This tea was purchased at the San Francisco International Tea Festival a few months ago. Evidently Fox and Moon is a traveling operation of sorts and does not own a regular store or a tearoom (in spite of the name). I really wanted to try a Tie Lou Han and this wasn’t cheap, I think it was $12/oz.
My sweetie is a fan of oolongs, but only likes the darker ones and does not think much of green oolongs or green tea, for that matter. I steeped this one up at his request this afternoon.
For a wuyi tea, this is a bit on the lighter side (more of an orange color). It has a delicious roasted caramel type of aroma and we are finding some essence of almond in the flavor. This has a nice minerality quality with cocoa notes and a bit of peach. The aftertaste lingers and is nice and sweet. I have had this tea a few times before now and the first steep is delightful, but it does not re-steep well which seems very strange for a darker oolong of this type. Because I know it doesn’t resteep well I just brewed this up Western style today in the glass teapot.
I think I will need to go to Red Blossom or elsewhere to see how their tie lou han compares. It is definitely a lovely tea but I took a few points off for the fact that it doesn’t resteep well. I may also put the leftover leaves in the fridge and try cold brewing this one.
