Autumn Jade Tieguanyin

I’ve been drinking a lot of tea and working on my sipdowns – but not recording anything.

My final notes on this tea are: floral, sweet? thicker as it cools, floral aftertaste. This tea was thick.

Other teas I’ve sipped down recently are: 2016 Yushan High Mountain – Beautiful Taiwan Tea, auburn black second flush – white2tea, DaYuLong 2016 spring – floating leaves, Yunnan jingmai unroasted oolong – what-cha, yunnan golden buds black tea – what-cha.

First steep at 190 F with 1 tsp of leaves for ~2 min. The dry leaves smell strongly of lilac, as if you’d buried your head in a lilac bush in the middle of a springtime garden. After steeping, they remain half-opened, again the strong scent of lilac. The brew is the palest shade of jade and the scent is lightly floral. The floral taste comes mostly in the aftertaste to me. There is no hint of bitterness at all, although the taste is so light I think perhaps I didn’t steep it long enough or use enough leaves.

Second steep of ~3 min. Leaves have opened more fully, showing off their beautiful vibrant green color. They look mostly complete, with very little broken leaves and some missing just a bit around the edges. The color of the brew is a darker shade of jade now, although the taste remains light. Still not as much floral or creaminess as I was hoping.

Third steep of ~4 min. Leaves look as if they are fully opened, although I no longer smell the lilacs from them. The shade of the brew is perhaps a touch lighter than the second brew, and less aromatic too. It does taste creamier though than the previous two brews, although less floral as well.

My tea experience began in with a Jasmine Iron Goddess from a wonderful San Francisco tea shop last December. I am so thankful I wondered into the shop on an afternoon away from my meeting. The tea was really good, but I wanted to taste it without the Jasmine. After sipping several wonderful teas from Whispering Pines I decided to purchase a teiguanyin from him. Boy, am I happy I did! A sip of this liquor is like spring becomes alive in your mouth. What a beautiful tea. I got two vacuum packages and think I too will squirrel the second package away.

Immorally floral! Honeysuckle, gardenia and orchid with a buttery, creamy mouth feel balanced by fresh green watercress and butter lettuce.

Well boy, was I wrong about that. it still tastes like its trying to take the crown for the most floral TGY on the planet.

I personally love floral Oolong. I love that they taste of nature, flowers, or of flavours I have never experienced before, & I love how they steep for ages & even when the taste goes, the aroma is still there.

I’m at about steep 6-7 & i will go some more.

Its not the creamiest ive had, nor is it the most natural tasting (but those can often be a little more vegetal, at least for me), but for mega super floral aroma it is way up there.. its so perfumed you’d be forgiven for thinking its a Lilac-flavoured Oolong. Also hints of sweet pear in there but the flower does seriously overpower these, you really have to search for them.

Also the liquor is almost hard like UK water. I’m used to hard water, & while some teas seem to soften that aspect, this one seems to be accentuated by it, which is quite interesting. I’ve got no idea how that translates to other water types.

at about steep 10 the leaf finally begins to smell like steamed spinach & the liquor loses the fragrance, but that is pretty good going imo :)

I liked it, another that can be used in the arsenal of teas to convert non-believers.

So glad to see whispering pines getting back on their feet after that flood!

This tea is such a flowery tea it’s like a garden in your cup. it’s total Spring or Summer. The leaves are huge unfurled and so vibrant. I’m sad it’s out of stock so I’m hording the last of mine.

When brendon said this tea was vacuum sealed, he wasn’t kidding. I had to pry the package apart and my efforts only became more savage when the package wouldn’t open. With a combination of teeth and some grunting, I broke into it.

And. Honestly? I don’t even care how this tea tastes. The smell alone is worth buying it again and again. It’s literally like being in a wind-swept garden just overflowing with lilac bushes. I told brendon I wanted as floral a tea as possible, and his words were “my TGY tastes like a thick lilac soup” and I cannot tell you how spot on he was. I fell in love with tea all over again this afternoon, guys. And isn’t falling in love the best part?

It really does taste like a thick, creamy lilac garden, complete with a hint of fresh air if that’s even possible. Brendon, please say there’s more of this. I added a bit of rock sugar to amp up the florals and it was perfect.

I drank this tea while listening to a podcast that I’ve subscribed to for years now (dan savage’s lovecast). A girl had called in, and was crying. A few months ago, she’d told her parents that she was a lesbian, and they’ve since stopped talking to her except to share literature with her about how people have been cured of their homosexuality. Her desperation and heartbreak was so palpable, and I cried with her. Regardless of how well-intended people can be, it’s so devastating to think that some people would actually rather die than be who they are. I don’t think there is ever an excuse to isolate your children, even if you whole-heartedly believe they are sinning. I have been extremely lucky in my life: I’ve made life choices that I imagine my parents would rather I’d not made, but they loved me so much more than they disliked anything I did, and because of that, were always a soft place for me to land. I just wish that were the case for everyone.

Anyway, enough of that. everyone who loves drinking flowers should get this tea. And everyone who doesn’t love drinking flowers should start thinking about loving drinking flowers! I would rate this tea in the high 90s if the rating scale were accessible, but alas it still isn’t. But there you have it!

So this tea is quite different than what I expected. I’ve been spoiled by Verdant’s excellent tie guan yin this spring and was eagerly awaiting the autumn harvest. It’s remarkable how the flavor profile of some teas can vary from one tea garden to another. I was expecting some sweet nectar and floral goodness, but this tea is predominantly milky both in flavor and smell. It tastes like a very strong flavored jin xuan. There isn’t much complexity to it beyond the milk and cream flavor, which is quite intense and the aftertaste lingers in your mouth for a while. I couldn’t take more than a few sips of this tea because I started feeling queasy. I tried steeping it gongfu and western style, but couldn’t avoid the nauseous feeling from the overpowering creaminess. Unfortunately this was not a tea that suited me which is too bad because I can tell from the freshness and bright green leaves that it’s high quality.

This is so fresh and floral. It just tastes pure like you are drinking in clean loveliness. It is a cup of flowers with a bright green taste and an underlying bit of lychee in the very back of the sip. The leaves are gorgeous, glowing green. This is the Autumn 2015 harvest and my very favorite so far. Love this.

Nice bright green leaf color and a wonderful oolong taste. Just a little too floral for me. Floral taste is orchid/hibiscus to me. I may have oversteeped it since I didn’t realize it was going to be floral. I probably would have had better results cutting 30 seconds off of the steep time.