Iron Goddess of Mercy

My order from Teaspring.com is waiting for me at the post office, yay!!!

… I wonder what I bought…? I can’t for the life of me remember what’s in it. I do sure hope there’s Tie Guan Yin, because this is the last of the good stuff that Jillian sent me. Unfortunately what with the closing times my local post office has, I can’t pick it up until wednesday. (Yes, I could probably find an order confirmation in my inbox and check what I bought, but let me have my little game, please.)

So now I’m still waiting for… uh… Well, I ordered from Nothing But Tea yesterday, so I know I’m waiting for that. And I seem to recall placing an order with 52teas a while ago. I think. I was definitely at the site, so the question remains, did I buy something or did I change my mind? (And again, if I did, I wonder what I bought?)

Just in case I didn’t buy any Tie Guan Yin (oh my gosh how will I cope if I didn’t???) I am savouring the last of this cup. There’s a reason it’s named after a goddess, I’m just saying!

Yummilicious!

Third steep of yesterdays leaves. It’s a mix of one part having tons of pre-christmas stuff to do, one part being lazy and one part wish to wring as much out of these leaves as I can.

First cup is a bit thin. It could have done with a ‘crutch’ or a slightly longer steep. The second cup will invariably get that, given my brewing method of leaving the leaves loose in the pot, so we’ll see if it makes a difference.

I would like to say that the tea had gained a sweet note, but to be honest I think that’s just the after-effects of the piece of chocolate I just ate…

Second cup with a significantly longer steep is better. It still has some of that baked flavour left, but I want to repeat the statement that it tastes like how bees look, because I’m picking up a small note of strong honey underneath.

Okay, that’s the morning tea. I’m going to get started on a to-do list and then my numerous chores.

Second steep of this tea and the honey notes seem to have disappeared and the baked flavour is slightly more pronouced.

This tea is practically MADE for multiple steepings. The dry leaves are loosely rolled and the first steeping, which is only 30 sec, is enough to draw out a bit of the flavour, but because the leaves haven’t unrolled it’s quite light, the infusion a pale gold colour.

The 2nd infusion is for 1.5 minutes and this time the leaves have started to uncurl into more leaf-like shapes. The liquid is the colour of golden honey and spinach-bread taste is more prounced and robust (I use the term ‘robust’ relatively – it’s no where near the robustness of an Assam or other black tea).

Upon the third infusion (2.5 minutes) I can see that the leaves are quite green-looking, interestingly enough. Are Ti Kuan Yins supposed to be some of the lesser-oxidized oolongs? The taste is more vegetal this time and not as robust as the last steeping. I think I’ll leave it at three steepings for tonight, although I’m sure I could probably get at least another two steepings out of this tea.

I feel like such a tea fiend, carefully heating my water in a temperature-controlled kettle and trying out my cool, new ultra-fine mesh filter. No sludge at the bottom of the cup – yay!

I steeped this tea a little differently this time, adding less dry leaf but steeping it longer. I am getting that vegetal/spinach-like taste still but it’s slightly, but distinctly honey-sweet aswell. It’s also still slightly baked though mostly on the aftertaste

I did another resteep of the leaves from last night and result were quite neat. This time the vegetal notes have completely vanished, although it still had that rather baked sort of taste. But as the tea cools down the baked note evaporate and the tea takes on a sweet sort of fruity/sort of honey-like flavour.

This does smell and taste baked but it’s almost more a yeasty, fresh-baked bread sort of taste. But I’m also noticing a vegetable-like undertone, almost like spinach. Cooked spinach and bread? Spinach bread? XD