Monkey Picked Iron Goddess of Mercy

I’m giving this a bump because apparently this is the tea I crave when I want a toasty, darker oolong. It’s sweet and roasty but doesn’t make me think of cigar smoke. There’s a lot going on in this tea. I’ve already mentioned the sweet and roasty but there’s some stone fruit, some honey and even some raw-sugar-like notes. It’s woodsy and somewhat autumn-y with slight notes of rawness that remind me of Nilgiri but in a smooth way I can totally get behind. As the tea cools, the flavor continues to develop, getting more and more complex. I don’t normally go for darker oolongs but this one is worth being the exception.

ETA: Gave some of the second steep to the husband and he said that it reminded him a bit of genmaicha. And now that he says that, I can see it. It’s got a similar roasty, toasty, smooth taste.
5g/10oz

After yesterday’s day-long-pot-of-oolong extravaganza, I thought I’d try the same for this tea (I had a sample of it to finish up as well). And I have to say, it just makes me miss the Hawaiian Oolong. It’s good, and it’s clearly an oolong, but it just lacks a hint of the sweetness and butteriness that I came to expect after yesterday. I won’t be ordering more, though I am minutes away from caving and making another pot of the Hawaiian one.

(I could tell this tea wasn’t hitting the spot when I was tempted to make a cup of blueberry green Republic of Tea, which is perfectly fine, but not something that would normally compete with a Samovar tea for me.)

I ordered this based on an existing impression of another “Monkey Picked Iron Goddess of Mercy” brand. That brand, the name of which escapes me to this day, was much lighter and sweeter in nature, that required a good 3 minutes of steeping just to unfurl, and more green-oriented(vegetal). This variation is very dark, roasted and smoky – concentrated even – leaning more to the black tea variety. It was after fiddling around with it that I found a “palatable” setting of only 30 seconds a steep at the White-Oolong temps. 45 seconds max on re-steeps. I’m usually wary of suggested steep times on tins, when they immediately say boiling. And for a such a long period, with a larger quantity of leaf(tablespoon vs my own teaspoon), this, to me at least, would be over-powering. I have yet to try that method, but if I do, I’ll be sure to update my findings, but I’m comfortable with what I have now. My way of brewing, the tea’s the smoky and roasted flavour does not become over-powering, but a more calming accentuated flavour, ideal for fireplace settings, and especially the winter season. I get the woodsey, smokey taste notes mentioned, and after a couple steeps, I definitely detect the apricot. Not as sweet as I had expected from another Monkey Picked, but still a good quality/price ratio oolong. Currently my “every day tea”.

This is the first time I’m seeing these kinds of leaves rolled into a ball. It’s quite amazing, actually, to see them unravel during the steeping process. I’m using my travel mug so I couldn’t see through the cup to see it all in action, but amazingly the leaves started at the bottom of my infuser when dry, and ended up filling it up all the way to the top when the steeping was done.

The flavour profiles are pretty accurate to both what Samovar notes on their description and also to what people here have noted. Smooth, with roasted notes. I’m not too experienced with oolongs so I don’t have a point of reference to compare to, but this is a fairly darker flavour than I was expecting after seeing how light coloured the infusion was.

The complexities of this tea make it appealing. I’m enjoying this one. =)

Kinda smooth, kinda roasty. It’s got some umph and body to it. Slight bit of genmaicha hint to it which comes out a bit more with the second steep. Like the first steep more.

By far my favorite Oolong tea. Great for multiple steeps. I absolutely LOVE it!

I normally review black teas, and I normally review them in the morning because there’s something about a good earl grey slapping one awake and dragging ones half-awake body feet first down the stairs into the kitchen that gets my writing going, also concussions.

So I’m a little out of my comfort zone reviewing a dark oolong like this, partially because I don’t believe my pallet is refined enough, and partially because the last oolong I tried was so Smokey It tasted like there was a brush fire in my mouth, in any case here goes…

The dry leaf is pretty in that lovely simple Chinese way leaves rolled tight and simply lovely scented, like tall grass and old earth.

On the wonderful steeping advice of Tabby (steepster.com/tabby) I did this one a little stronger than normal 1.5 tsps per 6 oz, 180 at 2:30 (And I used one tsps of sugar for the whole pot to not dilute the flavor), it brewed into a quite beautiful pale amber gold, only faintly aromatic to match the dry leaf.

The taste was both stronger and weaker than other oolongs I’ve tried, my past experience has seemed to fly to the extremes of the flavor spectrum for this type of tea and it was surprising and quite nice to find something balanced, as a “dark” oolong I read this is stronger or heavier than others, but with my penchant for the blackest of teas this seemed quite delicate to my palate, surprisingly calm and not grassy or Smokey at all, as it rolls down the throat your left with this just faintly smoky after taste that’s more than pleasant, a very balanced unobtrusive and delicious tea, something to be sipped and enjoyed while reading after work, or people watching in a café, it doesn’t dominate the moment or your attention but simply accents it, I think I’ll be checking out a lot of the other offerings from Samovar now.

Note for later: try this with a longer steep, see if it’ll bring out the flavors more.

Try steeping the first infusion (1 tablespoon) for 30 seconds @ 190 degrees with the lid on. Then throw this infusion away – it can be a bit funky.

At this point the leaves should have unfurled and it should smell quite rank (I mean that in a good way!)

The next infusion go for 30 seconds more and it will taste pretty good.

The second infusion for 45 seconds gets much more complex, a hint of sweetness but very malty and smooth. If you like dark teas I think you will tend to like this more than others.

Very complex tea – you could experiment with brew times and the amount of leaves and spend a good few hours coming up with new flavor profiles. I come back to this one a lot.

I believe Samovar does a take on this tea where they soak it in honey over night. Absolutely delicious. As a black tea lover, this is a great oolong to add!

One of the very best Oolong teas I have had. I like to steep it for a full 3 min. Perfect for up to 4 Infusions and even a passable 5th.