I'm hoping this tea turns out to be as good as the last oolong I had from them, the 2001 Aged Tie Guan Yin. The dry leaf smells very fresh, with just a hint of a nutty roasted component, but the leaves look mostly green with just the yellow color you often associate with a lighter roast Tie Guan yin.
If I had to rate this tea off of the smell comming from the leaves after the first infusion, it would be a spectacularly rated tea, while the aroma from the tea broth itself isn't as "wow" it is still good with a fair bit to keep you interested. I smell buttered sweet potatoes, brown sugar, and I believe bamboo. In my mind it is the roasting that brought this tea to life. its buttery but the roasting ads that savory flavor, and probably a hint of sweetness.
If this tea has a fault it is that the taste is somewhat flat, and is far better in the aroma category.
As you can tell from the picture I like my teas on the strong side, and this tea and the aged oolong comes in little packets, and as I only have my small and large gaiwans at my parents house right now, I use one packet for the small gaiwan, so probably 7grams for 60ml.
While I said the taste was a little flat, it does not mean your mouth will not be interested, I'm pondering how to describe this mouth feel which I want to say is either going to be a love it or hate it sort of thing. Its like a light roast attempt at the mouth feel obtained from Wuyi Yancha the what I describe as velvety (soft but coarse), this is coarse but soft would not be the right word to describe the other part of the sensation.
2 comments:
This tea doesn't really look like TGY, at least the dry leaves don't.... looks more like a huangjingui or something similar, but the pic of the dry leaves is a bit fuzzy and looks like white balance is off. Where did you get it?
A relatively new Ebay Vendor "Chinese Kung Fu Tea Art Store." I think I have a link to him in the side bar under "Favorite Vendors"
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