Ti Kuan Yin

My 1st Ti Kuan Yin! I’ve seen lots of amazing tasting notes about Samovar’s version(Monkey Picked Iron Goddess of Mercy), but I wasn’t sure how big the sample size is and I have a butt load of frequent cup points accumulated, so I figured I’d try this 1st. It is the 3rd most expensive sample they offer (outright cost, I’m not sure how it compares when comparing cost/gram), but this is the featured tea for March for their Roots Campaign so I thought now would be the perfect time to try it.

It’s definitely a green oolong and is beautifully rolled and twisted. 2.25g/6oz just below boiling water.

I could watch this unfurl forever… who says only blooming teas are pretty? The liquor is a very light yellow- lighter than I was expecting for the 5 min it steeped. The aroma is light, slightly vegetal, and… there’s a hint of something else… maybe lemony notes?

The flavor is very much like the aroma- light, slightly vegetal, subtle lemony notes, and just the slightest hint of astringency. Inspite of this astringency the mouth feel is still very much clean and smooth- it’s also thicker, almost broth like. I can see why people devote yixings to this one! Due to the subtle lemon notes I think this would be excellent yixing steeped then chilled for iced tea.

If you’re hesitant to drop $6 for a sample, I encourage you to try this WONDERFUL tea and support tea farmers!

This is a lovely Oolong, sweet, pleasing orchid notes which are quite delicate at first, but reveal themselves more with the infusions that follow. I’m currently on my fourth infusion, and sadly this will be my last as it is quite late.

A nice nutty tone to this as well and a sweet buttery note, reminding me a bit of browned butter. Smooth mouthfeel. Definitely one of the better offerings from Adagio.

Well, I was going to plow through the black tea sampler first, but I decided that I wanted to try something else instead. (I did actually drink a cup of yunnan jig this morning, but I just…drank it. It deserved better than that, but I had places to be! I’ll get to a tasting note later.)

This one looked really interesting in the tin. Dark, rich emerald green crumples of leaf that were a lot more solid and weighty than they seemed like they would be, once I picked one out. The smell of the dry leaves was, to me, very ‘cut grass’. Not freshly cut grass, but several-day-old cut grass, that was maybe out long enough to dry in the sun.

The actual brew…

Someone is going to think I sound crazy here, I’m sure, but to me…it smells like cooked potatoes. Baked potato maybe. I assume this is the nuttiness that everyone described, and I can see that too, but my first thought was definitely ‘baked potato’. And a side of cut grass. Given the color of the leaves, I was surprised that the tea itself didn’t brew to a darker color…it’s a very light yellow with a faintly spring-green edge. I didn’t have my eye on it while it was steeping, and was surprised when I came back to find it had unfurled into what looked like half of a plant in my glass infuser. Neat!

The taste is NOT potato, though that should surprise no one. It’s an interesting green, and it leaves a definite aftertaste of itself…strongly, but not unpleasantly. It feels very…full-bodied…and that impression has been increasing as I work my way toward the bottom of my first cup. I’m really enjoying it.

Now my uncertainty when it comes to rating teas is showing. What IS a perfect 100 for me? Does it even exist? This probably deserves a better rating than I’m giving it, but for now I’ll be conservative. There are still too many teas out there for me to try to be safely over-generous.

I have had this before and loved it. This love has continued to this batch as well. I would love to note more about this but I don’t have time. Gotta love Tech week, moving, and school all at once with a heaping scoop of work.

Still tryin’ ye olde palate cleansing to get things back in order in mah mouth! Oolong again called to me so this is all that I drank yesterday. Just nice and veggie sorta buttery with a hint-o-sweet by the 4th steep. Ahhhh… This may be how Rabs gets her tea groove back. NE

I’m amazed at how much of this I have. It goes so far! I only got a sample of it from Adagio, but this is the fourth time I’ve had it (and it’s an all day tea, with all of the infusions you get out of it), and there’s plenty left.

Beyond that, I’m liking it more and more all of the time. It’s a very full flavor, and the more I perfect the brewing of it, the better it gets.

I keep a very few tins of tea in my desk drawer at lab (I really should bring some more). And so for lunch today it was really between the Ti Kuan Yin and the Oolong #8. I went with the Ti Kuan Yin just because it’s my favorite of the two.

I must confess – my sample is old, I don’t even remember how old it is, even approximately… but there is a reason why it became neglected and spent so much time in the back of my tea cabinet. To start off, I’m very upset with the leaf quality, the sample almost entirely consists of small broken leaves rolled into very loose pellets. For this price I find it unacceptable.

Now to the taste. This is a lightly roasted TKY that tastes slightly woody, nutty and dry. I am not getting much of floral notes, more of irony aftertaste in the background. Oversteeping and/or subsequent infusions bring a lot of vegetal flavor which I don’t like. Can’t say much about aroma probably due to the age of my sample but it reminds me of hay and has some toasty edge to it.

Overall, I found this oolong unremarkable and overpriced.

Whew, back. Had computer issues that involve a brand new Dual Core Gateway. Hurray, no?

I should start by noting that Sinister owns a lovely Yixing clay pot seasoned for this tea alone. (refers to self in third person) Did you see what I did there?

Iron Goddess is a good epithet for any Oolong tea, but it’s perfect for this. It has sharp blood-coppery notes that are very lifting. It’s by no means too dark to taste fresh and light. That may sound a little like a contradiction…but sense is so hard to type in words.

If you’ve tried this, then you know. If you haven’t, buy some. This type of tea is too important for that “I don’t have an opinion so let me use yours” mentality. Besides, if you really think about it…what sort of tea aficionado would you be if you couldn’t say you loved or hated this tea?

It’s hard for me to correct myself. But I apparently lied/wrong when I said that Gunpowder was my favorite forever. “There’s always a bigger fish.” “The light at the end of the tunnel is brighter the closer you get.” “When you meet the Buddha on the road, you should kill the Buddha.” (think I’ve taken this as far as it’ll go.)

Either way, few people can say bad things about this tea. But to the few that do: I won’t argue with you, but I wish I could give you something as delicious as this tea. Alas, I cannot. A lot of Zen references floating around this post… =/ Suppose I’d best end on that note.

Strangely I have never tried this tea before. The leaves look beautiful: a combination of dark and light green crumpled in interesting and exotic shapes. The smell is light, fresh a bit grassy, reminds me of countryside.

Here’s what Wang Mei Rui, the farmer growing this tea, says: “It is very important to enjoy tie kuan yin with heart. First we need to be calm and quiet. Second it is very important to use natural water and gong fu tea set to brew teas with friends. The natural water includes mineral water, well water, and mountain spring water. Distilled water and tap water cannot be used.”
The last part makes me smile. This tea is part of the Roots Campaign by Adagio, directly benefiting the farmers.

Taste: it’s light (lighter than I imagined) complex, floral. Our family poll – my husband liked it a lot, I liked it and my daughter: not so much.