Nonpareil Anxi Qing Xiang TieGuanYin Oolong Tea

So somehow I’ve misplaced that wonderful selection of Oolong samples for review that Teavivre sent me. I know I’ll find it soon, I just have way too many tea stashes. I decided that I should still have a Teavivre oolong day today and drink from my ample stash of samples I’ve bought. I randomly reached my hand into the box’o’samples and this is what I got.

On to the tea. This tea is like wood nymphs dancing through a forest. Ok that may sound a bit overboard but really somehow it manages to smell perfumey(not in a bad way, something I’d love to wear) but not taste like perfume which I abhor.

It’s definitely floral but not sharp. I don’t taste much fruit while it’s in my mouth but there’s a lovely fruity aftertaste I can’t quite pinpoint. Melon and stonefruits?

This tea is divine and I’m actually smiling right now as I drink the final sips.

I last drank this last mid-November of 2014. This note is for educational purposes. Ratings won’t be deleted to keep the integrity of my first tasting note.

Had a gongfu session with a ceramic gaiwan. 3 second rinse. Steeping times: 25, 55, 75, 90, 100, 120, 160, 240.

I couldn’t smell anything the dry leaf. The wet leaf aroma – after the rinse – is sweetly floral, and then becomes buttered popcorn. Thereafter, it is purely floral.

The liquor looks very pretty in a white porcelain cup: clear, bright, like sunshine. Medium-bodied. The texture is thick for the first couple infusions, and then gradually thins out.

Throughout the session, the flavor profile is pretty nearly consistent. The first and second infusions begin with a floral note and finish with a sweetness. An apricot/strawberry aftertaste lingers. Reminded me of a Taiwanese high mountain oolong. Thereafter, floral-plant and sour notes are dominant. The plants – green leaves, chloryphyll – aren’t strong or delicate, a medium intensity. Very Tie Guan Yin-like.

The sourness, I learned from Teavivre’s website, occurs naturally and is actually a part of the process these leaves underwent. A part of the interview with the farmer, Chen Biyi, from the website: “It is because a longer time of spontaneous fermentation before fixation. The sour flavor comes out naturally after the long time of tossing and oxidation, often in three days.”

In infusions five, six, and seven, the sourness becomes a part of the background, staying more under the tongue and allowing me to enjoy the plant and floral notes.

How it differs from last time: It’s much less fruitier, and when I did taste fruit with this session, it was only a for a little and I did not pick out the same fruits (peach, banana, clementine – where??). Presently, it was so much more plant-floral-like. I wonder why the sourness appears now but didn’t back then.

I liked drinking this. Good quality. But I was very new to oolong in general back when I had my first session. A dominating floral quality doesn’t strike me as “Wow yes love!!” – it’s alright. I now know that I am very much more into Taiwanese oolong.

Another free sample from Teavivre! :O
And this one…
This one is what I’ve been wanting.
It’s strong. Floral-y. Almost perfume-y.
This is the kind of tea for me.
Ladies and gents, we have a winner here! :D :D :D

The Leaf: Nice dark green with a marbling of light green throughout the leaves. Each leaf looks like it didn’t quite make it into a ball, being curled and twisted; very gnarly. No loose stems and the pile looks nice. The scent is light, but typical of a less oxidized oolong; very sweet, flowery, and fruity.

The Brew: The liquor is very light green; almost white in appearance. The aroma is a bit unexpected, as well as the taste. Both are slightly vegetal in character. The aroma is light, but slightly sweet, and almost has a note of lettuce to it. The taste is also very light, but has a green vegetable overtone. Very little hint of fruit or flower notes can be detected.

Note: While I found this tea interesting, I’ll admit that I didn’t find myself enjoying it. I felt more preoccupied with trying to figure out what I was drinking.

I drink all of my teas cold.

Thank you as always for the samples, Teavivre! I’m excited to try this one! The fragrance of the leaves are intoxicating but tough to describe – they smell like a Spring garden! A dozen types of flowers. Teavivre suggests 8 grams of leaves for 17 ounces of water at boiling with 1,2,3,4 minute steep times. (Not sure if I should have rinsed the leaves.) I used 1 1/3 or 1 1/2 teaspoons for a 10-11 ounce mug.

Steep #1 // 10 minutes after boiling // 2 min steep
The flavor is close to the fragrance – it doesn’t really have a distinctive oolong flavor that presents itself. To me, oolong is usually milk/butter, peach, floral, or grassy. This one seems to have hints of all of these things. I think I like it better when the oolong chooses to be one of those things, but this is tasty anyway. The flowers are first, tiny hint of peach, then there is a butteriness that lingers. One thing this cup isn’t is grassy. It does have a tanginess to the flavor I don’t like, but I’m sure it will get better with the second cup.

Steep #2 // 10 mins after boiling // 3 min steep
The flavor of this cup is very close to the first cup. There seems to be more butteriness but there is also more of the tanginess. I wish this tea were smoother, but it dries the mouth. There is another fruit flavor to this cup – I’m not sure what it is, but it isn’t exactly peach, maybe pineapple.

Steep #3 // just boiled // 3 min
Surprisingly, even with a hotter temp and time, the tanginess of the leaves is completely gone. That makes me think these leaves are just now getting even better than before, which means there are probably many more delicious cups possible with the same leaves. This cup is pure sweet orchids. By the third cup, this is the perfect oolong. I just wish there wasn’t as much tanginess to get there. (The rating on this one is lowered a bit because of that.) So maybe a rinse would have helped with the first cup.