I opened the free sample today, that I got from Life in Teacup, of my “An Xie Tie Guan Yin Oolong Traditional Charcoal Roast”. It came in a red vacuum-sealed bag, and had written in pin-yin on the side “Ou Nan Cha Ye” and “Hao Cha Hao Ren Sheng”.
Anyway, when I opened it, I was very surprised, because the color of the leaves was green, and not the brown roasted color I expected.
Not only that, but they smelled sweet and fruity, rather than roasted, smoky, etc. (more like a houjicha).
Going right along with that, after rinsing the leaves, I did the first steep…. AND it tasted very fruity, delicious, etc., but NOT roasted at all. It was delicious, but I assume this was actually the Grade II modern green (hence posting my note here). I still have more steepings left, but as of the 3rd steeping, this is awesome. It leaves a very nice taste in the mouth afterwards.
I also got a free sample of the Grade II modern green (at least, that’s what the package says), but I sure hope the charcoal roast is in there instead!
Gingko, is it possible that a sample could have been accidentally switched, or is it more likely that because of my inexperience with oolongs, this actually is the charcoal roast (though there are no hints of it having been roasted)?
Either way, this is delicious!
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Thank you for your nice review! The vacuum bags are generic and don’t bear specific product names. Is there a sticker on the pack with the English name, like found on other samples? From your description, it’s probably a modern green TGY. My last batch of traditional roasted TGY all have green packs and the recent batch of modern green TGY Grade II do have red packs. I am sorry for the confusions! Next time I will send you one of each so that we can be sure.
Actually, you let me chose two, and I did pic the Charcoal Roasted and the modern green TGY grade II. On the red sample bag it had the English sticker saying it was ‘Charcoal Roasted’, but I think it was the green.
When I open the other sample (which has a sticker saying its the modern green) we’ll see if the stickers were switched, or if there was a duplicate, etc.
Thank you for your nice review! The vacuum bags are generic and don’t bear specific product names. Is there a sticker on the pack with the English name, like found on other samples? From your description, it’s probably a modern green TGY. My last batch of traditional roasted TGY all have green packs and the recent batch of modern green TGY Grade II do have red packs. I am sorry for the confusions! Next time I will send you one of each so that we can be sure.
Actually, you let me chose two, and I did pic the Charcoal Roasted and the modern green TGY grade II. On the red sample bag it had the English sticker saying it was ‘Charcoal Roasted’, but I think it was the green.
When I open the other sample (which has a sticker saying its the modern green) we’ll see if the stickers were switched, or if there was a duplicate, etc.