Anxi Ti Kuan Yin (Iron Goddess)

Summer Vacation! I’m starting in on some of my Chinese teas, and since I have quite a lot in my collection will no doubt not get to sampling all of them during the few weeks this month I’ve dedicated to this task, but at least I’ll manage to get to some of them that I’ve yet to try. I’m really tired tonight though (drinking all these blacks in the evening after work is really getting to me) so I’m going for an oolong tonight. And I actually have never tried a TGY yet, even though oolongs are my favorite kind of tea. This one came from the Here’s Hoping Teabox, so thanks to tea-sipper for organizing and whoever contributed this!

I burnt the roof of my mouth on my soup with dinner earlier, which will no doubt be effecting my palate tonight. While I do enjoy trying oolongs gong fu style, I simply don’t have the energy tonight (nor any desire for that much tea), so I made a single 400ml cuppa tea western brewed. The dry leaf smells very grassy, but the brewed cup has the buttery floral aroma I’m used to from milk oolong, so I’m fairly sure I’ll enjoy this. The flavor is very floral, with a strong lilac/orchid taste, with a slightly grassy vegetal finish and some very subtle notes of fennel and nuts in the aftertaste.

It’s nice. Would probably be nicer if my mouth wasn’t so numb, and I have no doubt fresher varietals are even better, but since this is my first time trying it, I really have no benchmark here.

Here’s Hoping Teabox – Round Seven- Tea #41
A tasty oolong! I probably wasn’t paying attention to the steeping to get this one perfect, but the result was pretty tasty anyway. Iron Goddess oolongs are usually my favorite anyway. These notes are terrible. Am I getting teabox burnout? It has been canceled due to lack of interest, so maybe that is a good thing for me, in a way. I did the math and I probably drink about 1,460 full mugs of tea a year so it’s probably not just burnout from the teabox. These poor teas deserve more attention and better tasting notes from me! I’m still enjoying tea though, but probably not paying enough attention to steeping.

I received this as a free sample from The Teaguy; thank you for sending it!

I tried this one a while back, so the notes I provide are from that session. The leaves of this TGY are tightly rolled—as anticipated—with hints of green and a sweet aroma. The liquor pours light gold, and sweet notes dominate the first steep. The following steeps taste—surprisingly—a bit roasty in nature, and I never pick up on the distinct florals I was expecting, especially with this being a greener TGY. After they expand, I do notice that the leaves seem a bit more broken and thin than I am accustomed to.

This was not quite up my alley for an oolong, but I will be testing it out some more. I didn’t really get any of the notes other people seemed to get out of this, so I may not have steeped it well. And considering the sweetness in the first steep, I could see this having other flavors to offer as well as doing well western style or cold steeped, both of which I may try out. Regardless of the outcome of my first session, I can say that this is a decently priced option for exploring a greener TGY oolong for someone not ready to jump into top tier options yet.

Mild and with a slightly creamy mouthfeel, light florals and grass notes. It’s a nice green oolong. Thanks for the chance to try, The Teaguy!

I’m not the biggest fan of highly green Tie Guan Yin, or greener oolongs in general, so I was slightly worried when I saw this among the samples sent to me by The Teaguy. However, I found that I enjoyed this one much more than I expected too.

Instead of harshly floral and grassy and green, this one is mild, nutty, and “warm”. It is somewhat grassy, and has a floral note that I’d compare to gardenias, but neither of these aspects are overpowering. It has a nice aroma that lingers in the mouth long after sipping. It’s a very mellow and enjoyable brew with a light honey-like sweetness.

I would not say that this is a top tier TGY, but it’s quite nice and priced very reasonably.

I started this off by rinsing my duanni yixing with hot water, then putting the leaves in and taking the aroma, I got a wonderful floral and fruity aroma that is often associated with Tie Kuan Yin, after giving it a quick rinse to get the leaves to open up. I noticed there was almost no dust or particulate which is usually a sign of a higher grade oolong.

First infusion gave me a very pale light honey colored liquor, and a bright floral aroma. The leaves havent fully opened up yet at this point, so the liquor was very light, with a nice refreshing mouthfeel. I usually dont second rinse Tie Kuan Yin even though you can to get to the good infusions quicker, I find that is just throwing away very drinkable tea.

The second infusion was slightly darker, with a creamier feel, a stronger fruity and floral aroma and taste. A slight nutty and grass flavor also peeks in at this point, there is also a very tiny tingle on the tongue. It was still very clear honey color and had a nice clean finish.

The third infusion was slightly darker still but still very clear. Also the aromas and flavors intensified a little as well as having just a slight lingering taste on the tongue. The third infusion is usually considered the best for Oolongs as the leaves have fully opened at this point and the most water is in contact with the tea and it still has a lot of flavor to give at this point.

At this point I opened the yixing and took a few of the leaves out for examination and it was good medium sized leaves with just that slight darkening at the edges which is what should be there with light oolongs as the only oxidation is from the rolling. Whole leaves with very few stems.

Fourth infusion was just slightly weaker than the first, and was still producing a nice colored liqour with good mouthfeel, I think this will steep out very nicely for 4 or 5 more infusions.

I highly recommend this tea for people who like light refreshing clean oolongs with that lightly fruity and floral aroma and flavor.