Hand Picked Tieguanyin Spring Oolong (2011)

Congratulations!! I hope the journey is exciting and fulfilling.

That is awesome!!! Congratulations!

congrats and enjoy each step and each cup along the way

Thanks

Excellent to hear, Charles! Cheers!

Cheers!

That’s great news!!

Thanks everyone!!!

Good luck!

Thanks Grace. I have not been on Steepster much due to a change in my schedule

Great tea!

very very good
thanks

I am back to work. I have been training and going through orientation at Revel {I am not authorized to say this} LOL. They are allowing us to have a beverage with us in a cup with a lid to take to the meetings and I have been taking this along

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14 days ago
I am back to work. I have been training and going through orientation
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Oo.. you still have some of last spring left? I’ve got basically two sessions that saved through the winter. Now that the new stuff is in, I guess I don’t have a reason to hoard anymore. I will have to compare with your one-year-later experience!

Yup… just about another session left, I think, and then I’m out. I want to try the new stuff but I still have a fair amount of the autumn harvest to work though too!

You inspired me! I’m drinking autumn right now, but I think I favour the 2011 spring picking over the autumn :)

I need to try the autumn gong fu! I like them both so much.

This one is a def. favorite! Glad you liked it too…must reorder soon.

Great review. “it almost tastes like a cream filled pastry!” How amazing is that!

Definitely an amazing Tieguanyin! It has a freshness of flavors, and the floral qualities in the first few steeps are well balanced and transform nicely to the fruity creaminess in later steepings. Thanks for sharing your great reviews… :)

Just got a sample of this with my recent Verdant order! :)

Thanks for the update. I’ll had this to my verdant order. Not a huge Oolong drinker, but this one sounds special. I would hate to think that people would actually numerically rate a tea without trying it, but I’ve noticed a lot of shenanigans going on with people giving over the top ratings to companies they like and inexplicably and uniformly low ratings to other tea companies.

Well- hopefully I’m just being a negative Nancy. It’s also possible that there were one or two people who tried the tea somewhere, hated it inexplicably, and then gave it super low ratings without sharing their experiences. Still, that’s a sad thing to do regardless, especially because their explanation might be a useful example of how not to brew the tea, etc..

Oh well, oh well. The important thing is: I love this tea, and I’ve still got a bunch of it left!

On a side note, I’ll be in the Minneapolis area at least a few times a year for the next few years. Are there any good tea houses or tea shops in the area. You mentioned that Verdant does some tastings?

one would think that the quality of the reveiws would be more useful than the abreviation of a numerical notation….I realize its a lot to ask for people to read descriptions, but I think they are such a better way to get a sense of the palate and the drinker…the numbers after all are on an sliding scale that is not annotated…

Enlighten me please, because I am confused. Why do you automatically assume that the lower ratings were entered by someone who hadn’t tried the tea? Maybe they just didn’t like it as much as you do…?

@ Kashyap – You are of course correct. Especially if they’re reading your descriptions; you’ve got some really excellent ones! It also helps to get context for notes and ratings by reading the checking out people’s profiles and getting a sense for how they rate things. You don’t give out high ratings lightly, and others don’t like to give anything they liked below a 92.

@ Angrboda – You’re definitely right. The assumption was probably one part protective mama-bear reaction, and seven parts posting-too-far-past-1am. I had just left a tasting note for the TGY a few days ago, and had found it quite conveniently on the first page of teas. When I went to log my note yesterday night/morning, I was confused to not see it again where it had been on the front page for so long, and instead found it through my previous notes. When I noticed that the rating had changed, I assumed someone must have rated it low, and I looked for the rating with curiosity but found nothing. In my sleepy logic, I decided that someone whose experience was so different from the others would definitely have left a note of warning or to protest. Not seeing a note, I leapt to the idea of sabotage.
Hopefully it isn’t so! I really wish there had been a note. If a TGY lover tries this tea and doesn’t like it, I would love to go and read the rest of their logs to find the oolongs they rate highly. If this is just ho hum for them, I’ve got to see their recommendations and try some for myself!

@ Triumph – There are two or three tea houses in the Twin Cities; I will send a private note this evening with details. As for Verdant’s tastings, they happen at my local teahouse (Infinitea) and also around at some art galleries, studios and events. I usually find out about them because I’m on the mailing list or via Verdant’s facebook page.

Yeah, late nights can definitely mess with one’s thought processes and leaps of logic. :) I have been known to make some interesting conclusions once about the anniversary of something or other (I’ve forgotten all the details) by way of some really creative maths… :)
If it had me and the beloved Tan Yang Te Ji (♥), I can’t guarantee I wouldn’t have come to the same conclusion that you did with this one.
Some people just don’t bother with the notes, it seems. I think it would have been nice if those ratings were not anonymous, but I suppose we can’t have everything.

Oh, I am so excited to try this!!!!

Hey,
I just edited this tasting note to link to the new Tieguanyin. Same farm, same family. I am absolutely loving it. You can see my full tasting note on the new product page along with a preview picture. I think that this family will continue to produce teas that make me rethink what camellia sinensis can be.

Awesome! I can’t wait to try this. Thanks David!

just read the tasting notes on your site….definitly has my curiousity aroused….now to return to normal and get my full senses back from the cold I’ve been fighting…nothing like a war with internal invaders to bring back your sense of smell full force…lovely newly born taste buds

I look forward to trying it….

I just ordered 4 ounces. Maybe I should of got a pound.

:) I hope you enjoy it!

After reading the many glowing reviews I had to have it. I was impressed when I sent a message requesting a sample of the Big Red Robe and they actually replied. Two messages to Harneys went unanswered. So, to show my appreciation I ordered 2 oz of the Sundried Jing Shan which you also raved about….

Oh yes – that was a goodie, too! Verdant is a great Customer Service type company! The owner views steepster quite a bit! Neat guy! LOVE his stories and descriptions! He is surely one of the top tea educators in my book! Super nice!!!! VERY Knowledgeable!

Charles: I am horrified to hear the Harney and Sons didn’t reply! that has never happened to me. They have been in the process of starting up a whole new website for a while and have been fixing the bugs so that may have been part of the problem. I was a sort of beta tester for the new site and I did find a thing or two still not working just yesterday.

@ ashmanra, also there was a charge of 400.00 to my credit card the same night that I placed an order with them. I would say that it is’nt secure. Thankfully my credit card new it was fraud….

YAY for snow days that mean Pajamas and tea!

Aww, I hope you make it to your family! Good luck braving the storm!

It’s not a real snow day as I still have to work. :) But it’s a lot more informal for sure.
Charoma, I hope I get to them too. It’s my favorite holiday. :(

I know exactly what you’re talking about when you say you’ve smelled this before, in the evening.

Earlier this year, towards the end of spring, I stepped out the back of my apartment. It’s was cool but the air was thick. Down the street, there are some huge lilac bushes, and they were blooming. The grass had just been cut, and it had rained a few hours earlier (water still on the ground).
I inhaled, and the smell was this Tieguanyin. It didn’t remind me of the tea; it actually was the smell of the tea.
This experience probably happened to me four more times. Were there lilac bushes near summer camp or college?

As for the gaiwan: I have really small hands (seriously.. my pinky nail looks like it belongs to a toddler with thin fingers), so I also often have trouble pouring. I practiced with just plain cool water until I was confident with tilting the lid in just the right way and mastering the pouring motion without dropping the gaiwan. I also used a much thicker one to start off with than I use now.
Then I burned my fingers a few times… which helps, actually. Generally, I’ve found that the faster I pour, the easier it is. If I let the water sit in the gaiwan too long, it’s actually heating the ceramic of the gaiwan towards 201degrees! Definitely not fun to handle.

Hope you keep having fun with your gaiwan!

Thanks Spoonvonstup, I just found your comment. It’s entirely possible there were lilacs at college (it was a small campus in a residential neighborhood, and I was still there in early June every year) but not at camp, as I was only there after the lilacs had bloomed and gone!

Thanks also for your ideas of how to get more used to the gaiwan. I haven’t done any substantial gaiwan activity since the first time I tried this tea. Sounds to me like if you can do it, I can too! I will take your advice and practice with cool water until I’m more confident with pouring. My gaiwan is glass, which may even heat up quicker than your ceramic one, so I don’t know if the fast pour will help, but it’s worth a try.

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Cara Mengobati Polip Hidung Tanpa Operasi
Pantangan Makanan Bagi Penderita Penyakit Jantung

Cara Mengatasi Lambung Perih

Obat kanker Kelenjar Getah Bening Atau Limfoma

Cara Mengatasi Menorrhagia atau Haid Berlebih
Obat Herbal Angin Duduk yang Ampuh dan Tanpa Efeksamping
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The above three comments are from someone trying to sell herbal remedies, but not smart enough to include any actual active links. Steepster has let the “report anything inappropriate” link below expire, and I can only delete my own comments, not others’ on my post, so there is nothing I can do about it. Still think the Internet is perfect?

Wow!
This makes my whole day. Thank you for sharing this tasting experience. Nothing makes me happier than hearing that tea culture is being shared. it looks like you have had a profound cultural impact on your friend, and I am honored to have had a small part in connecting you to the farmers and artisans that make that possible.

On a side note, I got word today that the autumn Tieguanyin harvest is the best in years, meaning that the next shipment to replace the spring tea should live up to its predecesor.

Very good choice on teas by the way- I always pull out the Tieguanyin first to new tea drinkers. It is such an inviting tea that can focus people onto flavors and smells and prepare them for something like the Xingyang 1998.

this is a beautiful tribute to an amazing tea and a awe inspiring way to celebrate the sharing and illuminating social nature of what a cup of tea can bring…a wonderful way to praise verdant teas offerings and David Duckler’s kind heart and gifts….I wish each tea review was such a way of bridging the way we celebrate our lives in the cast reflections on a cup of tea and within the core of a sharing community

What a great review! Thank you very much for sharing. I also always feel like the TGY (and most other teas) are almost always better when I am sharing them with someone else. And that’s the way it really should be. Looking forward to hearing what you think of the Xingyang!

@David: Thanks for this note, and for making the tea available! I’m happy that the story made your day. I’m looking forward to this Autumn Tieguanyin you mention. Cheers!

@Kashyap: I appreciate your kind words. I had described this kind of sharing with tea as “a great fulcrum for friendship”, when my mentioned friend and I were drinking.

@Spoonvonstup: Indeed! I think drinking with a friend is the way to go. For me it seems to be so much easier to make liminal time and space for deep and attentive appreciation of the tea when sharing it with good company. Just posted my note on the Xingyang. I quite enjoyed what you had to say about that one, and totally agree with your assessment of it! Hope to see you again at the next Verdant tasting.

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Oh man, after several infusions the leaves smell like SWEET PEAS. Childhood fave!

That sounds marvelous. I love love the scent of sweet peas.