Taiwan Muzha Ti Kuan Yin Tea

I’ll put together a real review in a few days (I hope). I wanted to note here that I have read ‘nutty’ used in reviews often, I may have even used it before. Honestly, I have never really known if it was nutty or not. Until today. My first thought when sipping was definitely nutty, then roasted/smoky, followed by creamy. I read the reviews and company description just now and seems I got this one right. Woot! Yes, it is good. Thanks Nuvola.

On a bummer note. My tea buddy and best work friend of 18 years was ‘let go’ at quitting time. No warning. He has two little children and now no income. I was called in to the office next and told to start looking. I still have a job at the moment. I’m 56, walk with a cane, and pack an oxygen tank. (Never felt like sharing that before) Not going to be easy finding something new.

Ahhhh! Freedom! Home! Alarm clock off until January 2! (Unscheduled, un-demanded time is a precious commodity. I have asked for a whole bag of it for Christmas. There are currently no bags under my tree :(

So to celebrate, I made me some contemplatin’ tea. Great big rolled leaf nuggets, dark gold honey-color brew, heavy in the mouth, with a distinct Juicy Fruit taste. Somewhere along the line I made a sensory association with ti kwan yin and JF, and I can’t break it. I’m seeing lots of “nutties” in previous reviews; so far, I don’t get “nuttin’”, but I’m just at Steep #1 of what should be several.

Breathe deep. It’s Christmas. We should rest. (Thanks to K S for these lovely few tea-sponsored moments of just doing nothing.)

Thank you Nuvola Tea for this Sample!

I shared this tasting with my friend Eric who is a Science teacher at the College and serves tea at Happy Lucky’s several days a week. He’s here on Steepster, and a fellow tea geek!

When I want to discuss tea trivia, Eric’s my man!
We talk about leaf hoppers, the bugs that make Oriental Beauty Tea so sweet, and have talks about Puer fungus.

Eric handled the gaiwan through 4 steepings of this Ti Kuan Yin.
(He teaches a gongfu class so I am more than happy to let him do this!)
The flavor if this tea was lightly sweet, with a mild roast nuttiness.
I tasted brown sugar but the more I drank, the more I tasted old fashioned Horehound candy…bittersweet and tangy.

I was about to hand my cup back to Eric when the sweetest fragrance rushed up at me. Wow,this was the scent in my empty cup… thick like a flower shop but as sweet as See’s Candy!

Each steep was pretty much the same. Nutty roastiness, sweet brown sugar and Horehound candy.
A creamy mouth-feel lasted through the first three steeps.

Lovely tea.

This is a fabulous Ti Kuan Yin! The leaves are darker in color than a “green” Ti Kuan Yin which suggested to me that these leaves were subjected to a roasting, and that is evident in the fragrance and flavor. A delicious, toasted nutty aroma fills the air while that delicious, toasted nutty taste washes over my palate.

Sweet, nutty, flavorful. Hints of fruit. This first cup (my first two infusions) is light and crisp, and yet hints at a stronger tasting broth when I resteep. So this is something I definitely WILL do!

I awakened to find that I still have the sore throat of yesterday lingering, as well as a general malaise and really whiny sinuses. The last time this happened, I drank lots of oolong tea and that seemed to boot it right out the door, so I am going to spend the morning getting to know this lovely sample sent by Nuvola for review!

The sample was packed in the most adorable little brown envelope with the string and two button closure on the back. (Forgive me, but I find pretty mail and packaging really exciting! I even love the little Par Avion stickers – I have it on display now in my cloche along with vintage ink bottles and nib pens. This is how cool it is!) The sample was wrapped in bubble wrap and was undamaged. The leaves were not crushed at all!

I made this is my eight ounce gong fu pot. The tightly rolled leaves were a thin covering on half of the bottom of the pot, and after steeping they have expanded to fill the pot more than halfway full of leaf alone! The leaves are now a deep, dark green color, almost black. This promises a nice roasted oolong flavor to come.

The liquor has a definite baked aroma. Oh, I do love dark oolongs! As I lift the cup there is a sweet fruity note teasing me. Hey, my sinuses may be angry but they are not blocked and they are on duty this morning. I believe I would call this a baked apricot aroma, with even the smell of the Maillard reaction coming through.

With each steep, the dark, heavy baked flavor subsides a little and the fruity sweetness comes out more. I feel as though the tea knew I was feeling poorly and gave me a nice roasty kick to start me up and then started wooing me with sweetness. I am on the sixth steep and seriously, this tastes like I have added something to it now, some sort of natural sweetener, but I haven’t added a thing.

The warmth has soothed my throat, the heat has opened my head a bit, and the delicious flavor experience has made this morning much more civilized than it would have been without this tea.

Thank you, Nuvola, for letting me try this excellent Ti Kuan Yin. I will continue steeping as I believe there are at least two more good steeps in these leaves.

Thanks to Nuvola for this sample! It’s quite tasty! I prefer my oolongs greener and less roasted, but still good! It’s a comfy tea to help your relax at work. I also detected a bit of fruitiness. Like jam and toast. :) It’s like relaxing out in the autumn woods with a comforting hot cup of tea. It provided a nice gentle boost of energy as well, and resteeped very nicely! Good stuff!

I wish I had some of this tea right now because I am exhausted! Baking pies and making creme anglais and washing puppies…ah! Too much after a full day of work! I still have to make chocolate syrup and ginger syrup, but I’ll have to do that in the morning. I can’t do anymore. Still waiting for a pie to finish baking. :( Then off to sleep. sleeeeeep. Then more cooking. It will be worth it! My whole apartment smells fantastic, by the way. :)

Because this is a bit roasted you can see it in the grey-ish color of the rolled-leaves. I think this change-of-color to the eye is a nice one. With all the teas I look at it’s neat to see a ‘different’ one every once and a while. The aroma is potent…roasty, toasty, nutty, woodsy.

This infuses to a medium brown with a slight orange hue.

The flavor is of roasted nuts – maybe a combo of pine nuts and peanuts, moreso. It has a spec of charcoal taste to it but more notably a woodsy flavor paired with a brothy texture. The end sip I can also pick up on a hint of a fruity taste.

This is a satisfying and tasty tea. A very nice oolong.

Full Review Will be on http://sororiteasisters.com/ on the 17th but here are my snippits:

Taiwan Muzha Ti Kuan Yin from Nuvola Tea is a complex, multiple layered taste exploration. It captures flavors of sweet, savory, salty, roasty, creamy, and more. There is an undeniable aroma that really captures the senses and makes you sit a moment, cup close to your nose, just breathing in its notes.

Nuvola Tea has some of the finest teas I have come across in my tea discovery. This is no exception. Hints of nuttiness capture my attentions first, followed by a creamy full mouthful and flavor that is captivating as well. While sweet berry notes dance about on my tongue the roasted backdrop comes into focus, but then the berry re-emerges once again. Its like a ferris wheel of flavors here! Flavor notes go up, then down, then round and round playfully dancing and playing on my palette.

First off, many thanks to Nuvola Tea who have proven themselves to be most responsive and generous with their customer service. I had a minor labeling error with my last order and graciously offered to send two more complimentary samples to me, which arrived in under a week. Their outstanding customer service and top quality make them a company I feel good giving my business to and can highly recommend to others!

So I have admittedly been curious about Taiwanese “Ti Kuan Yin”. Since I hadn’t selected this round of samples I didn’t know what to expect and was pleasantly surprised when I opened the packet to find dark brown toasty smelling balls of oolong. I’m glad that I had two traditionally roasted tieguanyins recently under my belt before trying this as prior to that I only had tried the green versions. In fact I have three other roasted tieguanyins to try that all arrived around the same time, some lighter and some darker. Very exciting!

This reminds me both of the medium roasted China tieguanyins as well as some specifically Taiwanese oolongs, especially Dong Ding. It has both a warm and cooling quality. It is sweet as well as charcoally. Nutty with a hint of floral. The sensations on the tongue are a bit more subtle than orchid and ginseng oolong, but still present.

A wonderfully comforting tea. It is very evocative of the fall and I got lost in the vapors. It stood up well to multiple infusions, boiling water and short steeps. So glad for the opportunity to try it! Thank you Nuvola Tea!

Dry Smell: Raisins.

Wet: Roasted something. Not sure what, maybe roasted nuts?

So I have made 4 16oz cups so far and this is still going strong. It has the usual Ti Kuan Yin taste with that of Wuyi. I look forward to find out how many steeps I can get out of this before it starts to fall off.