House Tieguanyin, Lot No. 1

I had originally brewed in a glass gaiwan but I’ve been brewing in a tall glass here lately with a lot of my teas, i find that some of them taste better that way, For some reason they can steep that way and never get bitter or over brewed or anything negative.
This one has a roasty and slightly sweet aroma to me much roastier than the flavor.
The flavor is slightly roasty with a slight vegetal almost woodsy note with flavors of caramel and honey and even a little floral.
the Caramel notes to me are like the caramel coloring used in whiskey some folks cant even taste the caramel in the coloring but I can. I did get a slight fried banana type fruity note that was hidden in the caramel and some mineral notes too. I like this one, it is quite nice.
Great for a Rainy day :)

Oolong rocks my world. Especially TGY. But I’m critical when it comes to it cause I have tried many and lots of them just taste generic to me. Not bad, but nothing overly special. Since I now have a well garnished selection of my favourites that I keep at all time, I don’t seek them as much as I used to, I’m pretty satisfied with what I have.

When I read that Whispering Pines were roasting their own TGI, it got me really curious to try the first batch.

I’m having it in the gaiwan.

This is not heavily roasted, but just enough to bring out those sweet caramel notes.
And boy, are they present. I get dark caramel, sweet corn and light mineral notes. At the first steep, the wet leaves smell like slightly burnt kernels and roasted coffee.

Another thing that really got me to try it was the “caramelized bananas” mentioned in the description. I mean come on. Pretty hard to resist that one.

And you know what? Don’t underestimate the power of suggestion cause it really worked, I definitely got that, but wouldn’t have come up with it on my own!

It looses some of its “roastiness” at the fourth steep, that’s when peachy fruity notes and a nice floral mouthfeel emerge. As it cools, I get a light camphor minty finish, and it really lingers.

Me like.

All I’m really saying is this TGY lot no. 1 is wicked good. More please.

Our newest limited availability tea! :)

Expertly roasted in-house in very small, select batches, our House Tieguanyin is one of our most prized offerings. This tea begins its journey in the tea fields of Anxi, in the Fujian province of China, where it is picked in the springtime and processed completely by hand by skilled tea masters. After the long and masterful process of processing the tea, it is exported. Its next stop is at our headquarters, where we carefully select a small batch for additional processing.

Our slow-roasting technique is done in-house by Brenden, the owner of Whispering Pines. By using low heat and basing the roast level mostly on the aroma, he is able to produce a traditional-style tieguanyin with absolutely perfect flavor balance. At first, the aroma of the tea morphs into melting butter before filling the room with popcorn, toasted rice, and finally the sweet aroma of salted kettle corn and oven-fresh wheat bread. The heat is slowly reduced at this point and the tea is covered until cool.

The taste of our first batch of House Tieguanyin opens up with a smooth, juicy body with brilliant light floral notes and the signature mineral notes symbolistic of the best Chinese oolongs. The middle and end of the sip carries the thick and warm sweetness of caramelized bananas and the finish is long-lasting with notes of salted kettle corn and oak!

A truly beautiful roast of an already perfect tea, our first batch of House Tieguanyin won’t be around for long!

Due to our extremely limited batches, we have decided to limit the purchase of our House Tieguanyin to one ounce per customer per order.

http://whisperingpinestea.com/house-tgy.html