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Sunday, February 22, 2009

Just4Tea's Signature Roast Tie Guan Yin

This is my second Roasted Tie Guan Yin. It is being prepared gong fu style. in a 100 ml gaiwan. I used roughly 2 coffee scoops worth of the rolled up leaves.
This is what I would consider a High roast TGY, as the leaves are dark dark brown, and there isn't the slightest hint of green on them at all. And they have a very distinct charcoal aroma, and flavor.


1: Boiling, 15 seconds.
Nose: Toast, seared zucchini, Burnt Marshmellows, Burnt Toffee, and butter.
Palate: Charcoal, toast, burnt butter, maybe slight cinnamon, hint of cocoa.
Finish: Lingering Toast.

2: Boiling, 16 seconds.
Nose: toast, and licorice, burnt butter
Palate: smooth, buttery, with charcoal comming later on. I would say more charcoal than toast on this one, unless you highly burn your toast.
Finish: Lingering Charcoal.

3: Boiling, 20 seconds.
Nose: toast, and charcoal.
Palate: toffee and caramel, with some charcoal.
Finish: Toast, with subtle sweetness.


Overall: This tea is a little strong on the charcoal flavors for me, it is nice in small doses, and I can't really get past 3-4 brews at any one time. Though it has hints of sweetness that are pleasing.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Teasprings an ji baicha

This is another tea given to me by a friend of mine. After trying some of these tea's... I might just have to get into green tea's. But at the moment I seem to be really into the greener Oolongs. Such as the Teaspring Tie Guan Yin, and Adagio's Tie Guan Yin. and Teavana's Six Summit Oolong. This weekend I'm going to review two Roasted Tie Guan Yin's... then starting the weekend after that is going to be a week full of Pu Erh reviews.

1: 174 deg F. 80 sec.
Nose: sweet grass, pear.
Palate: It makes its presence known with a very light astringent beginning, like a mild grass, and it is buttery and honeydew like.
Finish: Very clean, almost think your drinking water.

2: 177 deg F. 80 sec.
Nose: Honey
Palate: still that light grass, slightly more pronounced, with cherry in there too.
Finish: slightly lingering grassy-ness.

3: 170 deg F. 100 sec.
Nose: Honey dew.
Palate: a more subtle beggining, and it builds into the grassy-ness, with a bamboo taste.
Finish: The lingering mild astringency.

I have the impression this tea is not going to change much throughout more brews. Its color was very pale, and I found it to be very pleasent.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

TeaSprings Tie Guan Yin

This Tie Guan Yin (TGY) also known as Tie Kuan Yin, or other similiar sounding spellings. Its translated name is commonly referred to as Iron Goddess of Mercy. TGY comes from Anxi in the Fujian Provence. This TGY is not roasted, which would mean darker colored leaves and a more charcoal like flavor.

This brewed up a toxic looking neon yellow Color for all the brews. I went through 5 steeps of these leaves, but the 5th was unimpressive so I'll leave the details out.

1: boiling, 60 seconds.
Nose: Floral and grassy.
Palate: Slightly spicy, fresh, cleansing, and slightly creamy texture, with a very mild astringency.
Finish: Dried blueberry without the sweetness.

2: Boiling, 60 seconds.
Nose: Berries and flowers hints of jasmine.
Palate: Light astringency and creamy and buttery.
Finish: Butter and Berries.

3: Boiling, 90 seconds.
Nose: Butter and Flowers.
Palte: creamy butter and assorted dried berries.
Finish: Nonsweet strawberry flavored cream.

4: Boiling, 120 seconds.
Nose: Butter and assored berries.
Palate: Butter with pleasent astringency, but no more creamyness.
Finish: Ligght astringency with hints of jasmine.

Thoughts: Kind of amazing how the berries flowers, and jasmine kinda wove in and out of all the senses throughout the steeps. And a very pleasent creamyness, that was nice and soothing. I like this alot, and can't wait to break into Teasprings Jade TGY at a later date.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Teaspring Ya Bao Pu Erh



This tea is made from leaves plucked from Wild Arbor trees. These leaves are unlike anything I have ever seen before. They look like a bud of multiple leaves at once.

This was also brewed in my gaiwan, and the brews were rather pale but they did have a yellowish tint, but were quite flavorful,

1: 215 deg, 60 sec:
Nose: Honey and rose bushes
Palate: Flowery, with a hint of wood, some berries, possibly blueberries, mouth feel is watery, but also sorta coats like honey.
Finish: slightly sweet, but very mellow.

2: 212deg. 90 sec:
Nose: Honey and roses, with hints of citrus.
Palate: Honey, flowers, and mixed berries, almost like a berry smothie.
Finish: smooth and lasting sweetness.

3: 212 deg, 120 sec:
Nose: roses, perhaps jasmine, and pineapple
Palate: Lasting Sweetness, strawberries, and roses.
Finish: Lingering sweetness, and a lingering blueberry, with hints of honey.

4: 212 deg. 150 sec:
Nose: roses, jasmine, and lily's
Palate: rougher mouth feel almost pine like, hints of honey but not much.
Finish: no sweetness, mostly water.

Overall: This was a nice naturally sweet tea. The proper term for the lingering sweetness is: huigan. I forgot to mention in my last post, but I recieved a care package from a friend at Teachat, full of all sorts of tea's.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Teasprings Lu An Gua Pian

This is the first tea I'm reviewing that I did in my Gaiwan. This is a green tea from China it comes from the Lu An county, and according to teaspring it is one of the best from that area.

I used the amount shown in the picture which basically coated the bottom of my 100 ml gaiwan, 2 leaves deep.

1st infusion: 160 deg. F. 60 seconds
Nose: Light asparagus, and a sweetness almost like honey suckle.
Palate: very vegetal, almost creamy, as it cools the sweetness emerges, and a hint of grass also comes out.
Finish: Hint of Broccoli, and light spiniach.

2: 154 deg. F. 60 seconds
Nose: Sweet, and mixed veggies
Palate: Vegetal with a hint of grassy astringency, smooth mouth feel.
Finish: Less broccoli, hint of grassiness( a pleasant astringency).

3: 154 deg. 120 seconds
Nose: sweetness again, with fresh cut grass.
Palate: mouth feel is a little rough from astringency, its mostly just overwelming grass right now.
Finish: dryness, with a hint of roast potato.

4: 154 deg. 90 seconds
Nose: Grassy Fields
Palate: Less astringent slight sourness, and smoother mouth feel.
Finish: pleasent, almost sterile like dentist cotton balls.

5: 154 deg 105 seconds
Nose Grassy fields.
Palate: light astringency, more watery.
Finish: Slightly dry.

The color of this started out a pale yellow green, and grew greener and greener, something I would consider nearly a transperent lime green near the end.

Overall: I liked this tea very much, though the third steep was unpleasent, though I probably steeped it to long.

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