Huang Guan Yin (2017)

I had to dig through my review notebook for this one. I knew I had a few reviews from July that I still needed to post, and this was one of them. I think I finished what I had of this tea around the end of the month, but I could be wrong as it’s been a while. I do know that I found this tea to be on par with Old Ways Tea’s 2016 Huang Guan Yin, perhaps just a little bit better.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After the rinse, I steeped 5 grams of loose tea leaves in 3 ounces of 203 F water for 6 seconds. This infusion was followed by 17 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 8 seconds, 10 seconds, 13 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, and 10 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of cream, blueberry, raspberry, and blackberry that were accompanied by subtle scents of cinnamon and plum. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of roasted peanut, roasted almond, rose, and roasted grain as well as a subtle scent of smoke. The first infusion introduced a slight earthiness to the nose. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of cream, blueberry, raspberry, blackberry, roasted peanut, and roasted grain that were balanced by hints of cinnamon, mushroom, smoke, earth, roasted almond, and rose. The subsequent infusions coaxed out aromas of dark wood, grass, charcoal, and roasted beechnut as well as subtler scents of roasted hazelnut, malt, and strawberry. Notes of black cherry, minerals, grass, charcoal, dark wood, plum, roasted beechnut, roasted hazelnut, and brown sugar appeared in the mouth along with slightly stronger rose and roasted almond notes and hints of green olive, malt, tar, and strawberry. As the tea faded, the liquor took on stronger malty and earthy characteristics while also emphasizing notes of minerals, cream, roasted peanut, grass, and roasted grain that were balanced by hints of green olive, roasted hazelnut, roasted almond, blueberry, and brown sugar.

This was such an interesting and complex tea. Compared to the 2016 offering, this tea struck me as being both fruitier and nuttier. It also offered some unexpected twists and turns over the course of my gongfu session. It was very satisfying and struck me as a truly excellent offering, but I could also see it not being for everyone.

I recently did a side-by-side session with this tea and its electric-roasted counterpart from Old Ways Tea. Before trying either, I expected there to be a slight difference, but I figured the electric roast would be at least on par with the charcoal roast. Surprisingly, this turned out not to be the case at all. The electric roast was not bad tea, but it paled in comparison to the charcoal roasted tea.

The charcoal roast, unsurprisingly, had a much more charcoal-y and roasted aroma than the electric roast tea. In fact, the aroma was a little less interesting than that of the electric roast, with the roasting overwhelming a lot of the other notes present in the electric roast. Thus I was surprised when I took the first sip of the charcoal roast tea. It was immediately deeper tasting, with more fullness in the mouth and a much longer finish. The flavor transitioned during the sip from a roasty sweetness, with a bit of sharpness common to roasted teas, but was quickly followed by a sweet and juicy, fruity huigan which reminded me of plums or other dark/ripe stone fruits.

Really a delightful tea, and to my personal tastes, there is no reason to buy any more of the electric roast now that I’ve done a comparison between it and the charcoal roast Huang Guan Yin.