Hand Picked Spring Tieguanyin (2012)

Had my birthday party last night, where I converted a few people with this tea! Yay!

Sadly, it wasn’t as tasty as it has been, simply because of the vessels I had on hand. They were plastic. Wow – it affected the flavour a LOT, but since my guests didn’t have any note of comparison, they were still quite impressed! I am happy for that :)

Today is my real birthday and it is kind of awful because I had a migraine last night as the party was winding down, and now today I feel weird and sick. Blargh.

I will have a blog post soon about the great tea gifts I received from my boyfriend, they are gorgeous and I am happy :)

Yay for tea, yay for new converts!

Azz this sample is being drank with great appreciation towards you. I’m also glad that I did not make the mistake to totally dismiss this tea, for I had made a small amount of a Spring Tieguanyin and found it to be bitter, problem is it was earlier on and I very well may have messed it up. I don’t think I messed it up this time…
A jolly little drink to be sure. Flavors jumped out at me too fast to pen with the first few sips, so I will try to get what I can out of it.
I followed the well written and informative directions to a TEA (yukyuk). At first I noticed a creamy/buttery mouthfeel that was saturated with a floral sweetness. We had honeysuckle growing thickly on a fence so I feel informed enough to agree with the description as to this part. I tasted the orchid note as well.
As the drink cooled the green flavors started to surface, though with such a faint astringency that I, AWM (see comments on Bananas Foster), was able to overlook it. The grassiness was not super strong either.
I’m on the third steep now and surprised at how strong this is still going. It’s changed without deminishing. There’s some kind of mouthfeel that reminds me of chicken noodle soup, though clean and not oily at all. I guess it’s the overall presence being bold, yet light, that impressions me with soup broth/stock.
The quality of this tea is obvious. I would definitely suggest this to others.

This was my birthday tea on Friday. It was the tea I woke up with, and it seemed to be the theme of the day. My husband called tieguanyin my “birth tea” (like a birth stone, only tea!), and I find it’s more and more appropriate as time goes by. He’s certainly right, if only for the fact that the time of year lines up perfectly: the past couple of days, the big lilac bush has bloomed and it literally hits on in the head with that delicious smell every time we walk in the kitchen door, leaving us craving Guanyin’s nectar..

I woke up with this tea. My husband woke up before me (to decorate the living room with streamers! and also herding our cats so they didn’t /eat/ the streamers) and he brought up our raku tea bowls filled with this beautiful spring tieguanyin. Drinking it was like coming alive. At first, I could only smell. Opening sips were warmth soothing my throat and, gradually (as my sense continued to adjust to the waking world), that gorgeous creamy texture. Aahhh.. spring. Finally, around sips ten or so, my tongue came fully online and started sending me information about all of the lovely tastes. Definitely a great way to wake up to your birthday day off in the spring time: coming alive again with this tea, sense by sense.

Breakfast continued on the theme with perfectly ripe cantelope melon, apples dipped in local MN honey..so floral and wonderful.. and a selection of light cheeses from the Seward Coop. Yummm. We didn’t eat these with the tea, but the textures and particularly the melon/honey/apple flavors synergized extremely well with what the tea has already laid out. Home-made (did I luck out or what??) lunch included an incredible piece of salmon, marinated in soysauce-wasabi, cooked up just so with cilantro and ginger.. the texture- it just fell apart in your mouth! So sweet and mouthwatering, with a real feeling of nectar.. you wouldn’t think it would be so, but it still fell very in line with my tieguanyin day.

We continued drinking tieguanyin throughout the afternoon, and we could do so freely, because my birthday present included 8oz of this spring picking!! It makes me feel free to indulge and have the good stuff more often. Instead of saving it for a special night, we will have it and make the night special as a result. Open the windows, let the lilac pour in, drink it up from the thimble cups.

This tea makes me think of many things. With the fan running on low, it makes me want to play hooky all day and lay out in the freshly cut sweet grasses. It makes me feel like I’m in a spa, and I want to light candles and run a lilac bubble bath with intense moisturizers. It is so fine fine fine.. a classy lady that’s just gorgeous /and/ sweet. Dessert. The creamy flavors, the smooth and lovely textures that feel like you’re being wrapped up and taken care of… It could only taste better if I were drinking it in Hawaii.. on the rainy side of Kawaii, looking out over ocean cliffs, plumeria in the air.

It’s decadant nd fine, but it’s not blowing loud and brassy horns in your ear. Instead, the flavors are all soft (yet strong and impossible to ignore), full and bouyant: melons, creamy whipped florals, exotic melon-berry nectars (juice is too thin and tangy a word). It’s downright sensual. Be careful- you might have to resist the urge to kiss whoever’s drinking with you.

Spring spring spring. How lovely. How do these TGY’s keep being so good? It’s ridiculous. As chadao wrote a little while ago, these tieguanyin’s feels scandalous- like you’ve been slipped a sample of something that should have cost a fortune and is instead just under the price of Rishi’s Citron Oolong (in a tea shop… $10). I think I’ll always prefer autumn TGY’s secretly, just because they feel a little more complex, but not in this particular situation. It has all the oomph and depth I would want from Autumn, but wrapped in the lovely honey-soft touch of spring. Ridiculous. I am so lucky to be able to drink this whenever I want, plus I still have several ounces of Autumn left.

This is really nice! Definition of SPRING for sure! It’s creamy, green and springy, hints of berry and gentle floral notes, but incredible clean and pure! I’m LOVING this the more i drink it and will do multiple infusions. Thanks David! This is a treat!

Currently pairing this infusion with All Along The Watchtower ~ Jimi Hendrix

When we got in our spring harvest last year, it quickly became legendary. I was so happy to see it enjoyed by so many people, but also nervous about whether the next harvest could live up to its reputation. After sharing all the kind words said here on Steepster with the farmers through our friend and Tieguanyin devotee Weiwei, our friends in Anxi decided to send us an even more exquisite autumn harvest.

Now, spring has returned. I expected to have to wait another three weeks or so to get any of the spring Tieguanyin, but Weiwei, whose father has devoted his retirement to finding the best Tieguanyin in the world, was able to secure this early harvest. Usually Weiwei will describe a fine Tieguanyin as ‘passable’ and a mind-blowing one as ‘pretty good.’ I have been waiting to try this Tieguanyin which she called ‘amazing.’ I thought that she would just send a sample for me to approve, but she just made the call and sent a full batch of this tea. We got a large portion of the farmer’s harvest. Since they are a family operation and hand-pick everything, only 15 pounds were available when we shipped. I already asked Weiwei to have them reserve whatever is left.

I tried to describe the tea when I made a product page this morning, but it is so hard not to resort to ridiculous metaphors. This tea is the essence of spring. It is like all the young flowers, the delicate buds, the vibrantly green grass have all been crystallized into this drinking experience. It is supremely humbling. Thank you Weiwei, for the confidence to bring us this tea so soon after it was picked.

I really look forward to sending this out to all my friends here on Steepster and hope that everyone has an equally incredible experience with it. Happy Spring!

Oh my. oh my oh my. I am somewhat speechless. This is … wow. I feel like I’m drinking the soul of lilacs, young grass, ripe juicy peach and plum. It is the bounty of Mother Earth coming to life even as the last patches of snow are melting away. The taste lingering on your tongue is exquisite. I don’t know if I want to keep drinking this tea or just savor that peachy flavor in my mouth. There’s also something like apple.

I’ve been drinking Tieguanyin all my life, but this is different from any other I’ve had. Is is fair to put this tea in the same category? I suppose this is the freshest tieguanyin I’ve ever had. Picked this very season! I wonder what the leaves tastes like fresh off the plant?

The leaves are much greener than other tieguanyin as well. The smell of the tea was so vegetal at first I was a bit put off. But the flavor of the tea really takes a few sips to unfold. Then you slowly realize what a treasure you have in your cup.

Lovely.

TREAT YO’SELF!
Finally finally finally I can get back to all this tea. I promised myself I’d spend a whole day with this one on this short break before I have to go housesit for my parents and then go to class every day in June and July. Not going to want hot tea much then.

I’m using my gaiwan and combining two steepings. I love to intermix them like this, mostly because there is really no other easy way for me to get water than to do two at once.

1&2 – Green veggies, sugar, and grass. The first sip just hit me like, this is definitely spring. Definitely reminds me of my plants outside since they got a nice spring soaking yesterday. They seem extra green today. It’s just a little bit creamy, but mostly I’m getting a lot of sweet, grassy flavors that almost remind me of green tea instead. I think the creamy notes help assert it to be like, “no girl, this is a tie guan yin.”

3&4 – Now the floral flavors are coming out with the sweetness. It’s more buttery now, and still reminds me of green vegetables. It’s a nice combination. All I can really think right now is “I want to bathe in this!”

5&6 – This one got a bit too cool because I’m trying to fashion a way for my plants to get water for 6 days I’ll be gone. This cup was still very buttery, but the floral notes started to give way to a berrylike taste. I saw goji berry mentioned in the description, but I’ve never had goji by itself to know if that’s what I’m getting.

7&8 – Still creamy, sweet, and amazing. I think more fruit flavors are coming through, but it was so easy to sip these steeps down that I don’t have much more to say.

Then sadly I was pretty much done for the day (or more like I passed out for 2 hours in the late afternoon and didn’t feel like tea when I woke up) and I didn’t give the leaves a good enough time to dry out. They are now sitting on top of my sage, rosemary, and strawberry plants and hopefully will help them grow even better!

Tieguanyin time!

Truthfully, this tea is the sole reason that I made my order at Verdant. I knew that I had my monthly tea allowance to spend so I decided to just save some money and spend it all at one place. Needless to say, however, I’m super excited for this one. I feel like I ramble on too much during my infusion notes so I’m going to try and make this one as brief as possible.

First Infusion
Rinse with 208F for ~15 seconds, steep with 205F for 1 minute. The second I poured the water on the leaves, a strong aroma of fresh spinach filled my nostrils. That quickly faded a certain fresh aroma that I can’t place has somewhat masked it. This is really good! I can see why David described this as the Essence of Spring-it definitely tastes very fresh and floral and almost like that new smell in the air that you associate with spring. This is super good!

Second Infusion
208F for 1 minute and 15 seconds. Again I got a spinach-like aroma that dissipated really quickly. This infusion is a bit grassier than the first, but there’s a super sweet rock-candy-esque aftertaste. As this one cools, the floral notes come out more. This one is yummy too!

Third Infusion
208F for 1 minute and 30 seconds. This one is a lot more floral! Wow, this tastes like flower juice! I’m 98.6% sure that this is my favorite out of all of the infusions so far. This is magnificently floral and sweet, and it does taste like spring in a cup! I’m getting exhausted and (although this tea is extraordinary), I’m ready to change teas! This one has lasted me practically all day!

So far, all of my teas from Verdant have been AMAZING! I’m so glad I have two more to try but I’m going to try and space out my trying of them so I don’t ware them all out at once!

Uh oh, first to review this one? Eep.

Dry tea smells quite vegetal. Almost overwhelmingly.

First infusion (204F/30s)
Smells floral. Smooth, light, buttery. Delicious. I think I’d prefer it to be stronger, but it is delicious.

Second infusion (204F/1min)
A bit vegetal, and there’s a bit of a sharp spicy almost astringent flavour that is quite lovely. That flavour is familiar, but not always as strong in other teas. Still somewhat floral, and an oolong aftertaste.

Third infusion (205F/1min)
Less floral, again I think I’d like it a bit stronger.

Fourth infusion (205F/1min (I think))
Losing flavour, more of a fruity, round sweetness with lingering oolong aftertaste. I think if I continue steeping I’ll bump up the infusion time. Nearly did it earlier.

Ooh, returning to the first sip, it’s definitely sweeter. Mmmmm. I take back my comment about it being too weak. Retrospectively, the second infusion is actually too strong.

Oh, this is fun. I’m sipping back and forth between my four cups, tasting them all in and out of sequence. Yum yum yum.

I think next time, I’ll go with 30, 45, 60, 120 seconds for my infusions.

I have to admit that during steeping, when smelling the wet leaf, I was very worried that this was going to be intensely vegetal, but only the second infusion was a bit.

Man. This was good. I’m going to have to compare it to the Autumn Tieguanyin, and the one from DavidsTea. I don’t know whether a “good” oolong is judged by its longevity (i.e. how many good infusions you can get), or its flavour. I’m not sure I’ve yet had a “bad” oolong. Or at least, not a bad green tieguanyin-style one or milk oolong.

I just read this over and apparently I am incredibly scattered tonight! Ah well. I was in lovely oolong land. Forgive me :P

ETA: Love how I reviewed this, and was promptly followed by two others :P I guess everyone received their orders last week and waited to try things until the weekend! Fifth infusion (203F/2min). The aroma is wonderful – I don’t know if this is because the leaves sat overnight, or what. But Yum. All oolongy and floral. The flavour is surprisingly strong for a fifth infusion. I am getting some grassy notes and astringency along with – oh, there it is, the oolong aftertaste! Nom nom nom – the rest of the deliciousness, but they’re manageable. Looks like I should be taking this to a sixth before throwing out the leaves so I can try my shu nuggets…

Tightly rolled little green balls that smell floral, creamy and of parsley. Wet they smell like greens sautéed in butter. The infusion smells floral and creamy. Brewed this gaiwan style at 208F for about 5-6 seconds after an initial rinse. I always forget how much these little balls open up and I ended up putting in a little too much leaf (I don’t have a scale) and had to take some out for later use.

Initial cup was wonderfully floral and creamy. The next few infusions I could taste lilac and orchid with the tingling mint feeling on the tip of my tongue. As the infusions go on the creaminess got stronger. Around cup 4 I flipped the leaves around and then tasted vanilla and the mouthfeel became stronger. A juiciness came into play around steep number 6 as did the parsley I was smelling earlier. Around #8 the floral notes were gone and the creaminess and parsley notes were stronger as was the mouthfeel.

I stopped for a little and came back to it but after the floral notes completely fade and the mouthfeel becomes really rich with a mouth coating aftertaste with a silky texture. I really love the floral notes with this and how I can pick out actual flowers other than orchid.

Quick rinse

Wow, the fresh smell of the dried leaves is just dreamy. They look so beautiful, green and rolled. They look and taste of supreme quality.

5 seconds
Steepings 1-4: Creamy, sweet, floral. So smooth with a slight vegetal note. This takes me back to when I was a kid, drinking hot milk when I couldn’t sleep. This tea (same as the hot milk) gives you the feeling of comfort and safety.

5 seconds
Steepings 5-8: Less vegetal with a creamy, buttery, vanilla sweetness. I do notice some tingling on the tongue as well. For sure, my favourite group of steepings.

8 seconds
Steepings 9-12: Still sweet, but less buttery and creamy. I am picking up some fruity notes now.

The leaves are now almost filling my entire gongfu pot. They are so pretty. This tea could probably handle more steepings but I have some errands to run , then I want to try the Laoshan White.

Ahh so pleased I nabbed a bit of this before it sold out for the season! Verdant, how have I never heard of you before steepter!!!

This tea. Ahhhh. From the dry, fresh vegetal scent, to the creamy green scent of the wet leaves, to the even creamier and smoother taste, this tea is, simply put, elegant. It’s a fresh spring morning, with the flowers all covered in dew. I can taste a hint of something floral in the aftertaste, maybe a lilac or orchid, and a bit of honey in there too. So refreshing! An excellent treat for today, since it’s miserable, rainy fall weather, and supposed to snow maybe this week, blargh. This tea also made my headache diminish immensely! Ah, I’m ready for a few more infusions!

Overall, a superb tea. Verdant, you have done it again, and I am already thinking once I am out of this that I will have to get some of the autumn pick! Thank you for such a lovely tea on this cold, dreary day!

Note that I moved this to 2012 from 2011Tieguanyin because I had all my notes under the wrong vintage! Oh yes! All the nice comments from Steepsters are therefore lost but not forgotten! Alas…old age strikes again!

If it were not for the awesome Verdant website (as I have said before) I would be LOST! The information on how best to brew each tea is invaluable to a rookie like me. I know how to cook, but I don’t know how to fix all these varieties of tea! Fortunately I have been acquireing several brewing pots…Gaiwan, Gongfu, PIAO, regular pots made of porcelain and glass and stainless infusers. AND an electric kettle which is essential since here at high altitude water takes longer to boil. AND (wait for it) a PUER KNIFE! Ok, it’s really pretty! Trays and cozys etc. Ya’ll know what I mean. It’s like I put on roller skates with jet packs and am fast tracking through the World of Tea’s over bumps and through bushes.
Now and then someone lends a hand so that I don’t fall and hurt myself. Thanks to you all for that!

I used my PIAO 1 pot for each steep and 1tsp leaves to 4oz water.

1.The instructions for steeping are to flush first to begin opening the tight green leaves.
Then, gently introduce the water to the leaves for a 1minute steep. OK. This done, the liquor became medium light gold with a tinge of green. A light lilac floral scent introduced the tea to my nose before my first sip. The flavor was creamy and salty sweet again with soft lilac and an aftertaste of buttered yukon potatoes. This is juicy tea. I noticed a mineral taste on the finish and hint of vanilla on subsiquent sips. The creaminess is outstanding and expansive with the juiciness of the tea…it goes on and on.

2. My steeping timer got away from me. I overdid it! Oh did the leaves chuckle at my ignorance! In fact I need to mention that you just can’t use a teaball for these leaves. No way would I use a regular tea basket either. My 1 teaspoon of dry tight leaves turned into at least 1/2 cup or more of large green wet leaves! AND they pointed their tea fingers at me and laughed! “ROOKIE!”
But the last laugh is mine. The tea was darker, but not bitter and I drank it all up! Still tasting buttery and good but not as great as it could have been.

3. Giving greater attention to the timing and fearing that I had stripped the tea of all deliciousness, I went with 1minute and 10 seconds. That and no more. What happened next was surprizing! The tea came back to life! Great color, wonderful flavor, sweetness and elegant floral bouquet! This time the tea is not as sweet as at first, a little nutty and less salty. The juice is there with cream and butter. I fell into my memory fantasy (you know what I mean if you have read my reviews before)…and had a tea/food moment. Grandma is in the kitchen making vanilla custard pie and the flavor of a steaming bowl of mashed potatoes with melting butter sits on a big oak table next to a window on a warm Spring evening. A gentle breeze has picked up the scent of lilacs growing in the yard and it is wafting in past lace curtains, mixing with the scent of the potatoes, butter and vanilla. That’s this tea. (I must be hungry)

I was thinking about how or when I would drink this tea. Most Oolongs I prefer by themselves. Naked! If you must, noodles and lemon with olive oil and salt would be ok I suppose, with some chicken, or a light spinach salad. But, no garlic or heavy herbs or strong cheese. This is just too delicate. Grilled mozzerella on toast…nice.

Theresa was a real task master yesterday, keeping me working in the office until midnight & beyond! We did get some things done, although there is always more.

I’ve been looking through my piles of samples from various places, & also trying to get myself to use up greens & green oolongs, to make room for the new ones that will be coming soon! So I had a sampler packet of this one. It is a delightful tieguanyin, brightest green, tighty pressed into little pieces that unfold amazingly to totally fill my Gaiwan. it is light, sweet, floral, fruity, & veggie-like, & quite honestly the epitome of spring!

Tieguanyinathon Pt.I
Sort of in the spirit of the “Saturday Sipdown” I’m going to be tasting the Verdant spring, summer, and autumn Ti Guan Yins sent to me by Autumn Hearth and maybe even some other TGY’s I have sitting around. :)

Early steeps: The early steeps are sweet and smooth with a nice, milky texture. The flavor is slightly floral and reminiscent of honeysuckle, and I also get notes of pumpkin and hazelnut. The leaves opened up really fast! By the 3rd steep they were almost completely unfolded.

Middle steeps: In the middle steeps, the floral sweetness was largely repaced by savory chestnut flavors, and something that reminded me slightly of turmeric (though that might have just been my cooking) :)

Later steeps: Around the sixth steep, the floral notes return to balance out the savory. These later steepings are well balanced, and have the flavors of the earlier steeps, but I also begin to notice new flavors like parsley and vanilla, a slight cooling effect like mint, and a cake-like fluffiness.

I will say that I love Autumn oolongs more because of the butteriness they have to them. In the past with spring oolongs I was never a huge fan, but I can appreciate this one. Nice floral orchid notes from it. This was my sample that I received with my last order. I did 6 steeps of it and it kept producing good tea.

First of all, I must rant about the leaves of this tea. They’re of incredible quality. When dry, I received beautiful aromas of sweet vanilla, stone fruits, honeycombs, and orchids which transferred exquisitely into a thick, intensely floral, biscuity sweet smell when wet. I have to say, these are the best-smelling leaves of any tea I’ve had so far. But wait! After steeping and steeping, they unfold to reveal their most fantastic appearance. On the backdrop of their forest green blades tinged with a very slight bruising, is a gorgeous array of spindly, silvery-green veins that spiderweb across the surface—a lovely aspect that I rarely see with such clarity and liveliness in other teas. They feel thick, healthy, and very strong—just as though they were plucked off the bush minutes before they found their way into my gaiwan. I must say, I’m quite impressed.

The infusions these beauties create are just as vibrant: bright, grassy green with golden undertones which produce a surprisingly powerful smell exactly like the wet leaf’s aroma. Everything about this tieguanyin feels alive. Flavors and aromas burst with springtime nuances, while after a sip, the tastes bloom forth and continue to grow, before fading into a great aftertaste of sweet stone fruits and lingering floral notes. The taste pairs wonderfully with the buttery smoothness and silky, creamy textures that build into the fourth steep, where flavor and mouthfeel meld into a thick, honey-like sweetness where the fruity notes reach a climax. Continuing on, the body somewhat lessens and with too short of a steep, becomes a bit weak. However, interesting undertones become apparent from this point and come and go throughout the last steeps: a parsley-like spice, fresh grass, and a mineral/stone flavor.

This tieguanyin provides quite an experience. At any rate, I think I’m starting to get addicted to this tea. I just finished an 11 steep gong fu session, and all I want to do is finish this review and make more…

Ummm, gotta go…

So I enjoyed 13 or so sessions with this tea, five yesterday and the rest today. They were very quick steeps starting at 2 secs to 15 sec yesterday and only reaching a minute with the last two today. I used around two teaspoons of leaf to around 4-6 ounces of water, in the gravity tea infuser (read: Teavana perfect tea maker). The third and fifth infusions were probably my favorite, they were the most floral and green but I had some nice ones today as well that were more buttery and slightly spicy. For some reason I kept expecting this to be more than it was, which is a great spring Tieguanyin, like the Autumn harvest or another variety of oolong altogether (I had Oriental Beauty earlier in the day and I love how different it is), which is quite silly of me.

I actually brought this to work on Sunday and brewed it side by side with the Autumn harvest and go the tea makers switched around, but I was still pretty certain which was which, the Autumn was much more of a cool depth to it, but surprisingly they are both buttery. For fun we also brewed Teavana’s Monkey Picked Oolong, which I would assume is a Spring 2011 harvest (but who knows). Most of the co-workers preferred Verdant, except of course the boss lady who while she thought they were interesting commented, “I think ours is smoother, don’t you?”.

No actually not at all, I thought it was a little bit more pungent up front and finished quite dry, whereas Verdant’s two offerings left my tongue feeling silky and moist. mmmgood304 thought the dry leaf smelled like lilacs, I concur. Honestly it didn’t preform as well at work as it did at home, maybe it was the water, or the residue on the tea makers or the fact were were pouring out of paper cups into plastic sample cups, but it wasn’t until the third steep at home that I tasted the essence of spring and it was quite lovely.

I haven’t rated a tea in awhile and don’t feel like it tonight, so will probably withhold until the sipdown on this one. But I am impressed with the mouthfeel in early steeps and the sheer longevity of the leaves. I probably could have gone for several more infusions, but gosh I need to buy a gaiwan of a yixing pot. I am just grateful to be able to drink a tea picked this spring, just weeks ago, I find that amazing.

This tea smells amazing! Incredibly sweet & floral. Mmm.. first sips are wonderfully tasty. I am really loving the strong & sweet floral flavor. This is funny because I tried another floral oolong from Verdant Tea before and really hated it. This one seems completely different and completely delicious! Even though it’s very yummy, I find that I can’t have too many cups of this because it’s so floral and intense. I think this would be a nice tea to have for those times when nothing but a rich & sweet treat will do!

So hard to explain a difference between green and oolong tea to normal ppl… TGY is probably one of the closest to greens in taste of Oolong family but still very much different. Which I am reminded of every time I drink good TGY like this one. No astringency, very round and buttery taste (although not as buttery as Autumn ’11 harvest) strong, developed foreground. Although I ’m more of a “black” person, a cup or two of this TGY is always good idea.