Iron Goddess King

This is actually my third time drinking this tea. The first was in the Vital Tea Leaf shop with Kenny in Chinatown. After that, I purchased a decent amount of it. The second was just yesterday with a small group of coworkers and we all sat around enjoying this tea very much.

Today, I am enjoying this tea once more and the light, springy aroma of the liquor is perking me up nicely! The liquor itself is extremely light in color, even lighter than most green oolongs I come across. The tea itself is somewhat vegetal and mildly grassy. Most of all, it lightly plays in the mouth with a simple, pleasant, and almost sweet flavor.

I’m definitely fond of this tea and perhaps will like to try other Iron Goddess options from Vital Tea Leaf someday. When talking with Kenny, he described this as a good “everyday” oolong. I think he is exactly right about that!

I’m enjoying this tea that I got at the Vital Tea Leaf the other day. I stopped in to do a tea tasting with some tourists in Chinatown and tried a few things. I’m not usually the biggest fan of Iron Goddess oolongs but I found this to be well balanced and tasty. I bought 1/4 oz. This is not roasted as far as I can tell.

At home I’m drinking it out of the yixing teapot and got 4 steeps. It is vegetal and creamy in texture, with a slight butteriness in the 2nd and 3rd steep. By the 4th steep the buttery flavor had mostly gone. I could have gotten more steeps out of it but gave up after steep #4. It has a slight mineral quality that I notice in the Iron Goddess teas. The woman in the store told me this doesn’t have much caffeine in it, however I do notice it seems slightly energizing. A good everyday drinking tea.

I wouldn’t describe this one as very vegetal actually, it really has more of a smooth creamy taste with a little tannin bite. I remember the price being quite high, something like $140/160 per pound. It is a very good tea but can probably be found for much less. In the mid-80s, I’d say, not the best oolong I’ve had but not far behind either.