China Fujian Anxi 'Tie Guan Yin' Oolong Tea

A decent TGY for a fair price, which is not easy to find at all. It has a medium body with a creamy, cooling mouthfeel. The taste is very vegetal, the dominant flavours being asparagus and parsley.

The aroma is more sweet and cookie-like than what I would normally expect from a TGY. There are notes of coconut macaroons, green apples, and sunflower oil before the rinse; and stewed vegetables afterwards.

Thanks so much for the sample, Kawaii433! These are just the sort of oolongs I love. Eastkyteaguy’s excellent recent tasting note inspired me to steep this one up. I will never be able to write tasting notes like you guys! The immense amount of specific flavors you can distinguish is impressive. I would have been writing them like that by NOW if I was ever going to be. My notes end up being mainly about if I liked it or not, which is really originally what I started out using Steepster for — Steepster was/is my “tea brain” that remembers if I like a tea or not.
Anyway, I LOVED this oolong. The deep green leaves are lovely. The flavor is so complex and I won’t do the tea any favors by trying to explain it. There is a creamy smooth element, sweet, orchids, osmanthus and fruity element that lingers after the sip and wisps around when I’m trying to figure out which specific fruits. Definitely pineapple early on, but possibly other fruits in the lingering flavor. Never bitter or astringent. I think the first mug was by FAR the best, so note to self: try to steep the next steep session at lower temps to see if I can get the other steeps like the first… maybe even steep it like a green. I have one steep session left of this lovely oolong. Overall, this has many elements I look for in a tasty oolong.
Steep #1 // 1 heaping teaspoon for a full mug // 20 minutes after boiling // rinse // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 13 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #3 // just boiled // 2 minute steep
Steep #4 // half mug just boiled // 3 min steep

Here is another oldie, coming to you likely from either late May or early June. Quite frankly, I have stopped even roughly dating my sipdowns in my review notebooks, so all of my notes are out of order. I just seem to vaguely recall finishing what I had of this tea around that time. Clearly, organized is one thing I am not. Anyway, I found this to be a quality Tieguanyin, and actually, I enjoyed it more than the premium offering from the same producer.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 8 seconds. This infusion was chased by 18 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 10 seconds, 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, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, and 20 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of lilac, gardenia, vanilla, orange blossom, baked bread, cream, and custard. After the rinse, I noted new aromas of butter, sweetgrass, honey, watercress, and coriander. The first infusion brought out aromas of violet, pastry, and orchid as well as somewhat more amplified sweetgrass, coriander, and watercress scents. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of sweetgrass, watercress, coriander, butter, cream, violet, baked bread, and pastry that were chased by pear, green apple, spinach, orange blossom, tangerine, honey, and sour apricot hints. The subsequent infusions introduced aromas of cinnamon, tangerine, sour apricot, and orange zest. Notes of cinnamon, orange zest, minerals, plum, lemon zest, sesame, white peach, and white grape appeared in the mouth alongside belatedly emerging custard, orchid, lilac, and gardenia notes and hints of vanilla and plum. I also noted more prevalent impressions of sour apricot, pear, green apple, spinach, and tangerine. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized notes of minerals, pear, sweetgrass, coriander, butter, orange zest, white grape, green apple, cream, and watercress that were backed by subtler, thinner notes of spinach, tangerine, sour apricot, sesame, honey, baked bread, and violet.

This was a ridiculously flavorful, satisfying Tieguanyin. While I also enjoyed the premium Changkeng Tieguanyin that What-Cha offered, I found this one to be deeper, livelier, more memorable, and more textured overall. I would definitely be willing to recommend it to fans of jade Tieguanyin.

Oh man, this tea has me wrecked. I’m not done with the session yet; I’m taking a break, fighting falling asleep because I have some schoolwork to catch up on since I didn’t go to any of my classes yesterday. Figured I’d write a note, hopefully allowing the passage of this sedative effect.

I had a few pieces of homemade spanakopita a while ago for lunch and it was a little tart from the feta and some ground dried lemon. A similarly tart tieguanyin seemed like a good follow-up.

Teapot time: 4.4g, 100mL, 200F, rinse plus 3 steeps so far at 40/30/40s

Dry leaf scent is lightly wheaty and vegetal. In the warmed leaf, delicate notes of fresh peas, soybean, cream, cucumber and grass come forward. Rinsing the leaf brings forward orchid, butter and sugarcane.

The first thing I notice is how non-nuclear green this tieguanyin is. Sure it’s green in flavor with notes of peas, soybean, grass and lettuce, but it’s a rounded, slightly creamy, delicate and dainty green. I’m also picking up on light butter and an orchid and daisy? overlay that becomes stronger on the exhale. Some osmanthus and peach in the aftertaste. The tieguanyin tart finish in the back of the mouth is present and never overwhelming — it integrates perfectly. Now that I think about it, it reminds me of oxalis aka sour grass. Almost forgot to add the aroma is quite present yet soft with lily-of-the-valley.

By the time I finish the third steep, the sugarcane returning sweetness emanates from the throat and a pleasant astringency rings my mouth along my teeth; the back of my tongue and my lips are tingling. My gaze softens with an orange hue, my eyelids droop and I so desperately want to lie down. I feel like I’ve walked through a damp meadow of wildflowers and orchids. This is one of the best tieguanyin I’ve had — I’m not so much a fan of them but I’d definitely drink this one again.

So far, sooo good. Except I’m still sleepy. Thanks, Kawaii433 :)

I’ve had this tea for a while now, and I’ve also wanted to make a steepster review for a while, so this one will be my first!
I’ve had a lot of really solid oolongs from What-Cha, as he is the seller from whom I made my first three “true tea” orders. Wonderful vendor by the way, always sends a nice handwritten note and a free sample.
Onto this Tie Guan Yin, the first of its kind I’ve tried. It is a very nice tea. The last two or three times I’ve had it, I’ve brewed it Gongfu, but it also worked really well Western style. Today, I used a fair amount of tea, enough to fill my 120ml gongfu up to the brim when expanded. I also used F203 degree water whereas in the past I’ve used the suggested 194. I like these parameters as it makes for a stronger brew (obviously) and the taste was not much more dimensional when I used cooler water so I think it was an improvement. The taste profile is very nice—light, fresh, with a hint of spinach underneath the sour vegetation taste. Overall, a crisp and enjoyable experience. Not much evolution over brews, I’m on the fifth now and the lighter notes have been taken over by generally a lower EQ version of the taste with which the tea began. Recommended.

Medium to dark green tightly rolled balls that came in a zip-lock opaque bag. Wet leaves had a nice vegetal aroma, natural orchid fragrance. The liquor is a very light amber color with greenish tints. The taste is smooth, soft, mellow and savory with delicate vegetal and floral notes. No astringency nor bitterness. The first time I tried this it had bitter notes, but I basically fried it at 212˚F lol. This time I did it at 194˚F. It has a slightly sour finish that was pleasant, that lasted for a brief moment (no pucker up pull on the cheeks feeling), with slightly offsetting sweet notes, so their ‘gentle’ description is perfect.

5g, 110ml, 194˚F, 7 steeps: rinse, 25s, 35s, 45s, 55s, 65s, 75s, 85s

Dry green curls emit a toasty scent and unfurl quickly once wet to reveal their leafy form. Oh yes, my senses are going to enjoy this one.

The first steep smells sweet and creamy, a really fantastic aroma. Very light liquor, light, milky flavor—there is more strength in the aroma than the flavor for this steep—smooth mouthfeel, a sweet aroma clings to empty cup and I’m left with a creamy sensation in the mouth.

The second steep is also creamy, sweet and aromatic. I’m not getting much vegetal taste or any sourness, but that could just be my tastebuds.

In the third steep I’m starting to get those vegetal notes, and I think the sourness is just barely there. The sourness starts to come out more in the following steeps, which I had to wait a couple hours to get to. So interesting how the taste has evolved, and it still has that creamy mouthfeel that lingers after I’m done.