Autumn Reserve Tieguanyin (2015)

I used 5g/120ml with 95C water and added 3-5 seconds per each additional brewing.

I could taste orchid and honeysuckle with a hint of raspberry and melon.

The first sip of the first brewing had a light, sweet taste like snap peas or sweet grass.. Melon, raspberries, raspberry, lilac, honeysuckle, orchid, jasmine, and cream being the tastes lingered all over my tongue in the after taste. The liquor was buttery smooth and had a very long finish.

In the aroma of the second cup I could pick up on marzipan and cream mingled in with the floral notes. The flavor of the liquor was now explosive. Strawberries, sweet grass, and jasmine glided over my tongue. In the aftertaste, the jasmine was the strongest by far, lingering on the back of my pallet.

I found that raspberries had the strongest aroma for the third cup. There wasn’t a whole lot of flavor aside from the sweetgrass, but the liquor was even lighter and had become more buttery than the first cup. Jasmine remained the main flavor in the aftertaste, but it mingled with raspberry.

In the fifth cup the liquor began to become astringent but it wasn’t unpleasant. I could taste jasmine and melon at the back of my tongue mingled in with the sweetgrass. In the aftertaste it was a mixture of jasmine and raspberries once again. There was cream as well. I almost didn’t notice it.

In the 6th I primarily smelt sweetgrass with a tiny hint of raspberry. The astringency from the 5th brewing was gone. The mouthfeel was very silky now, still very full but no longer buttery. I mostly tasted sweetgrass and watercress (without the raddish-y part of watercress) in the liquor and aftertaste. At the sides of the back of my tongue and two spots on the center of my pallet I could taste melon and blueberry. I hadn’t tasted blueberry yet so that came as a surprise. Raspberry and cream was still present, but it was very hard to detect.

The tea more or less flatlined from here on out.

This is the last of the oolong reviews I will be posting this weekend. I’m just about caught up on my backlog of reviews for the time being, though I still have one more oolong to review. I’ll probably get to it tomorrow before I start a new round of teas. This particular Tieguanyin differs from Verdant’s others in that it is picked from older bushes.

For the purposes of this review, I brewed this tea using the gongfu method outlined on Verdant’s website. I placed approximately 7 g of loose tea leaves in my small utility gaiwan and steeped them in 208 F water. The initial infusion following the rinse was 10 seconds. Subsequent infusions were 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, and 30 seconds for a total of 11 infusions.

The initial infusion was interesting. I was expecting something super creamy and floral, but this infusion was savory. I detected aromas of minerals, butter, cream, honey, hay, grass, and herbs. In the mouth, I picked up a rush of mineral, butter, cream, custard, honey, grass, hay, ginseng, and sesame notes underscored by a trace of floral flavor. Subsequent infusions saw the floral notes (orchid, lilac, violet, saffron) emerge a little more fully and the mineral, grass, hay, and herbal notes subside. Later infusions saw the emergence of stronger cream, butter, custard, grass, hay, herbal, and vegetal aromas and flavors. On the final 3 infusions, the vegetal and grassy notes dominated and were underscored by butter, cream, and mineral aromas and flavors.

At first, I was worried that I had waited too long on this one and that it had started to turn, but my fears quickly subsided. This is an extremely deep, refined Tieguanyin with an interesting and challenging combination of aromas and flavors. I rather like it, though I do tend to prefer the more robustly flavored regular Tieguanyins offered by Verdant. I would recommend this tea to oolong fans, though I would recommend it with the caveat that it will likely not be for everyone. In other words, this is good, but just don’t expect something super accessible.

I dislike revising teas with the concept of high grade, reserve, or special in the name… but, anyways: Upon the first brew I was excited to see a clear color in the liquid. There wasn’t t strong yellow that leads me to believe it’ll bite my tongue with a little sour taste with the floral notes. After six brews I was happy with my purchase of this and actually think it’s worth buying more of. Sadly most tgy is too strong and taste processed, which has lead me to Dayuling and Dancong. This and the 15 year have been wonderful, even when others were not so good; Verdant may not be a hit or miss as I realize I’m becoming spoiled in what I am drinking.
I blame myself for trying all the more expensive stuff I can!