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.
Flavors: Cream, Melon, Milk
Preparation
Comments
Wish my stomach could handle some of these heavy cream-like teas. I did like WP’s Golden Lilly oolong though, lightly milky and tropical
Interesting, reading your note, I couldn’t help wondering if you might have gotten the autumn JadeTGY and Golden Liky packages mixed up. The reason being that I have had both and find the TGY super floral, and the Golden Lily super creamy as it is supposed to be since it’s milk oolong.
I suspected a mix up too because I expected it to be floral but it looks exactly like the pictures on the WP site. The Golden Lily is indeed creamy, though not overly so like this one
Hmm…interesting. I’d say give it another shot sometime before sending it off to a new home. I actually have a customer that gets sick with any hint of creamy or buttery in an oolong and they are in love with this tea. Who knows…that’s always an interesting thing to me how tea can be experienced totally differently between multiple people. But getting any hint of cream in this TGY is a totally new one to me. Definitely give it one more try if you don’t mind :)
Brendan, I will try experimenting with shorter steep times and underleafing. I’m hoping it’s just me me not having found the tea’s sweet spot yet :-)
Such a pity that the creamy deliciousness of this oolong makes you nauseous! :(
Wish my stomach could handle some of these heavy cream-like teas. I did like WP’s Golden Lilly oolong though, lightly milky and tropical
Oh my, that sounds lovely too! :)
Interesting, reading your note, I couldn’t help wondering if you might have gotten the autumn JadeTGY and Golden Liky packages mixed up. The reason being that I have had both and find the TGY super floral, and the Golden Lily super creamy as it is supposed to be since it’s milk oolong.
I suspected a mix up too because I expected it to be floral but it looks exactly like the pictures on the WP site. The Golden Lily is indeed creamy, though not overly so like this one
Hmm…interesting. I’d say give it another shot sometime before sending it off to a new home. I actually have a customer that gets sick with any hint of creamy or buttery in an oolong and they are in love with this tea. Who knows…that’s always an interesting thing to me how tea can be experienced totally differently between multiple people. But getting any hint of cream in this TGY is a totally new one to me. Definitely give it one more try if you don’t mind :)
Brendan, I will try experimenting with shorter steep times and underleafing. I’m hoping it’s just me me not having found the tea’s sweet spot yet :-)
I hope so too! I’d love for you to experience the floral explosion that others get with this! Good luck! :-)