Autumn Tieguanyin (2015)

Brewed Gongfu style.

Flavors and aromas in order of appearance: pea sprouts, butter, gardenia (very predominant and lasting in the nose), slight hints of saffron, cream, fresh grass, mild astringency and increasing florality after 2nd infusion. General evolution from creamy to vegetal.

I followed Verdant’s gong fu recommendations, but using only 5g reduced the water to 4oz (instead of 7g, 7 oz). Steeps of 10 seconds increasing by 2 seconds per infusion.

This is a very drinkable tea, mild, the infusions evolve but not dramatically. The gardenia in the nose is very predominant. Good if you like light cream with floral flavors.

This tea is too floral for my everyday drinking, but it has an interesting and at times delightful flavor profile.

The leaves vary in appearance, but overall look lightly oxidized and mottled.
Dry this tea smells floral, and when wet it smells like bread.

It is a thin tea that’s slightly mineraley, and a bit floral, but overall is quite bland. Even when using 5 grams of leaf to a small amount of water with a long steep the flavors are still subtle and difficult to distinguish.

And, once again, I’ve been defaulting to favourites whilst I’ve been busy and not having quite as much time to try new things. I’ll always love Verdant’s Autumn Tieguanyin, and the 2015 harvest was no exception. It’s freshing, floral, and ever-so-gently buttery – just perfect. I can’t really fault it, and wouldn’t really want to.

I used 5g/60ml, 100C water, washed twice, five seconds for the first brew and an additional 3-5 seconds for each additional brewing.

The aroma is very floral, like that of jasmine and saffron. The liquor is very buttery and smooth. The first cup tasted like jasmine, vanilla, and cream. It’s greenness reminded me of Wakayanagi. In the aftertaste there was elderberry, raspberry, melon, and vanilla.

The second cup the aroma of orchid and saffron was very strong, but not overpowering. The liquor still reminded me of a bancha like wakayanagi, with hay and watercress, minus the radish-y part of watercress’s flavor profile and not astringency.

The third was more or less the same but with an even more buttery mouthfeel. In the aftertaste the sides of my tongue tasted like saffron while the back of my throat taste of elderberry and strawberry.

From here the flavor flat lines and begins to die while as light astringency appears. I did a total of 15 brewings with this. All of them past the third were basically weaker versions of each other. The liquor never became bitter and the astringency was never abrasive.

Nothing special, but very nice for the price.

For a key to my rating scale, check out my bio.

Representative of the modern, obnoxiously floral, green tieguanyins. Über-floral with a thick butter flavor – an overwhelming and slightly unpleasant combo. Not my thing, so I don’t recommend it, though this style is the most popular nowadays in China. I much prefer the traditional, darker roasted styles of tieguanyin – they’re much more complex and balanced. This modern green style just seems like its trying (and failing) to mimic the delicious light oolong styles from Taiwan.

I don’t know if this is a good thing or not, but I have been using my time off work to drink a ton of oolongs. I have been trying to clean out more space in my tea cabinet and was shocked to discover that the oolong shelf was overflowing. Moreover, I had a number of green oolongs that were still good, but needed to be consumed in order to get the most out of them. This is the one I decided to start with and I’m glad I got to it when I did. So far, it is the best oolong I have had this year.

I brewed this one gongfu. Yes, I am finally reviewing a tea that I brewed gongfu style. I steeped approximately 7-8 grams of tea leaves in 208 F water. I did not exactly follow Verdant’s gongfu brewing guidelines for this tea. Rather than increasing steep times by the recommended 2 seconds, I increased steep times by 5 seconds per infusion. No joke, I still got 12 good steepings out of this tea.

First Infusion: Prominent aromas of butter, cream, and flowers were present on the nose. In the mouth, I picked up robust notes of hay, grass, lettuce, bread, minerals, butter, cream, custard, lilac, jasmine, orchid, and saffron.

Second Infusion: Cream and flower aromas were heavy on the nose. I picked up big floral notes on the entry that were soon chased by mellow flavors of steamed buns, custard, butter, cream, minerals, and lettuce.

Third Infusion: Very creamy and savory on the nose with balanced floral aromatics. The flavor was savory up front, offering relatively robust notes of cream, steamed buns, butter, and custard. A nice balance of floral and vegetal notes rounded out the flavor.

Fourth Infusion: Again, very savory on the nose with lots of butter, cream, and custard. The floral aromas were starting to fade a tad at this point. In the mouth, there was still a nice mix of floral and savory flavors with vegetal and mineral notes on the finish.

Fifth Infusion: Savory aromas on the nose with slight floral aromas in the background. In the mouth, there was a pleasant balance of flowers, cream, and custard. The mineral notes were more pronounced on the back end compared to the fourth infusion, as were the vegetal notes. I also noted the return of grass and hay-like flavors on the finish.

Sixth Infusion: The aroma was very similar to the previous two infusions, as was the taste, though I noted that the grass, hay, and lettuce notes were slightly more pronounced here.

Seventh Infusion: Mild nose with subtle aromas of cream, custard, minerals, and flowers. Smooth, subtle notes of custard, cream, butter, lettuce, hay, grass, minerals, and flowers in the mouth.

Eighth Infusion: The nose was similar to the seventh infusion. In the mouth, I picked up smooth notes of hay, grass, butter, lettuce, and cream balanced by fleeting impressions of lilac, saffron, and jasmine.

Ninth Infusion: The nose was similar to the previous two infusions. The flavor profile emphasized lettuce, grass, hay, and minerals on the entry, while custard, cream, butter, and floral notes lingered in the background.

Tenth Infusion: Fleeting aromas of cream, lettuce, grass, hay, and flowers on the nose, with strong lettuce and mineral notes in the mouth underscored by flowers, cream, and butter.

Eleventh Infusion: Slightly creamy, floral nose with vegetal impressions. Lettuce, grass, and mineral notes dominated the entry, though fleeting impressions of cream and butter provided a semblance of balance.

Twelfth Infusion: The aroma was very similar to the previous infusion, as was the flavor, though everything was very muted except the mineral and lettuce notes. Even though I have a very sensitive palate, I decided to stop here as I expected that another infusion would not leave much of an impression.

Overall, I really like this oolong and was shocked that it has such a low overall score here on Steepster. I’ll concede that it may not be all that complex, but I feel that it presents subtle nuances in its flavor profile very well over the course of a long session. I respect and admire that.

Mineral and grassy. Smooth going down. I quite enjoy this one. Though I don’t quite find as many floral notes as I thought I would.

Sipdown (132)!

This sample comes from Kittenna and I believe this is the correct one? There are a few versions here on Steepster…

Brewed this up Gong Fu today; kind of a lazy Gong Fu though where I just poured infusions into a bigger pitcher, so the flavour notes of each infusion got all mixed up and what not. Personally, I didn’t find this one to be mind blowing or anything – pretty typical of a Tieguanyin, actually. It had that sort of sweet vegetal/grassy combo note in the forefront of the sip and characteristic floral and slightly fruity body/finish. The floral notes were kind of in line with lilies and orchids, and the fruit notes were peachy but in a way that was almost a touch under ripe?

Also, this had a mild roastiness to it that, in combination with the grassy/vegetal component, treaded the line of tasting like sort of crisper, crunchy Autumn leaves. It wasn’t quite there though. More so, I’d say it evoked a feeling of that cusp right where Summer is transitioning into Autumn and the green leaves on the trees are just starting to go orange. I really enjoyed that quality in today’s session.