Hand Picked Spring Tieguanyin (2012)

So hard to explain a difference between green and oolong tea to normal ppl… TGY is probably one of the closest to greens in taste of Oolong family but still very much different. Which I am reminded of every time I drink good TGY like this one. No astringency, very round and buttery taste (although not as buttery as Autumn ’11 harvest) strong, developed foreground. Although I ’m more of a “black” person, a cup or two of this TGY is always good idea.

Just picked some of this up last weekend, and it’s just what I needed. The perfect way to relax and just be. The taste is light and fresh, a little sweet. One of the best teas out there.

Brewed per @VerdantTea instructions. Very pale yellow liquor. Big sweet cream aroma. Bordering on warming cream/milk in a saucepan. Reminds me of English custard. Some fruit notes. The flavor is a bit strange as the aromas are also present as flavors. So I almost forget I’m drinking a tea, and I expect a thicker mouthfeel. The tea however has a wonderful texture. Very smooth. Nice floral notes. The aftertaste is drying on the front of the tongue but has a lingering sweetness on the back.

*Thanks to Krystaleyn for letting me know I posted the note on the wrong page. same note as earlier just moved to 2012’s spring pick page.

===========

While I did say I would be taking a break from detailed notes, I just had to properly review this tea. So here it is, Spring 2012 Tie Guan Yin!

>Dry Leaf Appearance/Aroma
Tightly curled up jade leaves. Smaller in size than most TKY’s I’ve had (consistent with autumn 2011 pick). The dry leaf was very aromatic. Even a single leaf gave a delightful floral fragrance.

>Brewing Method
Gongfu style using a small 6 oz Yixing pot dedicated for Tie Guan Yin only. Using freshly boiled water and short steep time as recommended by Verdant tea (3-6 secs).

>Liquid Appearance
Clear bright golden green.

>Taste/Aroma
My first two cups were delicious. Sugary sweet, floral, and with a nice floral aftertaste that originated from the back of my throat. While the dry leaf was very aromatic, the liquid was not as strong but noticeable when drinking the tea.

On the third cup, the tea became deliciously creamy, with a silky smooth texture that felt very nicely filling your mouth. All this while retaining its sweet floral taste. I noticed this “thicker texture” was more noticeable when the tea was hot, not so much when it cooled off. The fourth cup remained mostly the same. The aftertaste of this tea haunts me as I boil more water, as if my mouth is telling me “more, more, more!”

Surprisingly by the 5th cup, the creaminess is completely gone, but basic taste remains there. I do notice a slight “green” hint but not too bothersome. The 6th cup required a longer brew time, as flavor was getting weaker. Tea was lighter in taste, but still very good.

By the 7th cup, there was no aroma, but the tea was still very tasty retaining its slight sugary sweetness. While I’m certain this tea can take more than 7 infusions, I ended my session there as it is too much tea for me to drink in one sitting.

>Wet Leaf Appearance
I was a little surprised here. The tea contained many broken and damaged leaves, lots of small pieces, and quite a few stems (even found a 3 inch one). Unbroken leaves ranged from really tiny ones to very large ones.

>Overall
This tea was truly a journey. While I only re-steeped the tea 7 times, that was more than enough to convince me of the quality of this TKY. Comparing it to Autumn’s pick I’d say this is truly a better offering. It is very tasty(sugary sweet and floral), creamy, and with a truly haunting aftertaste (something I found lacking in Autumn’s 2011 pick). I did notice that Spring’s 2012 pick was a bit weak on the aroma of the brew, but the amazing taste made up for it. Definitely a must try if you love Ti Kuan Yin!

This tea has really grown on me and has developed into one of my favorite teas. Every time a new shipment becomes available, you can count me in for an order. Fortunately I was able to grab some of the last of the Spring edition about two weeks ago before it sold out.

Hello again – my inability to afford any tea at all for the past year has kept me from making new tasting notes on Steepster, but I’ve finally to a point where I can have a small tea budget of my very own. My first move was to place an order with Verdant tea, and I was gloriously excited to get the package in the mail, full of autumn-looking brown paper bags and well-typed instructions.

However, I have to say that I’m a bit disappointed with the teas I’ve tried so far. The suggested brewing method (3-4g for 2-3 seconds) yields tea so weak that the phrase ’Lamb’s Water’ (from Life after Life by Kate Atkinson) keeps coming to mind. I don’t necessary need tea so strong I could ‘stand a spoon in it’, but I do like a bit of bitterness, astringency, and other flavors to really hit my palate from the start.

For all of you who are smitten by Verdant – what would you suggest? Should I try a different brewing method, or am I simply a hopelessly unsophisticated tea drinker?

excuisite, refined, elegant aroma.
super smooth, vanilla rice pudding quality.
gentle with no green harshness or grassyness.
good steeping endurance.

Spot of nice Oolong!
well, I’m okay with being the second to review this tea, or taking a second to drink this tea. Either way, when I finished drinking yummy tea, after my workout this morning, I think of spring, the oolong leaves left in the tea-pot, they fall, as I had fallen, falling to taste, so serendipity the tagging along for the ride where the road becoming, flat and broad, like holly, or rose-leafs or phosphorescent teal like ocean. Then I swam to the beige shores of the boring beige living room, and stared into the empty cup. Here I recollected the leafs and tried out the si fang cai if only a whisp of a vanished dream on a twisted shoreline, an oolong which I’m honored to be able to review, thanks to David Duckler at Verdant Teas. Today, I spoke to My twin brother and I had a chance to drink something like this in the international part of seattle, for a levitified brief moment. I wouldn’t normally be bothered to brew the tea up, again and upon to ten times think it’d go gan, but I’m thinking this morning I brewed two-hundred cups of it, yeah one or two cups of bean-water later, ready for the roasted oolong, that’s also phenom, and yummier. thanks steepsters. y’all

Man have I been going through the oolongs lately… I finished off my davidstea vanilla orchid and am almost done with this one, too. I’ve also been eating a strange amount of chocolate… just when I was about to admit to everyone that I’m not really a huge fan of chocolate anymore, I started going through it like crazy. (Maybe I’ll actually eat through my backlog. Who knows, anything could happen…)

The flavors of the tea are getting overshadowed by the citrus and pink pepper chocolate this morning, but they complement each other nicely, I think. (Hmm, there’s gotta be a floral-citrus-pepper tea blend out there, right?)