Monkey-Picked Oolong

Utterly expensive at $25 for 2 ounces. All the same, I tend to think of this one as my treat during a trip to Teavana. Since this is usually one of the teas that Teavana has available to try for free in ridiculously small cups, I tend to create quite the line behind me as I take my sweet time sipping down the drink. Spending $25 for something I consider a delicacy really isn’t too bad once in a while. The tea is delicious and I can almost feel it warming me from the inside out.

I stopped by Teavana in the mall today on my way to GameStop to buy another Sims 3 expansion. Finally, they’re releasing Pets!!! I can’t wait! And it’s going to have horses!!!!! AHHHHH!!!!

But anyway, I need to concentrate my excitement on tea now. I tried a handful of different samples they had out, most of them iced. As usual, I found them either too sweet, too watered down, or just otherwise not very enjoyable. But then they gave me a sample of this.

Finally, a great tea from Teavana that tastes like real tea should! This actually tasted really familiar. Before I could draw the connection, I almost walked out with a couple ounces of this. But something told me to hold off. Boy, am I glad I did!

This is a Ti Kuan Yin tea. A few days ago, I tried Life in Teacup’s Tie Guan Yin. They are quite similar indeed but have substantial differences.

The biggest difference is the price. Teavana’s is a whopping $12.50 per ounce, while Life in Teacup’s version is only $2.70 per ounce! That’s right, an incredible $10 per ounce difference!!! I couldn’t believe it myself and double checked the prices several times. How is this even possible?

But even when I compare taste, it’s a bit of a surprise. Honestly, Life in Teacup’s tastes better to me. It has more complexity, a more buttery mouthfeel, and an overall richer taste. I’ve only had the Moneky-Picked Oolong in the store so I couldn’t compare this, but Life in Teacup’s held up to multiple infusions better than any other tea I’ve had. This is a no-brainer.

Plus, I feel good supporting a smaller company like Life in Teacup. They state on their site that they don’t have money to spend on tons of marketing and advertisements. They let the tea sell itself and entice new customers with three free samples per online order!

Does Monkey-Picked Oolong taste good? Sure. Is it worth the money? Pretty much. But is there a cheaper, tastier alternative? Yep!

So, here’s the big question: which would you rather drink?

Yes, fine, I went to Teavana. So be it. And yes, I had to gently get into it with the sales clerk. I knew what I wanted, I did not want to mix my teas with their delightful selections, and no, I did not need to buy TEAVANA brand tins.

Okay rant over.

This is a pretty damned good Oolong for a store in a mall. A really nice finish at the middle and back of the tongue. Tastes like spring, just before the first lawn mowing. Seriously, it has that warm almost yellowish smell of thawing grass. The second and third steep are of course better than the first. The leaves have an interesting crinkle in them as they bloom, reminds me of the look of raw kale. Nice reddening at the edge of the leaves.

if you like your Oolongs on the greener side this is a good pick.

Still, I don’t think I can afford Teavana’s price, and the next time I’m in the mood I’ll check my usual haunt.

I purchased this tea last night for $25 for 2ounces, and brewed it last night. I must say this is the best tea I have ever had. For an Oolong Tea, this is really high quality and craftsmanship. I find Oolongs to be very bitter, but this tea really highlights what an Oolong tea should taste like. When I first brewed it, it was so light in color, and I could smell the richness and the baseness of it. When I tasted it, it was heaven. You get that basic Oolong tasted of smokiness, but it so light that you pick up the floral notes that were hiding. That bright flavor really brings out the sweetness for this Oolong. I have been waiting years to get up the guts to buy this tea (mostly for the name), and now I don’t know why I didn’t buy it earlier. I recommend this tea to anyone, it is a must have in your cupboards!

Best rebrewing tea. My taste buds aren’t specific, but they are picky. Hands down my favorite tea and I can rebrew it over and over.

Started at 9am, refilled four times, tea sat in a tea bag, but by the fourth brew I busted it open and let the leaves flourish more. Almost positive I will get another solid brew or two after class and its almost 5pm.

After wanting this tea for about 8 months I finally broke down and bought it over the weekend. I’ve really enjoyed the same teaspoon of tea leaves for 5 steeps so far over yesterday and today. I almost never resteep with flavored or blended teas, so I’m really impressed with the longevity of these leaves. I’ve tried it plain hot, iced, sweetened with rock sugar, and sweetened with a touch of honey. It’s enjoyable every which way. I don’t think this is one I will buy bucketfulls of, but enjoy slowly, and when it’s done I think I might try another variety of straight oolong to compare/contrast.

This oolong is totallllly average. And I hate that they call it “monkey picked”. The price is so high and the quality is just bad.

This oolong is among my favorite teas. I love green oolongs! I had this one several years ago and was recently gifted with some more. It has a lovely “orchid” complex floral taste and aroma with a wee hint of fruitiness. The first steeping has somewhat of a green vegetal flavor. I don’t remember that from the last batch i had. This green vegetal taste is pretty much gone by the second steeping and this is where I most notice the rich, full mouth feel. It’s a tea devoid of bitterness. It reminds me of Rishi’s Jade Oolong, but the smooth mouthfeel is more pronounced in this Monkey Picked. I’ve read that Monkey Picked is the same as Tieguanyin. That may be, but i always thought Tieguanyin was more baked or lightly roasted and i taste no roasted flavor in this tea. The tea liquid is a delicate light jade green. Lovely for multiple infusions — which takes some of the edge off the hefty price. I could drink this all day (and some days I do).

This lighter green side of oolongs reminds me a lot of pouchong. I got this as a gift from a good friend because I would never pay the 25 dollars for 2 ounces, thats just insane. Its a nice reliable green oolong.

Creamy and buttery like many TGYs with a light vegetal aftertaste. Of the number of times I’ve had this tea, I’ve never really tasted any complex floral qualities that one notices in a high-quality Iron Goddess of Mercy.

This tea is good and will last for a couple infusions, but it is overpriced. If you want to have a delicious, complex TGY, check out Verdant Tea’s Spring batch (you’ll also save about $10). If you’re REALLY looking to buy some cheap Iron Goddess you could grab some very decently priced ones at Upton Teas and still get a taste as good as Teavana’s.

Still, this is a good tea. Just a bit overpriced for the quality.

This is the most I’ve ever paid for tea, and it was worth it. I tried it in the store and really liked it, and when I got home I brewed a cup of this in my dragon yixing pot. I had previously brewed silver needle white tea in this pot 2 or 3 times, and I’m afraid my palate is not well developed enough to know if this changed the taste. If it did, then it was for the better – the liquor is clear and golden in color, and the smell is refreshing and grassy, vegetal. So far so good! Just now tasting it, it is crisp, clean, and fresh. This tea is definitely a self-drinker, which I do not say very often. Out of curiosity I added some of my organic white honey and it slightly sweetened the tea but it is definitely not necessary. I was just experimenting!

It may be because I brewed it in my yixing pot for my silver needle, but the taste does remind me of silver needle and some of the finer green teas I have tasted. Since I’ve bought my yixing pot a couple years ago, I’ve learned that I prefer oolong over white teas, so this is why I have changed my mind on what type of tea to brew in this pot. However, it is tempting to purchase a monkey yixing pot, just for the fun of it :)

Buttery and earth comes to mind when taking my first sip of this wonderful tea! A little on the pricey side, but your paying for quality. The leaves open up when steeped making a beautiful and extravagant bouquet. I recommend this tea for any tea lovers.

A friend sent this to me after I sent her a sizable package of teas. I seriously had to clean my tea cupboard, and I was rewarded very nicely with this tea. It was a little buttery to me, and that’s such a good thing. I am onto my 4th rebrew.

I really liked trying this as a sample at the store, I just didn’t want to buy it since the the sales lady was watching me like a hawk from each place I took a sample. I might take the advice from others and try this tea from another provider, since it’s on the expensive side. Aside from that, still a nice oolong. I am new in the world of oolongs, but I really like this kind.

This is so light in color, I wasn’t sure if I had gotten the right tea. I showed it to my mother, and even she thought it was very light looking for an oolong.

But the taste is nice and smooth. It leans toward the green side of oolong, I believe, it almost tastes like a green tea, but not with that something that comes with green tea, just a vegetal flavor. And there is almost a flower in it, not like jasmine or anything like that, just a sweetness in the scent that lends to the taste. But still, there seems to be a little missing. It’s good, but nothing to scream about. Maybe that’s just my mood lately, I want productivity and I want it NOW. :-) I think I can pull this out for mellow weekends. It’s mellow tea.

It’s tasty still, hot and iced, like I’ve been drinking the past couple of days. And man, those leaves look like my lawnmower bag after it’s all done steeping.

I was trying to find a really good Formosa Oolong for my friend to try. Alas, Teavana didn’t have anything like what I was looking for. It did have this one, which I’ve belatedly realised – thanks to the description in their printed catalogue not mentioning this – is a Ti Kuan Yin.

Vegetal is the first description that comes to mind. It’s very green, in the plant sense rather than the green tea sense. I don’t remember other Ti Kuan Yins I’ve tried having this quality, at least not to anything like this extent, though it’s been a few months since I’ve had one.

The tea is also a little floral, but nothing like as floral as, say, an Alishan oolong. Overall, it ends up less sweet than I was expecting, and also with none of that silky, buttery sort of texture that I’ve come to expect from the top drawer Formosa Oolongs.

This is not to say that I didn’t like this tea: I did. It is smooth, it is floral, and it is… green. < / star trek reference > It’s a good oolong if you’re in the mood for a Chinese oolong at the greener end of the scale – but I’ll be ordering a good Formosa Oolong from somewhere else for my friend before I go home. ;-)

I’ve tried to like this tea. I’ve mixed it in things, I’ve made it in Yixing teapots…but somehow, all I seem to get is the flavor of dirty bathwater. No orchid as far as the eye can see.

I still need to try a few more ways of making it (wonder if it would taste better in glass?), but so far, this tea is a no for me.

My boyfriend and I broke down and brought a pound of the Monkey-Picked Oolong and blended it with a Raspberry Mate. I have to admit it is very soothing for our often irritated digestive systems. But being new to the tea-drinking culture, we are desperately seeking the advice of others for teas that won’t break the bank!!! Any suggestions are welcome. So happy to be apart of this awesome website:)

Im not a huge fan of most of Teavana’s teas, however, this is definitely one of their better ones.

I recently purchased this tea from Teavana to see how well their Ti Kuan Yin stacked up to others in the market. While certainly not a bad tea, I had a few complaints about the quality of this particular one.

The dry leaves had a faint floral aroma, tightly curled up, with a light green/dark green mix with some splotches of brown.

I prepared this tea according to the suggested steep time of 3 min and using 195F water using a gaiwan.

The resulting brew gave me a clear dark yellow-green cup with a faint floral aroma. As with my other TKY’s, I intended to brew the tea at least 7 times.

My first cup was sweet, floral, with a slightly creamy texture and a surprising hint of milky flavor (like those present in the famous “Milk Oolongs”). My second cup retained its sweetness and floral aroma but was much less creamy and with no “milky” hint. In my third steeping, the brew became quite bland, retaining just a hint of the floral taste. In my fourth cup, the tea became just a hint of what it once was and now had a faint bitter taste in the background. From this point forward, I knew this tea wouldn’t make it to the seventh steep. I decided to steep it two more times and the resulting brews in the 5th and 6th cup were pale green cups with no aroma and small hints of flavor. I didn’t bother with a seventh cup because by now, my tea just tasted as slightly flavored hot water.

I checked on the wet leaves and while Teavana claims of “unbroken, evenly sized leaves,” this tea was made of nothing but broken pieces of leaves, a few steams, and two or three well preserved leaves . The leaves also felt quite fragile to the touch.

Overall, My first cup was pretty enjoyable, although not as complex as others I’ve tasted but still quite good. The only problem I have with this tea is that it releases most, if not all, of its flavor in the first cup making the subsequent cups just a far cry of what it once was. I feel this tea would be great as an everyday oolong, but the price ($25 for 2oz) and claims of quality (highest grade of oolong in the world) does not match its value.

I love this tea! I drink at least two cups every morning. The flavour is wonderful; stronger than some oolongs with a good soft aftertaste. Definitely more vegetal than flowery but it does have that classic hint of orchid taste and aroma. I like this up to the fourth infusion. An absolute staple for me.