Tie Guan Yin “Iron Goddess” Oolong Tea (Ti Kuan Yin)

It has been a long day at the office. No particular reason, just very very long and I am ready to go home. To accompany me on this long slow Monday there has been this Oolong in my cup. Also, throughout the day I have been greeted by chocolate chip cookies, edamame, sushi , and graham crackers. I am sure they are all having a great party in my stomach right now… Wish I could join them.

This tea is very good, but it isn’t quite great. Please do note that this is only my opinion. I tend to judge my oolongs by the sweet aftertaste that lingers after each sip. That tends to be my favorite part of drinking an Oolong.

The dry leaves of the tea are marvelous. They are large and emerald green. The scent is mouth watering, bit of mineral and a bit of sweet, the perfect mix for an oolong in my opinion. For some reason (and don’t get me wrong, I love Oolongs!) the smell of Oolongs has started to remind me vaguely of the smell of balloons and surgical gloves. Strangely, this isn´t a bad thing… Odd…

The first steep of was golden and delicious looking, also delicious tasting. The flavor consisted of a strong mineral component and a bit of pear and edamame. The aftertaste was a bit more sour than I would have liked and the sweet was a little more subtle than I usually want in an oolong. Still, delicious.

The second steep was a bit milder. The mineral played down and the pear stood out. The sweet aftertaste I enjoy so much was much more evident. It rolled across my tongue with every sip. By far my favorite of the three steeps.

The third steep was a bit too vegetable like for my mood in the late afternoon. Sadly, the sweet aftertaste was more of a faint memory than actually there in this cup. It was not bad at all, but it wasn´t quite what I wanted at that particular point of time. I feel like it could have benefited from a slightly longer steeping time (I only steeped it for 2 minutes).

Overall, I enjoyed it. I like having it handy at the office to accompany on “one of those Mondays”. Yum… Definitely worth a try.

Revisiting this today, so that I can compare it with the honey version. Many thanks to Angel for the free sample, which has already sparked a purchase of 100g in early April : )

First steep: 2 little-bit-heaping tsps., with honey for 2 minutes at boiling. The brewed leaves smelled very vegetal, like boiled peas. The first sip is very flavorful and strong, not totally vegetal like many greens would be, but similar. Have tried this before sans honey, and it is not sweet on it’s own, so the honey plays nicely in the brew. Floral undertones, yes, but can’t distinquish which. As it cools, it becomes more vegetal. Fell in love with this tea with first sip.

Second steep: My notes say that it was a bit weaker at 2-1/2 min, so upped it to 3 this time. The “wow” factor goes to the leaves after the 2nd steep (lots of full size leaves, mostly opened up now). What started out as a small pile of hard pellets at bottom, now takes up half my 16 oz. IngenuiTEA. First sip: The 3 minute steep time helped, as this is just as strong as the first steep (in flavor). Second steep seems less vegetal, a little more floral, but I can’t detect much of a difference between the 2 steeps. Love this tea : )

This is the only Tie Guan Yin that I have tested/tasted, but would recommend. Teavivre’s customer service and selections are outstanding.

Writing a review for this and throughly enjoying the cup. On second steep and just as lovely and can go many many more steeps.
I am not much on floral teas but this one is a spring and summer MUST!
Mmmmmmmmmmm

It’s good but not one I like. It’s too flowery for me, or a taste I associate with flowery teas. As usual good quality and great if you like that kind of thing but for me I’ll pass :D

Gong fu of the day. I’ve had this one once before but I think I mistakenly put the review under the organic version; I checked, and I have the non-organic. Whoops. Anyway I used one of the vacuum-packed sample pouches for my 6oz teapot; I measured, and it was a little over 1 Tbsp. I’m going to try this one a few short steeps to start and see how it goes. Side note: there are a lot more tiny tea bits in this pouch than I remember the last one having. Thankfully I have my ultra-fine strainer for my ru tea set, so no bits in my fairness pitcher.

After a quick rinse I did a 20 second steep, and it smelled and tasted delicious. Floral, sweet, a bit buttery, just overall delightfull. Really, basically everything I look for in a TGY, except for maybe I like a few more buttery/creamy notes, but that’s not a big thing. Second steep was also at 20 seconds, and the florals and sweetness have faded considerably from the aroma, while the vegetal greenness has become much stronger. The taste is pretty enjoyable; not as good as the first, but perhaps a bit better than my previous second steeps with other oolongs. Still some sweetness, still some florals, perhaps more butteriness, along with the increased vegetal notes. Third steep at 25 seconds is down to mediocrity. Maybe I do need to use way more leaf for my pot. I will certainly burn through my stash quickly that way!

This is an outstanding Tie Guan Yin. Sweet, floral with hints of vegetation. A beautiful infusion. Incredibly smooth, with a buttery quality that gets better with each subsequent infusion. Remarkably fragrant, it is a pleasure to inhale just before taking a sip.

Truly a delight, this Tie Guan Yin!

Tea of the late afternoon……

The last of my samples from TeaVivre. I did end up placing an order, so it will be interesting to try the new samples they send along with my order.

We had an odd break in the cold weather today, so it was a great day for lighter teas than I normally drink. This was my first Tie Guan Yin. I really liked it. It was buttery like the milk oolongs I have tried, and lightly floral. One thing I find very interesting about the greener oolong varieties is how the liquor almost feels heavy in the mouth. I am sure it is part of the magic of tea, and it something that draws me to oolongs, or maybe more vegetal teas in that you feel you are drinking much more than water. The other thing I really like about greener oolongs and the jasmine green I had earlier today is that I really enjoy them without additions. This one was not an exception. The leaves brewed up huge and bright green. The liquor was pale yellow with a hint of green. Really a great tea. It is going on the shopping list!

My second sampling of TEAVIVRE samples arrived today!!! So excited! Thank you Angel and TEAVIVRE so much for your generosity!!
This was my first sample to try.
I used only 2tsp of leaves instead of 3-4 because it looked like way too much, I am glad that I did because there was hardly enough room in my infuser.
Dry, this tea smells very vegetal, I was a little worried at this point, I am not the biggest fan of really vegetal teas.
Steeped, the leaves also smell very vegetal, but then when you take out the leaves, it smells much sweeter and more floral….weird, but good!
1st steep: very fresh, earthy, vegetal, with notes of floral and nuttiness (not the usual butteriness I am used to in oolongs). I also get a little sweetness and a very full mouthfeel (I like that!)
2nd: 3minutes, sweeter and possibly creamier, less vegetal, my favourite steep for sure
3rd: 4 minutes, not vegetal, but the creaminess and sweetness is starting to deteriorate, still a good steep though
4th: certainly weaker, but still maintains a good mouthfeel, and light enough to have in the evening without being up all night, hopefully….
Overall, I really like this, a very different green oolong than I am used to.

Another offering that I received from Teavivre. I have tried a few Ti Kuan Yin Oolongs and they all seem have different characters. Some more green. Others more oxidized. Some having a nutty or honey characteristic. There is a beauty in watching the Iron Goddess unfurl to present her glorious nectar. I do like how this is packaged, I can make a pot with one package. Opening up the dry leaves….whoa! Very floral. Very green. Smells like packaged summer. I know this is not a jasmine scented or flavored Oolong but it smells very similar. The leaves produce a pale yellow liquor. The smell and flavor remind me of that first part of June when you can really start to smell the Jasmine. Another great offering from Teavivre.

Finished the last of this today, and I’m a little sad it’s gone. It was a really good Tie Guan Yin. My office just got a new water dispenser as part of a switch to a new vending company, and it has a hot water spigot that dispenses clean, hot, and not funny-tasting water on a consistent basis. Yay! This means I get to take teas to work that are better than I would have normally taken, since I’m hesitant to waste good tea on “office water”. Before this I don’t think the hot water dispenser was properly maintained – it always tasted like some cleaning product. 0_o

This was a good work tea since it didn’t get bitter with extended steeping (I tend to throw the leaves in the cup and wing it) and it lasted for more steepings than I expected.

First review. Thank you again Teavivre for the beautifully packaged sample. This was the second tea that I shared with my granddaughter Megan today after watching Amadeus. I didn’t let her have a smell of the wet tea leaves…just the pour which was a steep of 3 minutes. She could not believe the flavor! “This is incredible…what is this”! I laughed and explained and asked what she tasted. It’s floral, buttery, popcorn. Then I had her smell the beautiful green wet tea leaves. “Spinach grandma! How could that smell make such a different tasting tea”? And that’s part of the magic isn’t it. The chameleon character of some tea…smells like one thing tastes like something else…huh we all know what that’s like don’t we. And we love that surprise too. This gem of a high quality A+ tea is so smooth a luscous. The flavor so well balanced that no one nuance outshines another. I found myself looking at the bottom of my cup like an addict ready to dip my finger in to grab for the last drop. Fortunately I can resteep many times without denigration. This is a keeper tea!

This sample was provided to me by Angel from Teavivre approximately 1 to 2 months ago. My apologies in the delay before tasting, life got away with me. I’ve decided to do all my initial reviews on these teas following package directions. Though I would not ordinarily steep an oolong in boiling water for 1 to 3 minutes, I will give it the old college try, and hopefully post an additional note at another time with my usual parameters. For the tasting, I am using my gaiwan with one sample packet and sharing with the beau in our little double walled teacups.

Dry leaves smell sweet, and remind me of hay and grass. The beau proclaims them earthy but as in “of the earth” not dirt. : )

First steep: One minute, boiling water. The liquor is pale yellow with a hint of green, not nearly as deep as I feared. The smell is very vegetal, my first thoughts are boiled spinach and leafy greens. This does not appeal to me, but I’ll give it a shot – once it’s cool enough to drink! The leaves have opened a LOT and are very pretty in my gaiwan. As it cools the boiled greens aroma fades (yay) and the taste is surprising. There is an aspect of green vegetalness (ya, I said vegetalness, what of it? :D) but this is really nice. I am not a green tea drinker and tend to prefer oolongs that are more like black teas, but this is really pleasant. Surprisingly sweet and rich. There is a floral aspect which is very present in the taste, but not overwhelmingly. Reminds me of a few flowering teas I have tried and enjoyed. I’m impressed! The beau, on the other hand, says “it’s kinda plain”. Well.

Second steep: 2 minutes, boiling water. The liquor is much darker this time ‘round though the smell is fairly similar. Let it cool so I don’t burn my tongue and the taste is actually quite vegetal with a hint of bitterness. Jumping up to 2 minutes was clearly too much for me, I should have stuck at 1.5 for now. For an experienced oolong drinker the bold vegetal aspect of this might be appealing, but it is a bit too much for an oolong novice such as myself. Ah well, it’s my own fault! The beau proclaims that this steep is better and he likes it more. He has a recently discovered love for green tea, so this makes sense.

I think I will take a break now to prepare lunch and add any notes about further infusions later on, if I think of it. I have only tried 3 or 4 different Tie Guan Yins now, so I barely know what I am talking about but I found this to be really present and quite bold. Though I feared the boiling water, I think that is what maintained the strength of flavour.

Many thanks to Teavivre for this tea!

I decided to brew this one for minute, then increase a minute on each steep.

The leaves are very green, and very pretty. When I removed my brewing basket after my first steep the leaves were practically glowing :)

This is a very, very, very green oolong. It is almost like a green tea to me. A little more vegetal than some others I have tasted on this first steep, although it does retain that…Tie Guan Yin-ness! Interestingly enough, I’m really enjoying it despite the idea I have in my head that “I don’t like green tea.”

(I am now beginning to think it’s not that I don’t like green tea, but that I LIKE CAFFEINE and green tea has less. I don’t get the fiendish jolt from greener teas. Maybe that’s a good thing?!)

The leaves have unfurled even more on the second steep. They’re huge! The taste is a little less green, but more round and buttery and Mmmmmmm! The delicacy remains.

I’m really enjoying this, and am looking forward to at least two more steeps! Maybe I’m ready for a little “bump” in my horizon widening :)

This is a lightly oxidized full leaf oolong. The dry leaf is rolled into typical nuggets with a faint grassy smell. I used almost a 3g scoop of leaf. First steep, 3 minutes at about 175F. The wet leaf is dark and looks like broccoli leaves and is mildly grassy smelling. The brew was a very pale yellow almost clear. It has a sweet floral aroma. The taste is sweet and floral with a bit of a grassy aftertaste. A bit weak my fault (keep reading).

On the second steep, 2m, the leaves are now open and covering the entire bottom of my press rising up almost to the plunger screen. Slightly darker brew with more pronounced flavor that is a lot closer to what I was expecting. Still a bit green. I am detecting melon(?) in the aftertaste that lingers. Just noticed Teavivre recommends 212F water! Oops!

Third steep, 2m. Got the temp right this time. Well, hello flavor. Feels a little milky to me now. No bitterness.

Fourth steep, 3m. The TGY flavor is a lot milder. Longer steep would have helped. Still tasty.

Fifth and final steep, 4m. The flavor changed to darker and earthier with almost raw puerh qualities. The aftertaste is a mix of floral, grass, and fruity. It no longer tastes like a TGY but I like where it is going. Wish I had time to try one more steep.

Great big thank you to Teavivre for this sample! I was very surprised at their generosity. Always a pleasure dealing with them.
I really wanted to try one of the samples of tea from Teavivre, but I had a friend with me who was a novice and so I did not want to turn into a tea geek and start taking notes while drinking my first steeping. Since only two short steepings were done with the leaves throughout the visit, I decided to resteep the leaves the next day. Multiple times. End result? Delicious.
The broth is sweet veggies.. almost like sweet peas that have been concentrated down to their sugar juices and infused with a florally bouquet teeming with nectar. On the previous steep (would have been steep 5), there were buttery tones throughout the cup. All of the steeps were outrageously delicious and very pleasing on this hot day.
I will be posting a gongfu style review soon as well because I think it would be an amazing oolong for it.

Ladies, gents and goons, the boys are back in town, well there is only one of me and I actually never left town so never mind. I should know better than to try and use pop culture references, never could quite get the hang of them, and if that means not understanding Lady Gaga than I am ok with this fact.

So its been some time since I’ve been on steepster, been quite sometime since I sat down and enjoyed a proper cup of tea as well, this is not an acceptable thing. But my life is beginning to calm a bit and I am indulging my fancies and enjoying my rituals again. Even bought a new pot to kick things off.

So yesterday I received a package in the mail, I like packages :), but this was no ordinary package it had green “China Post” tape all over it, these are very exciting packages. This parcel was particularly intriguing since I wasn’t expecting anything from China. I decided to leave the box unopened until I could remember what I ordered. This game lasted all of .0314159 seconds before I realized that this was a terrible idea for a game, the box probably contained tea or anthrax, either way inquiring minds wanted to know. Fortunately this time it was tea.

I opened the box and curiously discovered 4 high quality, sealed, opaque food grade bags, at this point I am relatively certain it is tea, the fact that the bags proudly proclaimed Teavivre didn’t hurt my theory. At this point I am confused, I really don’t remember ordering these, not that I am complaining however. Took me some time and I remember a lovely young lady contacting awhile back asking if I would review some teas for Teavivre, I know your asking yourself how I know that she was a lovely young lady, the answer should be obvious, she sent me tea! :)

So I should stop rambling and actually review the tea. First off many thanks to Teavivre! Now down to business.

The packaging was quite impressive! The aforementioned poly tea bags were packaged inside a decent size cardboard box with air mailers protecting the valuable contents. All in all the packaging was much larger than it needed to be but it was packaged in such a way to provide protection for the tea, not crammed into the smallest package possible like I have seen other companies do.

Today it was time to try one of them, as the sun decided to grace the pacific northwest with its presence today I settle on the TGY. As I prepared to open the bag I noticed that its contents did not feel like TGY leaves, or any type of tea leaves for that matter. I thought maybe they shipped me the seeds instead for me to grow my own bushes. Not that that wouldn’t be fun but I am glad I was wrong.

So inside of this sealed, opaque, food grade, thick poly bags there were 4 smaller, sealed opaque food grade bags that were vacuum packed with about 5 grams of leave in each bag. So I am officially impressed this degree of care in the packaging shows that alot of time, thought and money went into making sure your cup of tea is going to be the best it possibly could be. Considering these are samples I am a bit blown away. But wait there is more the package contains detailed information about the tea, location picked, manufacturer, production date. I really like that Teavivre went the extra mile here, makes you feel better about the quality of tea you are going to receive.

Now to be fair I do have mixed feelings about the packaging, while I like the care that was involved, the amount of disposable packaging that was used is not the greenest way to go and not terribly environmentally friendly, kinda a catch 22 though. Not really a complaint, more of a general musing.

Well this review is gone on long past long enough and I haven’t even reviewed the tea yet. T provide a fair and accurate review I am going to wait till after I have another sitting with this tea to get a good feel for it. I will say that I am on my seventh infusion and still getting a good flavor from it though. Yeah I’m impressed.

Also I promise the actually review will be much shorter, but I couldn’t help myself, I just missed ya’ll so much!

Thank you so much to Teavivre for the ridiculously generous sample pack.

I am still a novice to these straight, quality teas, so I have to write my review of this on a comparison basis.

I have recently come to realize I am a fan of oolongs, though as with most teas I prefer the flavored to the unflavored. I did enjoy the milk oolongs I’ve tried so far, which I don’t think were flavored but yet still creamy and buttery and a bit sweet, which is definitely what I want in an oolong.

An example of an oolong I didn’t like was the Tung Ting Vietnam from Davidstea, as it was super spinach tasting to me. I do not like spinachy tea, so that is to say that I prefer the less vegetal teas.

This one was somewhere in between. So far I’ve only had one steep, I followed the directions and went 2 minutes at boiling, I think 1 minute would have been fine to allow for a stronger second steep. I will give that a try later on.

Steep one at 2 minutes was pretty flavorful. This is not a very sweet or creamy oolong, it was a bit vegetal but not so much so that I was turned off. I am not sure I would order it, however.

I did get samples of the milk oolong (both flavored and unflavored) and I am very excited to try them.
As of now I am incredibly impressed with this company just based on their customer service.

I know they have quality teas, and if I rate my samples in a mediocre way it has nothing to do with the tea and everything to do with my own tastes at this point on my little tea journey. I like that I am slowly broadening my horizons – baby steps!

Glad to try this and looking forward to steeps 2 and maybe 3 :)

I decided to not bother with a numerical rating as I don’t want to bring down the score, as I said I don’t feel I am qualified at this point given my own tastes. Teavivre has a great rep so when I want some good straight teas I know where to go! Thanks again!

It’s too cold outside. Of course I won tickets to an outdoor event taking place today so I have to spend the hours leading up to it drinking this tea.

I’ve never had a Tie Guan Yin before, and I don’t know why it’s taken this long for me to have one. I like it! It has a really full flavor, creamy and floral at the same time. It’s like a green tea with a really good punch.

I’m not at my own apartment right now and I hate that I’m having to use a T-sac instead to steep, but it’s kind of hard to carry a teapot with you when you’ve got to take a bulky winter jacket and boots to prepare for the next day. I’ve got plenty more so I can watch as the leaves unfurl as soon as I am back home!

I will still probably steep this again if I have time before having to go freeze. It’s reeeeeally good!

Another generous sample provided by Teavivre

I like black teas and green teas, so you would think oolongs would be up my alley. I honestly still can’t answer whether they are or not because I have been hesitant to take the plunge and order enough to compare them.

That said, I have had TGY before, though it was a while ago. When I sipped this, I suddenly remembered that other tea and could compare their differences, even with that big gap in time. This one was decidedly more floral in taste (both were equally floral in smell) but the other TGY had more of a slick buttery feel on the tongue. This one was very light, and alternated between being vegetal and floral with small hints of that oily/buttery flavor on the swallow, though it didn’t coat my tongue like the previous TGY.

This was great with no additives; I finished my first cup quickly and am contemplating a second, which is atypcial for me – usually I prefer one large cup and am done.

Steeped 2 of the 4 sample sized packets in 500 ml. water at the below parameters in my Breville.

The dry leaf aroma truly makes me anticipate the aroma of the brewed tea and the subsequent flavor that will follow. The kitchen was filled with the aroma when I doused the leaf with a 4 minute steep. I would love to use the Gaiwan but my time lately has been limited. As I await the tea to cool slightly I ponder the generosity of Angel and I would like to take this time to thank her.
Immediately upon consumption I am reminded why I am so fond of TKY. The tea has flavors that are bordering on a minted spinach butter liquor. The energy is inviting and a wonderful way to start the day. Invigorating and calming at the same time. To me, the sign of a fine tea.