Tie Luo Han "Iron Arhat" Premium Wu Yi Shan Rock Oolong tea

This Tie Luo Han was an interesting oolong and would have made for an excellent tea on a gloomy day. Upon the first steep, I noted a very distinct smell of cannabis. I chuckled as I happened to be sitting at my office desk. The liquor itself had an array of aromas including oak and coffee with hints of jasmine. The mouthfeel was clean and light. I oddly longed for the scent of pine to accompany this cup of tea I was holding. I imagined it would pair quite nicely. This all continued for several more steeps in my gaiwan with the smell of char fading. The tea moved into a lighter fragrance of orchid with a taste to match.

This Tie Luo Han was a pretty nice Wuyi oolong. A good tea to have on a dark, cold morning pre-rain. I have a 2016 harvest.

The dry leaf smelled a lot to me like the crispy edges of pot brownies with notes of dark chocolate, roasted barley, cannabis, mint, burnt sugar, roasted walnut and dark roast coffee with faint cream. Warming the leaf brought forward mostly roast, bittersweet chocolate and light caramel.

The rinse produced a thick layer of saponins on the lid of the gaiwan and after a sniff, I decided to drink it. The liquor already had an array of flavors including roast, charcoal, oak wood, orchid, pomegranate, minerals, metal like steel, and coffee with hints of mandarin orange, sweet red raspberry and jasmine. Despite the flavors and some bitterness and astringency, the mouthfeel was rather clean and juicy and the liquor left behind a light oily glaze. There was also a soothing and light aroma of caramel, marshmallow and orchid. This all continued for several more steeps with the roast and char disappearing and the bitterness fading. The tea moved into a light juicy, fruity and sweet taste, with milk chocolate, sweet red raspberry and red apple moving forward and a light aftertaste of orchid. Toward the end, wood and grass became prominents with aftertastes of hazelnut, nutmeg and light, sweet cinnamon.

I found this Tie Luo Han to be a nice, smooth and rewarding tea once I found the brewing parameters that worked for my preferences. The tea is heavily roasted but also lightly oxidized, leaving a green spent leaf. After several tastings, I found that 8g of leaf and 200F water helped to reduce the green astringency and maximize the flavors. I’d recommend this to sippers with some experience and a willingness to play around and those who aren’t put off by the initial aspects imparted by a heavy roast.

101/365

Still working on Dark Matter, but it’s been quite a journey so no complaints! I’ve stopped approaching oolong with quite the same trepidation of days past, since pretty much all of these have exceeded my expectations to a fairly spectacular degree. This one’s no exception.

The flavour, initially, is very nutty. I’m getting primarily roasted hazelnut, but there’s also a touch of pecan. It’s borderline sweet/nut-skin bitter, and walks that line perfectly. The mid sip is mostly dark chocolate, which takes the conjunction of bitter and sweet still further. Again with the end of the sip and aftertaste, which hold very slight raspberry notes.

I’m enjoying the layers of flavour here, and how they work together to maintain a sweet/bitter-sour vibe throughout. I wouldn’t say it’s a complex tea necessarily, but it’s certainly a flavourful one – and those flavours complement each other brilliantly. Great for a cold February morning!

I just didn’t get this one, maybe I missed something?
Nose; slight roasted note, malt, hay, brown sugar, chocolate, slight hyacinth, slight cinnamon.
Palate; brown sugar, hay, oaky, woody, not very complex.

There are two things to note about our little Iron Arhat here: 1) despite being one of the more expensive Wu Yi options from Yunnan Sourcing, it is still comparatively and relatively inexpensive (thank you, YS!) 2) it’s worth it. It clearly bridges the gap between costing more and thus having to deliver more. Not every tea with a higher price does that!

It is a complex, rich, and intriguing tea. Richness provided by cocoa and nutty notes, sweetness provided by red fruit notes, full body rounded out with cherry wood and mineral notes. In addition, and importantly, there is a noticeable sourness to it, but in a VERY GOOD way. If you have experienced the American phenomenon of “blue raspberry,” then you know what I’m talking about. It’s a raspberry sweetness that is cut through with some mouth-watering sourness that just lifts the flavor profile up and makes the flavors more intense and enjoyable. If “blue raspberry” means about as much to you as “Iron Arhat” does, well, then think slightly under-ripe raspberry or even sweet grapefruit.

I’m a sucker for pretty much anything from Wu Yi as it is, but what a treat this Arhat is. Inspired indeed!
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Dry leaf: Mexican chocolate, cocoa powder, dry dark chocolate, waxy scented-candle sweetness, mineral sweetness, hint of dry cherry and dehydrated strawberries. In preheated vessel – sweet minerality and green leaf come to foreground.

Smell – roasted and sugared nuts, praline, roasted peanut, dry red fruit sweetness (dehydrated strawberries)

Taste – NUT: heavily roasted (but not burnt!) almond and pecan. SWEET: Mexican chocolate, cocoa powder, cherry wood, sweet minerality. FRUIT: raspberry-infused dark chocolate, raspberry. Is “blue raspberry Sour Patch kids” a stretch?! I kept getting those notes!

This is my first session with Tie Luo Han Wuyi.I started the session yesterday and am finishing the remaining steeps this morning. Perfect companion on an autumn morning. Dried leaves have a refreshing, layed roasted scent. Wet leaves reveal a combination of subtle aromas—roasted sweet grain, Sumatra coffee grounds, wild blueberry and leather. The tea soup is a deep orange and very clear.

Flavors mirror the aroma with perhaps more molasses and mineral sweetness. What makes this tea a treat is its fullness in the mouth and throat—it’s very throaty! The sweet mineral aftertaste lasts for a while.

It’s quite complex to say the least, almost seductive. YS description says the leaves are lightly processed, but I’m seeing very dark roasted leaves in my gaiwan even after the 9th steep. I’m storing this tea in a yixing jar I brought back with me from Ma Lian Dao in Beijing (China’s Disney Land for tea lovers).

Finally got to trying this Dark Matter sample – it was highly recommended by a few teafriends. I used 5g in a 100mL gaiwan with 200F water. The dry leaf smelled roasty and a bit fruity. After a rinse, the leaf smelled much more strongly of the roast along with hints of grape – the aroma reminded me a bit of a really roasted Dancong oolong.

From the first steep, I knew this was a quality Wuyi. Very thick and sweet right off the bat, with earthy, roasty notes that reminded me of coffee, and a dry mineral finish. It thickened up even more as I kept going, with the coffee flavors leaving and the mineral notes becoming more sweet. Starting from the fourth steep, I got a bit of a metallic flavor on the tip of my tongue. It wasn’t unpleasant. The tea continued much the same way throughout around 12 infusions. The metallic flavor did fade in the later steeps, as did the texture.

This tea was rather simple, but was quite good. The texture and flavor were mostly consistent and definitely enjoyable throughout the session. Glad I finally got to trying this one, and I think I’ll need to try to get my hands on some more higher quality Wuyi oolongs.

This is an excellent roasted oolong (from the Dark Matter group buy). When I first tried oolongs I thought they were meh, but recently roasted oolongs have started to taste like the most incredible beverage ever sooo . . . I think my tastes might be changing a bit? And of course I’m getting better quality tea now so there’s that. It’s a strictly no-milk, no-sugar type of tea, but it’s still quite nice. I like the earlier steepings the best so far, but maybe I used a bit less leaf than I ought so we’ll see what happens next time.

Dark Matter 2016 session

Before I decide to take the remainder of the tea session outside, I wanted to write a quick review from the first 4 cups. Altogether a great tea. It’s a dark oolong (which are always a delightful treat) that has quite a kick to it.

First steep: 15s. Rice (which was overcooked and left on the bottom of the pan), wet rocks with mossy undertones, minerals, and slight char notes. Pretty “meaty” aftertaste, similar to the dark crust left on an overcooked hamburger.

Second steep: 45s. More char. The aftertaste is all char/overcooked crusty meat. I don’t mean that it IS meaty, but it definitely is thick. Has that charcoal-esq flavor to it.

Third steep: 60s. Loses that heavy charcoal flavor. Kind of mellows out at this point. I have a slight char flavor, but there seems to be more of a mineral bite to it. Slight astringency, but nothing too serious.

Fourth steep: 80s. I’m getting a floral-tobacco flavor. Rich dark tobacco. The floral undertones sweeten it up quite a bit. I’m really liking where this is going. I think there may be a few more steeps to go, but I’m feeling tea drunk at the moment, considering I’ve had a lot of tea within 30 minutes….Ha-ha. I give this the thumbs up.

From Dark Matter 2016

Brewed in a gaiwan. Just under boiling water.
This smelled amazing like tobacco and dark chocolate. And unfurls into whole crinkled leaves. But I let the first steep go too long (30 sec?) and ended up with just char and tobacco. This might date me but getting through that first steep made me keep thinking about that “kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray” ad (or was it a poster?). Later steeps continued with the tobacco, did no one else get this? I’ve never smoked as I’m super repelled by the taste and smell but I grew up around smokers and this taste very much reminds me of cigarettes. At some later steep this flavor fades to the background and becomes pleasant. It also starts becoming floral and has an inorganic earth finish. So a bit of a rough start for me but worth it for the later steeps. Not sure how many I got, I started to let it go 10-15 min infusions at the end while cooking dinner.

Next time I’m definitely using less tea or being stricter about keeping my initial steeping times short. Maybe even rinsing this?