Taiwan 'Ali Shan' Heavy-Roast 'Tie Guan Yin' Oolong Tea

Tea type
Oolong Tea
Ingredients
Oolong Tea Leaves
Flavors
Burnt Sugar, Charcoal, Grapes, Roasty, Violet, Woody, Almond, Butter, Carrot, Char, Chestnut, Coffee, Cream, Earth, Floral, Fruity, Grass, Hazelnut, Lychee, Mineral, Orchid, Peach, Peanut, Pear, Plum, Roasted Barley, Smoke, Spinach, Sugarcane, Toasted Rice, Vanilla, Vegetal, Wood
Sold in
Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by eastkyteaguy
Average preparation
6 g 4 oz / 118 ml

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3 Tasting Notes View all

  • “2022 harvest/roast. My first (that I’m aware of) Tie Guan Yin. Pretty excited. First steep, no rinse, was a light golden-brown pour. Notes of honey, light charcoal, and grapes. Second steep poured...” Read full tasting note
    92
  • “It’s a lovely tea, and the recipient of my most recent reorder. The roast is present, but not overpowering. The body is still light and playful. I brewed this western style and I love dosing it...” Read full tasting note
    93
  • “Okay, I am finally back on Steepster after a hiatus that proved significantly longer than planned. I was making pretty steady progress on cleaning out my backlog of tea reviews going into November,...” Read full tasting note
    94

From What-Cha

A very well roasted tea with a smooth and sweet lingering taste of dried fruit coupled with a gentle nuttiness in the finish.

The tea undergoes multiple medium roasts to produce a gentle roasted effect which accentuates the native characteristics of the tea.

The tea is a good candidate for ageing as it should change over time as it rests from the roast.

Tasting Notes:
- Smooth texture
- Smooth, sweet and lingering dried fruit taste
- Non-dominant roast

Harvest: Spring 2017
Roasted: October 2017

Origin: Ali Shan, Jiayi County, Taiwan
Altitude: 900m
Sourced: Specialist Taiwanese wholesaler

Cultivar: Tie Guan Yin
Oxidisation: 30-40%
Roast: Medium/Heavy (Level 6-7)
Picking: Hand

Brewing Advice:
- Heat water to roughly 99°C/210°F
- Use 1-2 teaspoons per cup/small teapot
- Brew for 3-4 minutes

Packaging: Non-resealable vacuum-sealed bag packaged in Taiwan

About What-Cha View company

Company description not available.

3 Tasting Notes

92
392 tasting notes

2022 harvest/roast. My first (that I’m aware of) Tie Guan Yin. Pretty excited.

First steep, no rinse, was a light golden-brown pour. Notes of honey, light charcoal, and grapes.

Second steep poured a tan-honey color. Notes of violet, purple grapes, a nice round roast with no sharp edges. I’m getting durian, cotton candy on the nose as it cools, very ripe cantaloupe.

Browner pour, less gold on the third steep. Durian and violet still present, very similar to steep 2… some dry roasty leaves. More mild roasted notes come through in the fourth; this fruit sweetness has a “sickly sweet” note to it. I don’t not like it, it’s just very distinct. But fun. Some maillarded sugar… I wouldn’t quite call it caramel. Mild tannins peeking through.

Mild brown bread in the fifth, with twigs; sweetness is more secondary now. More of the same in the next steep, with a little nip of that sickly sweet flavor coming back… heck is that? Like a nice kukicha for the rest of the steeps. I forgot about one of them and it was still lovely, only mildly tannic. Hint of charcoal at some point.

If this tea had a color profile, it would be purple. Grapes and violet and that sort of overripe-almost-turned kind of sweet. Really delightful little session.

Flavors: Burnt Sugar, Charcoal, Grapes, Roasty, Violet, Woody

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93
19 tasting notes

It’s a lovely tea, and the recipient of my most recent reorder. The roast is present, but not overpowering. The body is still light and playful.

I brewed this western style and I love dosing it with some coconut sugar, especially in the later (4+) brews I can get out of it.

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94
1049 tasting notes

Okay, I am finally back on Steepster after a hiatus that proved significantly longer than planned. I was making pretty steady progress on cleaning out my backlog of tea reviews going into November, but I ended up getting busy with some other projects and losing focus and motivation. Hopefully, posting this review will be the start of me getting back on track. I’m dipping further into the backlog than normal with this review. I know I finished what I had of this tea sometime during the first half of the year. I’m pretty sure I had all of my notes on it written out and ready to go sometime between the middle of February and the end of April, but as usual, I cannot be more specific. What I can offer is that this was an excellent tea.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. The water temperature for my review session was set at 203 F and was neither raised nor lowered during the session. After rinsing the rolled leaf and bud sets, I started my session with a 10 second infusion. This infusion was then followed by 17 additional infusions. The steep times for these infusions were as follows: 12 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, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, and 20 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry leaf and bud sets emitted aromas of char, smoke, caramelized banana, toasted rice, roasted barley, roasted almond, and vanilla. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of longan, lychee, sugarcane, and roasted carrot that were underscored by a subtle orchid fragrance. The first proper infusion introduced aromas of cream and butter. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of char, smoke, roasted barley, toasted rice, cream, butter, coffee, roasted carrot, and roasted almond that were chased by hints of daylily, sugarcane, orchid, lychee, longan, and caramelized banana. The bulk of the subsequent infusions coaxed out aromas of plum, grass, spinach, coffee, balsam, and roasted hazelnut. Stronger and more immediately detectable notes of longan, orchid, caramelized banana, and daylily appeared in the mouth alongside impressions of plum, peach, daylily shoots, spinach, minerals, vanilla, grass, roasted hazelnut, Asian pear, and balsam. I also noted hints of earth, sweet corn, and roasted chestnut, as well as a strong peanut shell presence in the aftertaste of each sip. As the tea faded, the liquor shifted to emphasize notes of minerals, butter, cream, roasted almond, grass, daylily shoots, and toasted rice that were supported by hints of roasted hazelnut, sugarcane, daylily, longan, spinach, balsam, roasted barley, sweet corn, plum, and vanilla.

As stated earlier, this was a great heavy roasted oolong. It produced a liquor that was extremely complex and sophisticated while also remaining very drinkable and soothing. Nothing was out of place. The mix of aromas and flavors was not only unique and fantastic, but it was expertly balanced. Overall, this was just a fantastic offering. If you happen to be the sort of person who is not sold on heavier roasted oolongs, then this tea may not be up your alley, but if any tea were capable of converting you, I would say that this would be the one. Naturally, people who are established lovers of heavier roasted teas would very likely find a lot to love about this one.

Flavors: Almond, Butter, Carrot, Char, Chestnut, Coffee, Cream, Earth, Floral, Fruity, Grass, Hazelnut, Lychee, Mineral, Orchid, Peach, Peanut, Pear, Plum, Roasted Barley, Smoke, Spinach, Sugarcane, Toasted Rice, Vanilla, Vegetal, Wood

Preparation
6 g 4 OZ / 118 ML

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