Spring Reserve Tieguanyin (2016)

Hey okay so we’re drinking some spring 2016 reserve tieguanyin today,
There’s a very typical green, bright, acidic aroma in the dry leaf,
I’m brewing at 98C
With the leaves in my warmed gaiwan, I get lots of lovely hazelnut, peanut buttery, cinnamon, and lots of woody notes. I’m excited for this one,
I gave it a 5 second rinse, and the aroma lifted into a bit of a greener smell, still peanuts and hazelnuts, but there’s also some walnuttiness, and the lightness, but then there’s some vague greens in the back.
mmmmmmh wow, it has all of the flavours that were in the aroma, plus like plums and creaminess.
This is seriously good tieguanyin, it’s so smooth and thick and satisfying. The second steep gave me more nuttiness, carrots, and blackberries
Further into the session, the tea has developed a sort of tonic-water feeling in the mouth, much of the same aromas, but there’s more berries than nuts now. It develops a sort of unpleasant grassiness around the 6th or 7th steep that slowly increases taking over the nuttiness and fruitiness until it’s not that enjoyable anymore. It still lasted quite long, I got 8 or 9 good ones. I wholeheartedly recommend this one.

This is a review I have been sitting on for over a week now. I held off posting this as long as I did because I really wasn’t sure what numerical rating I felt like giving this tea. I received a sample of it as part of a recent order, thus I did not have the opportunity to try this tea more than once over the span of a few days in order to solidify my opinion of it. Ultimately, I guess I kind of feel like this is a couple steps above the 2016 Spring Tieguanyin, a tea for which I really did not care.

I prepared this tea according to the gongfu guide on Verdant Tea’s website. I had to adjust the amount of tea I used since I only had a 5 g sample of this tea and tend to use a smaller gaiwan for my review sessions. After a quick rinse, I steeped 5 g of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 208 F water for 10 seconds. This was followed by 8 additional infusions, with an increase of 2 seconds per infusion. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, and 26 seconds. Again, I know that Verdant suggests attempting to get at least 10-12 infusions out of green Tieguanyins, but I rarely push them that far or that hard, preferring instead to cut off my sessions when it feels right for me to do so.

The aroma of the rinsed leaves was simply incredible. The gaiwan was bursting with hyacinth, gardenia, saffron, vanilla, lilac, jasmine, violet, orchid, honeysuckle, osmanthus, butter, and cream aromas. The first infusion had a similarly powerful nose and presented slightly grassy and lightly vegetal notes underscoring more powerful flavors of lilac, cream, butter, hyacinth, vanilla, violet, orchid, honeysuckle, jasmine, saffron, and osmanthus. Infusions 2-5 continued to emphasize similarly strong savory and floral aromas and flavors, though notes of minerals, sweetgrass, and leaf lettuce began to emerge more fully. The later infusions were more delicate, with pronounced mineral and vegetal aromas and flavors underpinned by subtle cream, butter, and floral aromas and flavors.

Overall, this is not a bad Tieguanyin by any means. I know that I have said it before, but I am always a little bit irritated by labels like “reserve” being applied to teas, but I can kind of see why a label like that would be placed on a tea like this. Compared to the regular 2016 Spring Tieguanyin, which I found to be bland and two-dimensional, this tea is much more complex and displays greater depth. Still, it is not the best Tieguanyin I have ever had. For what it is though, it is pretty decent. I could see people who are fans of heavily floral contemporary oolongs liking this one.

Very fresh, beachy grass smell. Smells like my great grandmother’s garden at the beach. Very fresh and clean smell. Slightly aromatic while steeping, a bit like fresh seaweed and hints of freshly cut wood. Definitely smells like a reserve tea and is very floral.

First steep was for 1:30 minutes @ 195F, with 5 grams for 8 ounces. The best first impression I have is that it tastes very uniform. Is very fresh tasting and clean. Has a perfect mouth feel and does not leave any odd textures in your mouth, perfectly wetting. 1:30 minutes is definitely the way to go. It tastes very green, yet is still distinctly an oolong tea. Amazing high end tea, where every sip is better than the last.

Second steep was for 1:45 minutes. The tea noticeably smells more like a classic oolong tea. The taste is just a more mild version of the first steep, with the same mouth feel. However, the first steep is definitely the best by far. Still very good. Third steep is doable, but would not recommend a fourth.