Traditional Tieguanyin

Tea type
Oolong Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Beer, Cherry, Cream, Garlic, Honey, Leather, Malt, Tangy, Butter, Floral, Green, Popcorn, Roasted, Sweet, Caramel, Cinnamon, Coffee, Graham, Grass, Hay, Kettle Corn, Mineral, Orchid, Roast Nuts, Smoke, Vanilla, Violet, Wood, Kale, Spinach, Honeysuckle, Camphor, Flowers, Vegetal, Citrus, Cocoa, Fruity, Musty, Autumn Leaf Pile, Nuts, Almond, Bread, Seaweed, Corn Husk, Potato, Orchids, Plants
Sold in
Not available
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Fair Trade, Organic
Edit tea info Last updated by Kaila
Average preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 1 min, 30 sec 6 g 16 oz / 478 ml

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54 Tasting Notes View all

From Verdant Tea

Partially oxidized traditional Tieguanyin recalls sweet and savory kettle corn with woody incense undertones and a touch of tart berry . . .

Master Zhang of Daping Village has a running love affair with traditional partially oxidized Tieguanyin. He remembers learning the craft of roasting tea from his father long before greener Tieguanyin became popular across China. If you visit Master Zhang’s house high in the mountains, this is the tea that he will brew for you as a guest. His passion comes through in the aroma and flavor of his Traditional Tieguanyin.

The wet leaves have the sweet and savory combination that makes kettle corn so appealing. The aroma is almost thick and rich enough to eat, somewhere between roasted corn and sweet miso.

The first steepings are intensely bold- with a texture and flavor of whipped Yukon Gold mashed potatoes, and a deep woody note like sandalwood incense. In later steepings the flavor moves into cinnamon-spiced caramel sticky buns, complemented by a tart schisandra berry and savory almond aftertaste.

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54 Tasting Notes

87
1186 tasting notes

First of all, let me say this – I haven’t actually had a straight oolong in AGES. I make them all the time for my boyfriend (his favorite type of tea) but I haven’t had one in a longgg time. Come to think of it, I haven’t had a gongfu session in a while either! I got all caught up in my flavored teas that my poor straight greens and oolongs and gaiwan have been left to the back of the cupboard :( well, time to remedy that!

This came to me as a free sample from Verdant, thank you! I The dry leaves smelled fresh and green, like buttery greens, as do most oolongs to me. This one in particular reminds me of fall.

I did a quick rinse, then steeped for about 5-6 seconds before pouring into my double wall glass cups. The aroma is delicate and mildly sweet, at first I thought it was cinnamon, but I think it’s the incense coming out. Haha, I just looked at the description and cinnamon is listed, happy I could pick that out!

As for the taste, mmm very nice. At first I honestly couldn’t taste very much lol, my poor tastebuds are used to POW flavored tea POW sweet POW chocolate as of late, but now that it is cooling I am tasting a beautifully refined, delicate oolong. The first steep doesn’t have as much mineral quality as a few other oolongs, or that really strong green oolong flavor, but it’s only the first steeping. It’s mildly buttery and floral, with a trickle of spices somewhere in there too. Not much kettle corn yet, but I imagine it will come. I like it! Hopefully I don’t get too waterlogged tonight having a few more cups of this :) thanks again Verdant for another solid sample tea!

ETA – Yes, there is the kettle corn in later steepings and also the smell! I cannot get over how much a tea can change in flavors throughout multiple steepings :)

Flavors: Butter, Cinnamon, Orchids, Plants

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 5 g 5 OZ / 147 ML
Courtney

I go through those phases too. Straight teas all the time, or flavoured teas all the time it seems.

mrs.stenhouse12

Me it’s more focused on types of tea – chais, black teas, oolongs, etc..I guess lately has been rich, flavored blacks lol..oolongs are normally a spring tea for me, but this one is buttery enough to be good on this cold night :)

Courtney

Actually oolongs strike me as spring-like too now that you mention it. I steeped Gui Fei last night, but it didn’t work out so well, and it was back to my black teas this morning hah.

mrs.stenhouse12

It might also be that I love the spring tieguanyins haha so fresh and floral! Awe it’s no fun when a tea doesn’t work out and you end up going back to the staples and never drinking it again :( I’ve had that happen with a few as well

__Morgana__

Sounds yummy.

mrs.stenhouse12

It is quite good :) flavor is still going strong after 6 steeps between myself and the bf :)

cryptickoi

yummy stuff..

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88
2201 tasting notes

I got this tea as a free sample in my Black Friday order from Verdant. I am doubly pleased with this because I believe that my appreciation for traditional tieguanyins is currently on an upswing, and also because it is the base to Master Zhang’s Genmaicha, which I still haven’t tried, but it would be nice to try the base first. And now I get the opportunity! I am also using this tea to christen my new wide bird gaiwan, also acquired on Black Friday. At 5oz, this gaiwan is slightly smaller than my ru kiln teapot (6oz), but larger than my other two gaiwans (3oz), so it sits nicely in my collection. At first I thought I would have difficulty pouring the new gaiwan because it is much wider than my others, but I figured it out pretty quickly and it’s almost easier because I think the lips have a larger flare, keeping my fingers a bit cooler. The only problem is that my strainer that goes over my cha hai (pitcher) is not quite big enough to hold all the liquid when straining (the teapot pours slower), so I get a bit of overflow.

Yup, my love of traditional tieguanyins is definitely growing. I am quite enjoying this tea. I don’t think I am at the point of restocking one but I could see it happening in the future. This one has the light sweetness and breadiness that I have come to really enjoy. I usually say challa, but I could see cinnamon buns (perhaps without the icing? haha). I prefer the first 4-5 steeps… instead of getting more bready, for me this gets more vegetal as the steeps progress, which is less interesting to me. Still this was a fun one to have today, and I look forward to trying its blend as well.

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3294 tasting notes

Tieguanyin’s remind me more of spring than green teas do. With their golden liquor & light florals, they are like springtime in a cup. This one is no exception, but it also has a sweet buttery quality & a rich corn-like aroma.
5G + 4oz Gaiwan X 3rounds of 3 sec, 3 rounds of 6 sec, 3 rounds of 12 sec

I love how each of us can have our own tea esthetics, & my current setup for tieguantin includes 3 of these cups & the matching Gaiwan.
http://verdanttea.com/teas/jingdezhen-red-lotus-tea-cup/
I steep the tea in rounds of 3 sets, pouring a little of each steep into one of the 3 cups, & the remainder into a pitcher. Then I drink from each cup (they are tiny, like 1 nice sip each), so that I can taste how the tea changes without having to drink an entire cup. Once I’ve enjoyed all three, I go sit somewhere with the pitcher & sip their combined remainders. Then I come back for the next round. I didn’t used to do it this way, but I really enjoy this process.

So this tea is recommended for 18 steeps. I have to admit, I got bored after 6, lol

Courtney

Wow, 18 steeps. I don’t know how I feel about that sort of commitment haha!

TeaExplorer

Terri – I like your approach to steeping this and will give it a try to see how it compares to the more traditional method – Thanks!

BigDaddy

I do the same for TGY, maybe adding a few grams more, piggy me. I steep the 3 rounds but use a hand made cup to drink all 3 steeps at once. The honeysuckle yellow liquor is so inviting and definitely reminds of a spring morning. Thanks for sharing your process.

Terri HarpLady

Courtney, I only made it through 9 steeps, lol.

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98
1184 tasting notes

Thank you so much Verdant for including this sample in my Black Friday order!

This is an excellent Tieguanyin. It is so buttery, like the butter that drips off of freshly boiled corn on the cob, with some vegetal and fruity notes. I am also getting a slight nuttiness as well as a slightly sweet note.

I used 2 tsp of leaf and did a quick rinse first.

I only had time for 2 resteeps at 1 and 1.5 minutes. I would have steeped it all day but I went to visit my friend and her new baby. No worries, I will probably order this with my $10 voucher from my Black Friday order.

That got me thinking about my order so I went on the website to scope out the teas I want to order. OH NO……Laoshan Black is out of order! I need more of that beauty of a tea :(

Preparation
Boiling 1 min, 0 sec
Sil

LB isn’t out of stock…it’s back as of today

tigress_al

I guess I didn’t refresh my page….YAY!!

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1113 tasting notes

Of course this is a fantastic TGY! Thanks for sharing some with me BrewTEAlly Sweet :)

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67
114 tasting notes

1/25/14 Tea with dasHusband on a snowy day. 5g in 6oz yixing. Gongfu brewing. I’m pausing after the sixth steep to note this. I may do some more infusions or not – I just want lunch now instead of more tea at the moment. The leaves could definitely support it – still very crisp bodied and not fully unfurled. I’m fighting with the pot a bit on that count – it is a 6oz, but it’s tall and pours slowly, so I think in the future I may use less tea in it and a scanter pour of water.

Very nice progression, but drinking tea with dH is a little distracting, so I haven’t got good tasting notes today. I was really struck by the sweetness of the first infusions. Also really interesting was noting how the boiledness of the water affected the taste — we noticed a flatness creeping into the 5th infusion, and I added fresh cold water to the pot for the next boil, and the 6th infusion was much perkier. Having my little electric boiler at the table with us is awesome for this brewing style.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 15 sec
AnnaEA

This tea carried well through 9 steepings. Sadly, the brewing session was ended by exploding light bulbs spraying glass all over the tea table and into the tea pot. dH had just bought a nubls for his shop light, and propped them against the side of the chair to sit and have tea with me. Icy bulbs from car tilted in hot zone around water boiling pot = boom.

AnnaEA

nubls = new bulb. oy.

Yvonne

Oh no – hopefully nobody was hurt!

AnnaEA

Nah, everyone is fine. Just startled, tealess and in the dark. ;P

Yvonne

Aw. That stinks. :P

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86
19 tasting notes

I have to say this is pretty different from most other TGY’s that I’ve had. I tried a lot of different ones while I was in China and this one still stands out. Rather than the usual floral taste I associate with most oolongs this particular one had a bit of grassiness/seaweed taste that I wasn’t quite expecting. It goes down incredibly smooth and has just the right amount of dryness. The aftertaste is quite sweet and I found that this is where the floral taste I associate with greener oolongs really came through. I would definitely recommend this as an experience to see how TGY’s can vary from vendor to vendor. Really good!

Flavors: Butter, Flowers, Grass, Honey, Seaweed

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 3 g 4 OZ / 118 ML

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91
157 tasting notes

Well, another Verdant Tieguanyin is a complete hit with me… (: I’m surprised there aren’t more reviews for this one.

(First steep, 1 minute)
This one was delightfully sweet with a kettle corn flavor. There’s a slight mineral taste. Very savory at the end; coats my mouth. Rich, full texture. Savory buttery sweetness. Mmmm. (The kettle corn reminds me of Mandala’s Alishan Oolong. The main differences I’m noticing here is that the Alishan is lighter, greener, and more floral, while this Tieguanyin is fuller and more savory.)

(Second steep, 1 minute 10 seconds)
A little less sweet, with a “greener” taste underscored with mineral. It’s lighter than the first steep; immediately after noticing this it takes a turn back to lingering savory- and nutty-ness. Then after THAT, the mineral taste returns. Like clean, refreshing spring water with a touch of sweetness. That was unexpected. I’m eager to see what happens next…

(Third steep, 1 minute 25 seconds)
Even more mineral. I begin to pick out pervading notes of cinnamon and roastiness. There’s a juicy, citrus-like undertone that wasn’t there before.

(Fourth steep, 1 minute 40 seconds)
The sweetness diminishes even more. It seems that the hints of cinnamon I was getting are now gone. (Aww.) There’s lingering, tart, fruity juiciness in the aftertaste.

(Fifth steep, 2 minutes)
Similar to the fourth steep. There’s VERY faint traces of sweet cinnamon and almond in the aftertaste, but overall it’s predominated by tartness and minerals.

High quality oolong. So complex and exciting. I love oolongs.
In conclusion: why haven’t you tried this yet?

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80
257 tasting notes

I have tried three different Tieguanyin teas today and this one is a little less floral but has a touch of a creamy roast so it doesn’t quite get roasty and keeps that floral edge. Very interesting.
The notes on the Verdant page say kettle corn which I can taste a less sweet kettle corn in there. Also notes of incense, berry, cinnamon, almond, and potato. Potato is there as is a cinnamon astringency but not flavor. This is definitely a menagerie of flavors!!!
Thanks to Terri Harplady for this sample because I am learning so much through tasting!!

Flavors: Flowers, Potato

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 30 sec 4 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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93
592 tasting notes

A very sad sipdown today. I’ve been exploring a lot of oolongs, and this is one of my favorites so far. I keep telling myself that I need to reorder from Verdant, but after my trip to New York and non-tea Black Friday shopping, my wallet is feeling the blow. On the other hand, I did just get paid for TA-ing…

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