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This is the last of the oolong reviews I will be posting this weekend. I’m just about caught up on my backlog of reviews for the time being, though I still have one more oolong to review. I’ll probably get to it tomorrow before I start a new round of teas. This particular Tieguanyin differs from Verdant’s others in that it is picked from older bushes.

For the purposes of this review, I brewed this tea using the gongfu method outlined on Verdant’s website. I placed approximately 7 g of loose tea leaves in my small utility gaiwan and steeped them in 208 F water. The initial infusion following the rinse was 10 seconds. Subsequent infusions were 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, and 30 seconds for a total of 11 infusions.

The initial infusion was interesting. I was expecting something super creamy and floral, but this infusion was savory. I detected aromas of minerals, butter, cream, honey, hay, grass, and herbs. In the mouth, I picked up a rush of mineral, butter, cream, custard, honey, grass, hay, ginseng, and sesame notes underscored by a trace of floral flavor. Subsequent infusions saw the floral notes (orchid, lilac, violet, saffron) emerge a little more fully and the mineral, grass, hay, and herbal notes subside. Later infusions saw the emergence of stronger cream, butter, custard, grass, hay, herbal, and vegetal aromas and flavors. On the final 3 infusions, the vegetal and grassy notes dominated and were underscored by butter, cream, and mineral aromas and flavors.

At first, I was worried that I had waited too long on this one and that it had started to turn, but my fears quickly subsided. This is an extremely deep, refined Tieguanyin with an interesting and challenging combination of aromas and flavors. I rather like it, though I do tend to prefer the more robustly flavored regular Tieguanyins offered by Verdant. I would recommend this tea to oolong fans, though I would recommend it with the caveat that it will likely not be for everyone. In other words, this is good, but just don’t expect something super accessible.