Organic Superfine Moderately Roasted Tie Guan Yin “Iron Goddess” Oolong Tea

Full review on http://sororiteasisters.com/ at 6pm central time May 14th but here are snippets:

The aroma of Organic Superfine Moderately Roasted Tie Guan Yin “Iron Goddess” Oolong Tea is milky and creamy, which is surprising since I was really anticipating a deeper roasted aroma. Regardless, I love a milky tea so if it tasted milky I would be fine with that. I decided to go ahead and let it steep for a couple more minutes since Iron Goddess does not get bitter with longer steeps. This seems to be the way to go because after two more minutes after an initial 2 minutes it became stronger, bolder, with a coffee like aroma and that roasted aroma I was expecting. I will later hate to try it with a shorter steep though as I am sure that milky aroma had something to it!

Also this is a tea that keeps on giving. Even with my long five minute steep the first time around I can continue to keep on steepin! Following steeps have some interesting notes highlighted that bring about the thoughts of a green tea, such as green bean for example, but more like veggies that are fire roasted! So good! I love having this Iron Goddess with some milk chocolate, it really taste like s’mores between the creamy note in the tea and the smokiness with the toasty note, and of course the chocolate!

I am really glad that I ordered this sample because I find myself really enjoying roasted oolongs.
I used the whole sample package for this cup.
This is delicious. I didn’t get the coffee notes, but I also only brewed for 1 minute. I found it a bit sweet and roasted notes really shine through with that buttery TGY. It tastes almost a bit creamy.
I might have to order this!

Resteep at 2 and 3 minutes. I think the second steep was my favourite because all the notes really melded together and it was really smooth and almmost velvety.

I probably could have gotten more steeps out of the leaves but I ran out of time in my day :(

This is a refreshing alternative to the ordinary Tie Guan Yin! In fact, I think this may replace unroasted Tie Guan Yin on my cup board! Nice consistent flavor with no huge surprises, but very pleasant nonetheless.

note to self: when steeping 2 similar looking teas side by side, unbox teas in separate areas. i almost mixed up this one and the heavily roasted! but thank goodness, i can see the slight difference in color as this was just the teeniest bit greener. the color of the brewed tea did show that i was right – and i had put this in my white teapot while the other in my brown kyusu (haha, sorry purists, it was the only other pot i had available!)

on to the taste: like i have read, i fall under the majority preferring lightly/moderately roasted! thank you Teavivre for helping me figure this one out with your nice teas!
this one is naturally sweet but i need to steep it longer (for a minute or so) vs my usual less than a minute steep to get my desired strength but it’s all good coz the instructions say 1-3 minutes. and freshly boiled water (some oolongs need lower temperature and shorter steeps to avoid getting bitter but apparently the really good quality ones like this allow/need higher temp and longer steeps).

edit: i think cold steep can work nicely with quality oolongs..imna try it with these two (heavily and moderately roasted) soon!

I haven’t been writing any notes lately but I’ve been testing new teas… Time to get in gear. :D

I got my Teavivre order yesterday and with it some samples I wanted to try out. This tea was one of them.

I am really impressed, it’s simply lovely. Dry leaves smelled sweet and a little vegetal. I agonized over how much tea am I suppose to use but ended up using the entire sample packet (7.5g) for 7 ounces of water.

I rinsed and then I steeped it for 2 minutes but I think 1.5 minutes would have been sufficient too as a first steep. The resulting liquid was brown with smoky, flowery aroma. The taste was just as wonderful: roasted goodness, reminiscent a bit of coffee with some flowery notes and pleasantly sweet.

Right now I’m on my second steep which is as lovely as the first. I’m thinking this is something I would love to have in my cupboard permanently. :)