Occasionally I feel people need to eat their words, and admit that they have been completely wrong an a type of tea. I hope I was not to open about it on this blog, but I know I voiced my opinion often through other means.
But Basically this post is a long time coming, in part due to the generosity of some friends who really opened my eyes to the glory a Green Tie Guan Yin can achieve. This particular offering is from Chinese Cha Dao on Ebay, and these samples were sent to help enlighten me.
The problem comes about when asking the question: "Is it worth it?" Which I hope I have attained a certain level of tea appreciation that when I taste these teas I can appreciate how good they are. That being said while I have had some Phenomenal Green Tie Guan Yins these past few months, I am not sure if I myself personally are willing to spend the money on them, as all these Tie Guan Yins that have made me go wow, also cause the same reaction when I look at the price.
So what I will say about this tea, is this one flirts with the bottom of the range of quality that I find not boring, and not "bad". The tea is mellow with lots of good flavors hidden in its gentleness. To many budget TGY even with the carefullest of brewing are either insipid, or incredibly bitter (and not the good way like with some young Puerh).
2 comments:
I would much rather spend the money on a traditionally produced tie kuan yin. Heavily roasted and aged if possible.
The green versions are an interesting novelty, but nothing worth spending gaggles of money on.
I have yet to try a modern green Tie Guan Yin that impresses me. Among the greener oolongs, I've been most impressed by some of the Se Chung varietals. I really like Huang Jin Gui or Golden Osmanthus. I also had a good experience with a green Qi lan oolong (prior to that I had only tried dark qi lan). I don't know much about the traditional methods of processing, but Life in Teacup sells the Qi Lan as a "traditional green style".
I like innovation, but there's also something to be said for tradition. I have yet to try a "modern" oolong that I really like. But in other types of tea, I really like both examples of snow buds that I've tried, and that's a newly developed type of (white?) tea.
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