Tikuanyin

Another generic-brand tea that I’m surpised I have to add. Then again it seems that Sea Dyke et al. have a way of producing all kinds of different packaging that may or may not contain the same tea. Looking at existing entries and their reviews, I feel that this might be a different (lower!) quality than the others. The article number seems to be a good differentiator; this one is AT202.

I have taken the name Tikuanyin ad litteram from the packaging, realizing that Tie Guan Yin is a more oft-occuring spelling.

That’s about all the interesting things to be said for this tea.

It is a roasted tieguanyin by the way. I still have to get a proper reference for what they should taste like, but it cannot be this. I’ve had one before (not reviewed) which I hoped was a production fluke, but this appears to be its long-lost brother.

The dry leaf aroma is dull, slightly chemical and somehow reminding me of the stock room of IKEA, where incidentally they also sell highly processed plant particles. The wet-leaf aroma properly warns of the burnt flavours to come. Only somewhere in the proverbial top left corner there’s a promising caramel fragrance, but that is a promise of other teas to come, not this one, as the flavour is all dull and toasty.

I have tried learning to love its predecessor but when I had some decent pouchong in-between I was reminded of just everything that it was not. So now that I take another stab in the dark and end up with the same basic thing, I can only express my disappointment when rating. Sorry!

At the moment I cannot even see myself keeping both teas in the cupboard for too long. On the other hand I can see myself having another blind stab at a Sea Dyke product. If the flavour were even slightly different, like the tease present in the smell, it would be worth knowing where to find a cheap everyday household oolong. But given the present contrast with the quality product, I’m not even sure if such a thing even exists.