from the spring 2020 harvest. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 7, 10, 12, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of lemon, orchid, lily, lilac, and a vegetal note I read as spinach. The first steep is very floral, with orchids, lilies, and lilacs, plus grass, lettuce, artichoke, and lemon. The pronounced peach/apricot aftertaste is definitely the best part of the sip. In steep two, the lemon combined with the sweetness indeed reminds me of lemon curd. The stonefruit also shows up in the aroma and taste, not just the aftertaste, which makes the lettuce/artichoke note more palatable. I also get some herbaceous notes. In the third steep, I get more generic citrus, baked bread, pleasant sourness, and extra veggies. That stonefruit aftertaste is still impressive.

By steep five, the veggies are winning the fight for supremacy with the stonefruit. The lily florals are still present but are subsiding and I’m getting some metallic notes. The best part of this tea is still the aftertaste. The tea gets increasingly vegetal and astringent in the next few rounds, although the stonefruit aftertaste continues until the tenth steep or so. The end of the session is dominated by veggies, astringency, minerals, and grass, with wisps of stonefruit hanging on for dear life.

While this is by no means the best Tie Guan Yin I’ve had (that honour goes to YS’s Competition TGY), I think this is a middle-of-the-road example of this tea. I kind of expect some astringency in Tie Guan Yin, and the stonefruit makes up for many of its flaws. I won’t have any trouble finishing the rest of this package, although I may not buy more.

Dry leaf aroma is strong but at the same time also muted with a range including floral sweet pea, lily and lilac, baked goods, lemon curd, creamy peas, artichoke. The sip is upfront very floral with mostly lily. This leads into a sharp mouthfeel with tang. I taste crisp lettuce, high-pitched citrus, dry grass, a dark lemon curd, earth and wood. The aftertaste explodes with apricot-peach which gives way to a green sugarcane returning sweetness.

The astringency and bitterness come out after several steeps, leaving my tongue rough and numb. As each steep becomes more astringent, it also grows metallic. If you don’t mind astringency, this tea does have good longevity. Overall, this tea has a good range of flavors and mouthfeels but it was tough for me to appreciate after 4 or so short infusions. This one is flavorwise steps above the very tame Tie Guan Yin that can be had at Chinese restaurants. I’m guessing it’s merely past its prime.

Thank you for the sample, Leafhopper :) It’s been a few years since I’ve had a green Tie Guan Yin. It’s always nice to go back to one of the first loose-leaf style teas I bought – I think it was once of those large canisters offered by Tao of Tea.

This tea is quite good. There was very little bitterness. There was a bit of a green, vegetal taste early on but that did not last. What it had was a honey like sweetness without the actual intensity of real honey but the flavor. This was one good tea. In the end I only gave it eight steeps because I am really watching my caffeine but I thinnk it would have gone a few more. The tea liquid was a very light color even in the early steeps but had a lot of flavor.

I steeped this eight times in a 120ml gaiwan with 7.2g leaf and 190 degree water. I gave it a 5 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec. It had gotten quite light colored in the eighth steep but still had a lot of flavor. I think there were a couple of steeps left.