Autumn Tieguanyin (2016)

I know I mentioned reviewing another aged Tieguanyin before I left for my work retreat, but when I saw the sample of this jade Tieguanyin in my tea stash, I just had to have it. I haven’t reviewed many jade Tieguanyins lately, but I do recall being absolutely smitten with Master Zhang’s 2015 Autumn Tieguanyin. I just had to see how this year’s harvest compared.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 5 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 208 F water for 10 seconds. This infusion was chased by 12 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted pleasant aromas of vanilla, sweetgrass, and fresh flowers. After the rinse, I caught clearer aromas of lilac, violet, saffron, hyacinth, and honeysuckle. There were also scents of butter and cream. The first infusion again emphasized a blend of savory and floral qualities on the nose, though I was able to catch an emerging vegetal quality as well. In the mouth, there were gentle notes of butter, cream, vanilla, watercress, and sweetgrass chased by a hint of flowers. Subsequent infusions allowed the floral notes to express themselves a little more fully on the palate, while subtle tangerine, parsley, and mineral notes began to make themselves known both on the nose and in the mouth. The later infusions were mostly dominated by sweetgrass, watercress, butter, parsley, and minerals underscored by cream, vanilla, citrus, and faint floral impressions.

This was another nice jade Tieguanyin from Master Zhang. Compared to the previous autumn’s offering, I found this tea to be thinner and slicker in the mouth. I also found it to be a little grassier and more vegetal overall. Of the two, I prefer the 2015 version, but this was still a worthwhile tea in my opinion. I think fans of jade Tieguanyin would enjoy it.

5g, 170ml Gaiwan, 95C, 30s + 10s per add’l steep

This is a nice, straightforward Tie Guan Yin — leading with a strong aroma of rose petals, paper, a little bit of grass or vegetal brothy aromas, the initial steeps have a round mouthfeel without a lot of the flavors that the aromas promise. In the third and subsequent steeps the flavor starts to open up and this tea starts to show up more floral, round, notes with a little butter and just a hint of astringency on the backend. The aftertaste isn’t terribly long, and it’s quite pleasant.

Overall, a strong showing.

Less-floral than some of this variety, this is a pretty straight-forward Tieguanyin. Light florality in the nose. Faint sweetness, very mild vegetal and mineral notes.

We brewed this western style in small pot (5 grams to 450 ML water at 190F).

This is a good everyday, Tieguanyin. Not overly complex, none of the flavors predominate.