Hand Picked Autumn Tieguanyin (2012)

It feels like a long time since I’ve logged a tasting note. This past week I’ve mostly been drinking Phatty Cake from Mandala and this fantastic Tieguanyin from Verdant!

The orchid notes in this are very strong and the sweetness lingers for a long time after every sip. The mouthful is incredible on this tieguanyin, creamy and thick.

One of the things that’s fascinated me the most about this harvest is the color of the liquid. It’s a really vivid yellow, even with short steeps (15 seconds). Almost an unbelievable shade of lemon, as if it can’t be natural (but is).

I stand in front of the kitchen sink, looking out the window. There aren’t any leaves on the trees anymore. The branches look frail and longing, like thin, sad fingers reaching for something it will never touch. It starts to get pretty gloomy in Upstate New York around this time of year. The sky turns the color of ash and everything loses its color, becomes muted against the cold snow that is about to fall. The weather gets to me a little more than most people. I start to get those “winter blues” around this time of year. It doesn’t last long but it affects me. I think this year is going to be different, though. I’m drawing my comic again (after a five year hiatus), I’m in better health and shape, and I have two new things in my life that I admire, appreciate, and am a better person for knowing them. Tea and…well. Someone who I like to share my time with…and my tea.

Its a lazy Saturday. Nothing going on. Wind pants and a hoodie. Ray LaMontagne playing in the background. Tea me.

Just a little splash of warm water and swirl for 10 seconds then discard. I let it sit with the cover closed for a bit so all those aromas dance and breathe. Open the lid and-

Oh. Wow. What is THIS. Thick and heavy wheatgrass, woods. Chocolate. Its like I’m driving past a big, open field at sunset with the windows down, red and orange and warm in the sky. I smell fresh cream, cold milk. This, right here, this is why I buy Verdant. This is why I drink tea.

I smell the leaves again after steeping for the first infusion to see the difference. The slightest hint of smoke mixed with creamy, faint dark chocolate. Its grassier, sweeter this time. Artichoke and wet spinach.

The color is a sweet, light yellow, like dry, brittle hay.

Sip. I always drink my tea too hot because I get too excited. I’ve burned my tongue and the roof of my mouth and ruined my palate for an hour or so. If my mug is steaming at all, I let it rest. Flavors start to reveal themselves when the steam subsides (to me, anyway. Others might not agree). There’s, I don’t know, there’s not a “watery” but a calming mouthfeel, like a cooling numb on my tongue. Its soft. I can’t even really put it into words…which is pathetic because I have a Masters in creative writing (money well spent, Ryan). Its almost like menthol but not at all, its sweet like sugar and smooth like the sound of cornstalk leaves whispering against each other at night. What is going on in my mouth. Its a little grassy but its so light and clean. I feel like I can taste the air where this grew.

Second infusion. That sweetness is more pronounced, in the forefront. I don’t get it. Is this umami? Am i tasting something I shouldn’t or other people don’t? If so, I don’t care. Its so nice and different. I’ve never experienced this “coating” before. There’s that campfire smoke wayyyy back there and the cocoa is fading away but my god man, that mouthfeel. Am I crazy or do other people get this? This lingering, calming sweetness that stays in your mouth like a good kiss.

Wonderful. Really, really wonderful. “Iron Goddess of Mercy” has me groveling at her feet. I’m really lucky to be experiencing this.

Ya know…there are other people who have infinite more posts/reviews on this site who readers trust and follow. I know I’m not a tea expert or master blender. I’m just some guy in Rochester, NY, staring out his kitchen window, happy that I have a new appreciation for life after it went to shit a while back. Tea is a big part of my new attitude. This website, too. And whoever reads my silly words. I’m not trying to be sappy but sometimes you just have to tell the people who affect you that they do.

So thanks Steepster, Verdant, and anyone reading. This whole experience of drinking tea, thinking about it, writing it down…appreciating it. I don’t know. It feels good to feel this good again.

This is one of the samples I received in the special offer that Verdant posted not long ago. I am craving tea because thanks to all the peer pressure here on Steepster I have stayed up far too late watching Victoria Wood’s Nice Cup of Tea. I am trying to sip down a whole lot of samples and I am mentally ready for a big clean up of my tea shelves (again) because there is just an overwhelming amount of tea right now, and more I want to order, and some I don’t think I will drink. I have given away several boxes of tea, have one ready to go, and am putting together another for a very interesting man I met who adopted a puppy we fostered. Turns out he loves tea and drinks scads every day, yet has never really had the really good stuff.

So… On to the tea! The dry leaves are very fragrant and give a hint of the goodness to come. So far I have made only three steeps of this tea, but I will give my impression thus far. I used a little more leaf than called for and steeped a little longer, yet it is neither astringent nor bitter. It is a rather delicate tea, yet has a nice lingering floral taste. The liquor is quite pale. The front of the sip is like water that has poured over rocks in a cold mountain spring, with flowers laid over the top of that. The floral taste rises and the rock sinks and makes me want to drink more.

This is a very nice TGY. I would love to try the spring TGY someday as it is probably more to my personal preference, although I fluctuate between being enamel red of green oolongs and then roasted oolongs. Fickle!

This one came in the tea of the month box that I accidentally continued after the free trial (more on that later perhaps) and so is I believe the last of the Autumn harvests Verdant got in. I really don’t remember if I order this one when it came in, I’m leaning toward not, though I certainly ordered the first Autumn harvest of 2012. From the description on Verdant’s website: http://verdanttea.com/teas/hand-picked-autumn-tieguanyin/ This is not the usual Bi Family Tieguanyin. I suppose I should have read the info included with my tea of the month club, but it came just before going out of town for a week and I only got back Sunday with a cold so…

But I noticed it was very different, first note I got was banana?! then cool candy sweetness with a tang. After reading the description I totally get apricot. This is fantastic!

On third steep. May update more but really enjoyed brewing this in the kitchen watching a grey and black squirrel chase each other through the sea of grass and dandelions while a male cardinal and robin flitted out of their way. Husband just came home so cutting this short.

When I first brewed this, I could smell the flower aroma right away. I though “oh no, not another orchid soup.” But I dared to drink it anyway. The flavor did not offend. The first infusion hardly tasted floral at all. It was a bit creamy and reminiscent of a green tea. The second infusion brings out more of the floral flavor. There is also a sort of smokiness that comes out in the second cup that balances the floral. the third infusion looses the smokiness. It has a very clean aftertaste. Some of the florals that are linked with honey or caramel notes tend to have a sickeningly sweet aftertaste that makes me feel like a just consumed a real flower. I like honey notes without floral, but together they don’t work for me. I probably won’t order more of this, but it was more tolerable than most floral oolongs that I have tried.

First infusion: 30 sec.
Second infusion: 40 sec.
Third: 60 sec.

This was a nice tea to end my day with. Maybe I just don’t have a real taste for Tieguanyin that is this green. I find that the floral tastes are too overpowering for me to have this tea alone. I do, however, love this tea with a granny smith apple.

This tea is incredible! It’s fresh, sweet, floral, and creamy. I brewed it gong fu style for three people – one of whom had never seen loose leaf tea before, let alone a gaiwan. (She converted to loose leaf tea after drinking this – yay!)

The tea brews up golden and smells a lot like honeysuckle. Drinking it brought back memories of tasting the sweet nectar of honeysuckle for all of us. I look forward to future gong fu sessions with this vibrant tea.