Well how shall I put it, I found a bunch of these little blue bags in my basement filled with tie guan yin. The production date stamped on it says 10.25.2006, so that makes it about 5 years old. Though it is vacuum packed.. I’m sure this kind of tea is not meant to be aged, so I am really drinking some old tea. 10 means October too, so that puts this as an autumn harvest tea and that means this is a grade lower than the ones cultivated in spring. Anyways, I pretty sure this was something my parents brought back from a trip to china (which trip, I wouldn’t know).

Tenfu (same thing as Tenren) is a massive tea company so really, if anyone ends up ever getting some of this will be beyond me. That’s one thing about steepster, most teas from North America or western Europe, can be found with ease well what about that crazy amount of asians and asian countries that drink tea? Well those will most likely never be found here at all even though they represent a significant portion of the tea consumed in this world. That’s just me saying, as I drink a lot of green tea that was brought back from China, yet I have no means of listing it or any clue who made it. Luckily this bag had a little url printed on the side that lead me to the tenfu website.

Getting down to the tea itself, I tried making it gong fu style (lots of leaf, less water, more infusions) It’s a light tasting tea, not as dark or heavy roasted as some TGY teas. I’ve gone to 5 infusions and it still tastes alright. Anyone curious to try some? I think I have like 3-4 more bags of this stuff. Figure it might be more educational to some of you than it will be for me. Swap me anything that I have never tried before, I’d be down.

Indigobloom

I’d love to try some!! is there anything you’d like to swap it for? or we can split a sample from someplace…

politicalmachine

sure, pm me where i can send it :) surprise me really, it’s more fun to try the things you never would of think of buying! Oh, i also have small packets of a darker roast TGY but I can’t identify the manufacturer, prolly should send you some of that too.

Indigobloom

Sweet, I’ll msg you tonight when I get home… I sneak peeks here at work so don’t wanna get caught! lol

Mel

Enjoyed your review. I was wondering if TeaFu was related to TeaRen. I tend to never buy tea at grocery stores since the turn around is pretty bad. I went to one with teas that expired in 2002. So the tea itself was from 2000 I am assuming. I couldn’t help myself, 4 oz of tieh kwan yin for $7. I can’t wait to try.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

People who liked this

Comments

Indigobloom

I’d love to try some!! is there anything you’d like to swap it for? or we can split a sample from someplace…

politicalmachine

sure, pm me where i can send it :) surprise me really, it’s more fun to try the things you never would of think of buying! Oh, i also have small packets of a darker roast TGY but I can’t identify the manufacturer, prolly should send you some of that too.

Indigobloom

Sweet, I’ll msg you tonight when I get home… I sneak peeks here at work so don’t wanna get caught! lol

Mel

Enjoyed your review. I was wondering if TeaFu was related to TeaRen. I tend to never buy tea at grocery stores since the turn around is pretty bad. I went to one with teas that expired in 2002. So the tea itself was from 2000 I am assuming. I couldn’t help myself, 4 oz of tieh kwan yin for $7. I can’t wait to try.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

Profile

Bio

Stopped drinking water, switched to tea. =)
(ok, this is a lie but still :) )

How I rate teas is pretty simple, different teas have different expectations based on quality and price. I’ll rate a tea based on how good it is for its category/price point. I think i rate pretty fairly, I’m not afraid to give a bad score to a bad tea, and it’s relatively hard to get perfect score (partially because i believe there are only so many that can attain such a title)

I like oolong/green teas the most
black, white, tisanes to a lesser part.

I re-steep EVERYTHING, as that’s how I’ve learned from my parents. Blacks teas normally to a max of two times.

I like it when the tea actually looks of quality (eg. whole unbruised leaves). I hate it when i get a tea, and half of it is cut up stems of the plant… give me leaves!

I drink all my teas black and occasionally with sweetener. I do drink coffee too, and love espressos and cappuccinos. Yup, I do my coffee black too. Guess, it is to say I like strong flavours.
My current way of steeping tea, is my french press which i just got a month ago. I love it (well maybe not my cheapy one; looking to get a bodum one day). I used to just dump leaves at the bottom of my cup..

Ok. Rating meanings…

0-49: Various degrees of suck. Either terrible value or just not good.
50-59: It’s drinkable. I’ll finish my cup.
60-69: Not bad… but not good.
70-79: okay to drink, nothing too special, will not be a re-buy.
80-89: Enjoyable cups.
90-99: Worth holding on to.
100: Um.. I’ll tell you when I get here.

About me?

University student, photographer, bartender..

Location

Montreal

Following These People

Moderator Tools

Mark as Spammer