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“I bought about an ounce of this on sale several months ago and just opened the bag. At the moment, I wish I had more — and can’t help but notice that it no longer appears on The Finest Brew’s...” Read full tasting note
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I bought about an ounce of this on sale several months ago and just opened the bag. At the moment, I wish I had more — and can’t help but notice that it no longer appears on The Finest Brew’s website.
This isn’t really my favorite type of oolong, but as oolongs go, it’s damn near perfect. The dry leaves smell like honey and mint, and this comes through in the steepings as well. There’s not even a hint of the bitterness that sometimes comes through in greener teas, and it isn’t making me nauseous. The tea soup is bright yellow and light. It’s slightly vegetal, but not in the overbearing way of something like, say, sencha or matcha. A bit floral and perfumey too, but not in a bad way. A great Spring tea, so I’m holding out hope that it comes back to company’s rotation.
I used a fair amount of leaf, but I’m not sure where my kitchen scale is. It’s about 2 tsp. (but doesn’t seem like much more than about 7/8 g.) for 200 ml. of water. After a 15 second rinse in the gaiwan, it got through 4 excellent steepings plus a couple of pretty good ones. This is fairly standard with most of the oolongs I like. Used 195 degree Fahreneheit water — any hotter may have brought out some bitterness.
The roast is very light .
Just like everything else I’ve tried from The Finest Brew, this one doesn’t disappoint. It really wasn’t what I expected from a tie guan yin, but nevertheless excellent.
Flavors: Floral, Honey, Mint, Perfume, Roasted, Sweet, Vegetal
Tie Guan Yin is apparently supposed to be more oxidized and heavier roasted than this. I’d like to try one of these more traditional tie guan yins if anyone has any good recommendations. I did like this, but I drink teas with heavier oxidation on a more regular basis, so… If you’ve seen or tried any out there, please let me know.
I am just getting more acquainted with various oolongs and their processing and characters, so I cannot offer any help on this yet.
I have subscribed to Verdant monthly tea box to gain a better understanding of straight teas, though not just oolongs. I like that each month you receive a box from a particular tea farmer with a selection of their offerings. Their site has a variety of tieguanyins that you might want to take a look at. They also have a $5 intro sampler, though not just oolongs, that you might want to check out.
Yeah, I got the sampler from them a while back, and still have some other samples on hand from them. I have thought about doing some various tea subscriptions, but ultimately don’t think they’re for me. I thought about the CSA I joined when I lived in Pennsylvania for a couple of years, and all those pounds of turnips I really didn’t want to use during the winter. Basically, I think I’d get a few too many turnips if I tried a subscription, so I don’t think they’d work for me.