Tie Guan Yin Competition Grade "Monkey Picked" Oolong

I had to try a sample of this even though green Oolong isn’t on the top of my must have list. This is obviously superb tea. I’m still not sold on green Oolong, but if I were wired that way, I think this would be one of, if not the best I’ve tried.

This is one of the best TGY I can find in the states. Fabulous. Lasts many infusions and has a pleasant floral and smooth TGY flavor. Highly recommended for any TGY fan.

Before steeping this tea it seems to have a sweet earthy smell. Visually, it is made up of tight clusters of leaves and contains no stems upon brief inspection. I am drinking the last of my ‘monkey picked’ and have plenty of experience steeping this particular tea now that I am finishing up the last of this .25 lb bag. I personally prefer steepings between 1 and 2 minutes for this tea.

The tightly packed leaf clusters slightly unfurl after the first steep. The smell is sweet with floral grass like undertones. The colour is a pale yellow. The taste is excellent and lingers after sipping to the point that I can still smell it as I breath through my nose. This tea’s flavour is extremely deep, the initial sip will produce one flavour while the aftertaste produces another. This took some time for me to note as the favour is so well composed that it blends into itself. The texture seems creamy simply because of how the flavour changes so smoothly from that initial sip to swallow to wonderful aftertaste.

Since I enjoy this tea so much it was excellent to experiment with. Varying temperate, steeping vessels and length of steep has allowed me to get the most out of this amazing leaf. As I re-steep the flavour intensifies and opens up more to the point where I am getting maximum enjoyment from the third steep. If you like Oolongs and have a taste for them I would strongly recommend investing in this tea. It allows for forgiving steeps that never disappoint and a quality of leaf that is hard to find…

First steeping is sweet and vegetal with a slight nutty taste. 2nd steeping has a lot more floral flavors and has a lot more crispness. Its a very reliable tie guan yin and has both the lightness of a green tea and the richness of an oolong. Its also in my shelf next to my bag of verdant tea tieguanyin, which couldn’t be more different. Both are fantastic teas but CTG is lighter while Verdant had a richer spicier taste. I love both and plan to buy both in the future when I run out.

After checking the top rated Ti Kuan Yin’s in Steepster, I decided to give this one a try. I ordered the tea from the website and received it just a few days later packed in a nice airtight tin.

The dry leaves were tightly curled into big dark jade “balls.” The leaves felt slightly oily to the touch and had a very flowery smell to them.

I prepared the tea using a gaiwan following the suggested brewing guidelines of 30 sec steep time and using 195F water.

The resulting brew gave me a light yellow-green cup with a seaweed-floral aroma. The taste was very light during the first 3 cups with a clean fresh green taste, subtle floral flavor, and a hint of creaminess. I increased the steep time from 30 secs to 2-5 mins for each subsequent steep, this gave me a more flavorful cup and a darker green-yellow brew. The taste remained almost the same but just more pronounced and slightly creamier.

Overall, you can tell this Ti Kuan Yin is of very high quality; the wet leaves are mostly complete with few signs of damage (I would guess about 90% of the leaves are almost intact, while the rest are either broken or contain stems) and the tea gave me many consecutive steepings without losing any flavor (I steeped it 7 times then discarded the leaves, but I’m sure this tea can be infused even more than that). Flavor-wise I wasn’t very convinced with this tea as it was too “green” for my own taste. I also felt this tea was pretty straight forward and could not find any of the complexities others have raved about. On a positive note, I was impressed on how many cups I made with a single teaspoon of leaves and even after all those steepings, the flavor was still there without any signs of fading. I’d recommend steeping this tea longer than the recommended 30 seconds for a more flavorful cup. While not my favorite of the TKY’s I have, it is quite unique and I will give it another chance using longer steep times.

You know how teas never live up to their smell? This one exceeds it. Imagine drinking the smell of your favorite perfume. (Not your grandmother’s.)

1st infusion: OMG. The mouthfeel is ridiculously, unbelievably silky smooth. Floral, sweetly vegetal, buttery, maybe with a hint of jasmine? The flavor is somehow both delicate and strong. I don’t usually notice color, but it’s a gorgeous sort of yellowy jade hue.

2nd infusion: The vegetal flavor is pushing back the perfumey florals a bit. Still sweet and buttery smooth.

3rd infusion: Getting more vegetal than I’d like, and starting to weaken. It’s rich and buttery enough, not sencha-grassy, that I don’t really care.

Brew with extreme love and care. The second time I made it, I didn’t jump through all the extra hoops that CTG suggests, and it came out disappointing. Seriously though, best tea experience I’ve ever had. Love CTG’s sample program.

OM NOM NOM NOM GIVE TO ME YOUR TEA!!!

This is pretty good stuff. Sweet, floral. If you’re careful with brewing it turns out light, but I can imagine you can make it a little heavier if you try. For me the sweetness didn’t sustain itself through multiple steepings.

This is my favorite type of tea – and this is one of the best examples of that type of tea. It’s smooth, it’s creamy, it’s crisp. Holy beep this is a good tea. Excellent. I want more.

12 oz water
4 g tea
30 second steep is what was rec’d on the card, so that’s what i did.

The dry leaves didn’t seem to have much aroma at all. The steep is light yellow in color. It has a slightly sweet aroma. It tastes a bit vegetal. But not really fresh. I don’t think i’m getting the complexities described in all the other reviews, or i’m just not that sensitive to the subtle flavors. This didn’t do it for me.

Wow…just wow. This is probably the best oolong I have ever had, and that says a lot because I’ve had A LOT of oolong. Short steeps in a gaiwan are best. I think I may need to treat myself to this one.