Hand Picked Tieguanyin Spring Oolong (2011)

This is an amazing Oolong. It starts out with a distinct vanilla note that melds harmoniously with the natural creamy notes of the Oolong, it almost tastes like a cream filled pastry! As I continued to sip, I noticed a savory honeysuckle note emerge, as well as some Saffron-like flavors. The first cup of infusions 1 & 2 were primarily all about the creamy flavors, vanilla sweetness and so smooth and rich.

The second cup (infusions 3 & 4) were less creamy, but the creamy notes were still present, just not as strong as in the first cup. I began to notice a herbaceous quality emerge, and the honeysuckle-like notes became more of an orchid-like flavor. More floral, this time, less creamy, but still very good.

The third cup (infusions 5 & 6) was so different from the first cup that it is hard to believe that they are the same tea! The creaminess is pretty much gone at this point, but the floral notes are strong, and the vegetative notes have emerged slightly. This is also where I began to notice the fruit tones which are somewhat tropical. The tasting notes from Verdant suggest a juicy mango kind of taste, and I get that comparison, but this tastes more like a medley of tropical fruit rather than a distinct mango note.

An amazing Tieguanyin… AMAZING!

I don’t think my sample of this was from 2011 as the name suggests. I suspect this is from 2012, but I didn’t see one for 2012 so I’ll just stick this note here.

Snow storm Nemo has allowed me the opportunity to work from home today. That means pajamas and quality tea. I’m doing this one in my gaiwan, which I’m doing better with, but I need to work on amount of tea. I used way too much this time. But this still tastes lovely once I dilute what comes out with a bit of hot water. Not really focusing on this tea, which is a shame since it’s so wonderful, but I have to use my brain for working today. :) I thought I get this one sipped down since it’s getting on in age, which is not so good for a green oolong. :)

I’m glad I’m home. Snow storms are so much nicer when you’re watching from your window with a hot cup of tea. I’m just worried about getting home to my family tomorrow for Chinese New Year. sad.

AMAZING!
Lovely!

The others reviews are all high and I agree! This is stellar!

As soon as the liquor hits the tongue it IS quite candy-like…nice and sweet! Then it’s smooth, creamy, buttery, and sweet. There is a lovely smooth-floral after taste – much like honeysuckle! I’m going to do multiple infusions on this one!

WOW!

This was a sample from Verdant, how generous! thank you!
My first cup of this was lovely, rather light and leafy tasting. Like a lush salad! yum. Second steep however, was ALL Jasmine. Not really my thing. So… I sadly could not finish the cup. Anyone who enjoys Jasmine however, would love this tea. I plan on donating the rest to my Mumsies :)
Rating: first cup = 87, second cup = 60 for an overall rating of 76. I’m sure Mum will place it closer to 90 though!

What a gorgeous tea! Intoxicating-smelling and delicious, this is definitely the nicest Tieguanyin I’ve got my hands on so far. This is my tea happy place, for sure. It’s fascinating to evolve with it through the infusions, and the experience makes me feel so privileged and content. This is floral, green, sweet, and creamy in ways that change slightly between infusions but that remain perfectly balanced. Delicate and yet satisfyingly robust!

It was as if David and Co. over at Verdant were reading my mind when I placed my last order for Sun Dried Jingshan…because I almost ordered some of this too. I’d tried and LOVED the Autumn picked variety so I was really curious to compare the two. Well, guess which sample turned up in my order!!??

This one is also fantastic! Very light and refreshing, the perfect tea to end my evening with. I’m loving the buttery/creamy flavor too. Clearly you can’t go wrong picking up either fall or spring oolong. I fear another order may be placed a little too soon! The bigger problem would be trying to hid it from my husband. ;)

Just had this tea this morning. Drinking it reminds me of the farmer friend who supplies it. We used to drink Tieguanyin together for hours a day while I was living in China. I would try a new picking and exclaim how good it was, and she would just shrug and wash her mouth out with water. When I called her to ask if she had anything that I could bring in, she said that this crop was “actually pretty good.” That was the first positive review i got from her and I purchased the entire picking. I sure am glad that I did. This spring 2011 tea is so unique because it bridges the floral lingering candy flavor of typical high-end spring Tieguanyin and combines it with the robust creamy deep and sweet grass flavor of autumn Tieguanyin. It is truly commanding, and forces you to keep drinking. I did six steepings and then logged on to review it and my internet crashed. I took it as a sign that I was supposed to keep drinking through another 15 steepings. Happy that I did. Five hours later I still have the floral creamy flavor lingering in mouth.

As an aside, the woman that grows this tea is working to start a tea therapy program for primary school students, much like art or music therapy to help children deal with stress and learn patience and social skills through tea ceremony. Hopefully with more and more Americans falling in love with her tea, she will able to realize that dream.

Ah, finally time to try this one! Oh my goodness, the dried leaf smells amazingly sweet and floral; I am very excited. I’ve tried one plain Tieguanyin before (at the Harney Soho shop), and while I enjoyed pretty well I wasn’t blown away or moved to buy it. I have a distinct feeling this one will be different!

Brewed “western” style in my 12 oz Kati cup. The liquor is a pale yellowish green, and it smells awesome. Fresh and floral, warm and buttery, sweet and creamy. Yup, the raves about this tea are totally warranted: it is amazing. The main body of the sip is light and fresh and green and buttery, and then toward the end the florals (orchid, magnolia, lilac) really come out along with a very lightly sweet aftertaste that gets a bit stronger as the tea cools. It still never gets as sweet as some oolongs I’ve had, just a faint wisp of sweetness to tease your taste buds. All of the characters of a Tieguanyin are present in spades in this tea; truly an amazing example of it’s kind.

I loved this tea! I received it as a sample from Verdant Tea. Thanks David! This is a relatively green tieguanyin, and not bitter, at all. It’s robustly floral, creamy and sweet. Not thinking, I used boiling water, and so I didn’t make it to 30 steeps (It was a long day, and I was pretty brain dead). However, it didn’t hurt a thing, and it was still quite excellent, and not bitter, at all. In fact, there was a distinct evergreen, sort of pine, flavor and aroma. It was most delicious, and a big part of why I rated this so high. After a dozen or so steepings, the floral and evergreen flavors started to taper-off, and the sweet, creamy flavor began to take center stage. After 15 or so, this started to take on more of a classical tieguanyin flavor. It’s very clean and smooth, and the beautiful color really held on, well into the later steepings. The sweetness lingers in my mouth, and keeps it watering. I can totally see this becoming a favorite!

This is easily the best Oolong I have tried from the new spring picking this year. Incredibly creamy and a fresh lilac that is amongst some of the most perfect Tieguanyin I have ever had. Though this tea is not perhaps the highest end in competition in China because of its creaminess, it makes it much more affordable and honestly, it is hard to tell if this is indeed inferior to some of the very floral Tieguanyin’s that are available.

Overall this has been my favorite tea of the new season.

GUH. This tea was like drinking GOD, if God were green and leafy and buttery and sweet and a little bit floral but not too much and GUH. Amazing. I steeped this three times and each cup had a slightly different personality, each one utterly delicious.

I have never had a tea give me such a strong sense of deja vu. I don’t mean “oh wait, I think I’ve had this before” deja vu. I mean, “What is that smell? What is that incredibly floral smell? I’ve smelled it before…in the evening…in happier times…” After one cup I’ve got it narrowed down to either summer camp, or sometime in college. But I’m not pushing my brain to really remember. I’m happy to just smell this tea, and linger on the verge of remembering something happy.

This is my first gongfu brewing and I don’t know if I’m doing it right. I’m using the instructions Dave from Verdant Tea sent with the shipment (wow, this is the first tea I’ve ordered that comes with full documentation!) but my gaiwan, which JUST came in the mail today from China, doesn’t have a little pouring spot on the edge, so I’m still very amateurish in my handling of the pouring process. I’m steeping for the correct number of seconds—and then I’m taking a minute and a half to pour! So I’m sure I’m oversteeping.

But this tea shows no signs of bitterness. It is relentlessly floral thus far (rinse, 1 brew which I’m finishing drinking, four brews that went into a pitcher for tomorrow’s iced tea), a light yellowy-green color, with a lovely, almost minty undertone. I’m still learning what people mean when they call a tea “sweet” (besides actual sugar); I think this is a type of sweetness, one I could get used to! Not the slightly cloying sweetness of teas with actual flower flavors added, but the sweetness of really good mineral or spring water, light and cool on the tongue. So tasty and refreshing.

This is becoming hard to describe…I’m going to go get another infusion and add that note later.

I received this as a sample from Verdant Teas so a “Thank You Very Much” is in order! I am so glad I got to try this. It is not something I would choose on my own mainly because of my “newness” to the world of tea. At this stage in the game my lack of “tea experience” really hinders me from identifying all the unique flavors that unfold with each steeping of this tea (that so many others can distinguish). But I do know I love the size and smell of these leaves!
Right now I can simply say I really really like this tea!

Working my way through my Verdant Oolong samples and after three sessions with this tea, I have a handle on my feelings about this tea. First of all, the infused leaves are beautiful—I leave them on a white plate during the day to marvel at the size and brilliant green color with lightly bruised edges. The fragrance of the brewed tea reminds me of daylillies and cut grass and the first mouthful is nicely balanced between the vegetal (fresh steamed spinach or chard) and the floral. There’s a sweet fruity fizz that asserts itself after as few seconds—pleasantly so. This isn’t the kind of tea that is likely to have me writhing with pleasure—I tend to favor black teas and pu-erhs—but I can appreciate the unimpeachable excellence of its qualities and I defer to others who insist this is one of the best Tieguanyins available.

What a beautiful Spring Oolong! I loaded up my gaiwan and brewed just as David suggested, yielding a nice succession of cups almost exactly as described. Wonderful aromas, wonderful flavor and a really pleasant morning sipping on this tea.

Since I grow orchids, I didn’t get this as the most prominent scent. Instead I get the sweet honeysuckle, with a background of orange blossom and jasmine. The first two steeps give a slightly green flavor followed by buttery creaminess in the later brews and some even have a faint aroma of pine or fir trees behind the floral bouquet.

An outstanding tea, plain and simple. ;)

This is EASILY the best TGY I’ve ever had. I’m happy to have found Verdant Teas, for their teas are wonderful (and are getting pretty high ratings here on Steepster all around).

Brewing this Western-style (1 tsp / 8 oz. water), I managed to get 2-3 strong cups before the tea became significantly weak.

The first cup was yelling lilacs, to the point of being lightly perfumey. It was so good! I love those kinds of floral qualities, and the vegetal aftertaste complemented it extremely well. This tea is very smooth, making it even better for this time of year.

The second cup lacked much of the lilac power, but that’s when the umami and sweetness really jumped out. The vegetal aftertaste actually became stronger, which I personally appreciate.

The third cup, as I stated before, was when it started becoming watery. The vegetal qualities were still faintly there, but everything else had mostly died down. As per David’s advice (which, Verdant Tea’s customer service is better than most places you’ll ever go), I think next time I’ll try using more tea, and steep it for a shorter amount of time. One thing I did miss was the creamy-buttery flavor so many TGYs have, but perhaps with more tea next time I’ll be able to bring it out. Perhaps trying Gong-fu steeping would help as well.

I loved this TGY so much, I actually am dedicating a new Yixing I just received to it. If you even remotely like greener oolongs, you must buy this variety!!

Well, my original paper notes went something like “Hand-picked Spring KY: !!!!!!!!! Buttery flowers! Holy cow! :) :) :)” I say this as someone who is very cautious about floral teas. Heavy flower flavors are not my style. But multiple tastings with multiple infusions have certainly borne out my initial impressions!

One of the shocking things about the leaves, once they uncurl, is how very GREEN they are. They’re rich, spring, on-the-tree green…none of that dark or pale shadowy green in this tea. And they stay that way, 20 or 30 infusions in.

It is so very light. At first you feel cheated because it’s just hot water…and then a fairy comes along and breathes ever so lightly into your mouth, and hits the “top” of the palate. You feel it more in your head than in your throat…it’s buttery without being thick, floral without being cloying, and above all, sweetly clean. The flavor continues admirably through loads of re-steepings; over time it becomes slightly honey-like, and hits the throat just the tiniest bit.

Definitely an A+ tea.

EDIT, 8/11: Just showed some friends this tea, and was shocked by the strong tastes of lilac that came up. Previous tastings had come up with much stronger orchid and cream flavors, but the lilac was overwhelming this time around (in a good way!). It reminded me of that first warm spring day when you walk under a giant lilac bush and the smell envelopes you softly. The “white flower” taste of the first steeping or two gave way to that strong, sunny, “yellow and purple flower” sensation. (Seriously. It tastes purple. It’s bizarre.)

I just got home to find my delivery from Verdant. They are fast! It’s too late at night to taste so I had to put a teaspoon in the Mason jar to watch the leaves unfurl in the refridgerator. In the afternoon I will be in for a treat.

The smell of the leaves is floral with some mowed grass (on a hot afternoon) aroma.

I tasted two steeps in a 8 oz steeping mug.

1st: Almost boiling water, 3 min. The liquor is a clear, bright green. There is a light floral aroma. My first impression is that I haven’t tasted a tea this complex before. I sip over and over again trying to break down what I am tasting. The first taste is a floral one, but not a strong perfume floral taste. This is followed by a flavor that I only know from oolong tea. It is savory, not at all smokey. It reminds me of the savory flavor of wonton soup broth, but without the saltiness. I haven’t had oolong in so long that I had forgotten this taste. Overall, the taste is sweet and floral. Breathing out my nose gives a great floral flavor. Swishing it around violently in my mouth (with lots of air) brings out a great nutty flavor. How many ways can I taste this? Everything is soft; there are no sharp edges here.

2nd: 205 degrees, 5 min. This cup is less floral. There is more sweet flavor and some nuttiness coming out. I feel the first sense of astringency. There is the start of a bitter edge, which I like, but not enough to call this bitter. The aftertaste stayed sweet and seemed to get nuttier as I sipped this over ten minutes. Overall, this cup is sharper. There are fewer flavors and they are more well defined.

I kept writing floral because I didn’t know what flower to call it. I thoroughly enjoyed taking the time to taste this tea. I am excited to see what is in the remaining teas in the sampler pack this tea came in.

Absolutely love it! I’ve tried this Tieguanyin on four different occasions now. First two times a friend brewed it to share, third time I brewed it for myself to drink throughout the day, and the fourth time I brewed it to share with a friend. Each time it’s been brewed Gongfu style. This last brewing I kept the leaves in my gaiwan from almost three days and kept infusing until the flavor started to dissipate, which was likely over 25 infusions, but I lost count. The friend I shared this with on Sunday, who is only mildly interested in tea, was very impressed and thoroughly enjoyed it. I have about 1.75 ounces of this Tieguanyin remaining, and I’m definitely feeling that I must purchase a greater stock before it’s all bought up. My experiences with this tea have instilled in me an unshakable faith that the person who sources Verdant’s Teiguanyin knows what they’re doing, and make me look forward to future offerings of similar quality. If Tieguanyin gets better than this, I can’t imagine it, but would no doubt welcome the possibility. For the time being, this tea from what must have been an exceptionally good harvest is available until it’s gone. . . . and the thought of that makes me anxious to buy more.