A good medium-roasted (Taiwanese) TGY?

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Sep 13th, '14, 12:51
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A good medium-roasted (Taiwanese) TGY?

by Balthazar » Sep 13th, '14, 12:51

Earlier this year I bought a number of samples from Origin Tea. I saved most of them for my GFs arrival from China, and so was unable to try them before OT closed down.

A couple of weeks ago we tried the "2012 Mid-Fire Lishan Tie Guan Yin", which both of us liked a lot, especially my GF who has been talking about it ever since. Sentces such as "reminds me of my childhood" and "I have been unable to find something as good for that price" has been uttered many times. Needless to say she was very disappointed to hear that OT is no longer doing business.

So I was wondering whether anyone knows about anything similar in terms of taste profile that can be obtained online. I have tried DTH's "Supreme Charcoal Baked TGY" which I found very boring. That's about it (except from other roasted teas from OT, which obviously can't be obtained anymore). I see MountainTea has a "Medium Roast TieGuanYin Oolong". It's very reasonably priced, but I have never ordered from them before and I'm not sure about the quality. Any other suggestions?

Also, I don't know if there's much of a difference between TGY from the Mainland and Taiwan. OT's was from Taiwan, but I am too inexperienced in the world of oolong to know whether that makes for much of a difference.

Sep 13th, '14, 13:33
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Re: A good medium-roasted (Taiwanese) TGY?

by drinking_teas » Sep 13th, '14, 13:33

Mountain Tea's TGY is from China.

Here are two from Floating Leaves, who has excellent Muzha TGY:
http://www.floatingleavestea.com/index. ... cts_id=191
http://www.floatingleavestea.com/index. ... cts_id=223

Googling also gave me these, which are all from places that have good reputation:
http://www.stoneleaftea.com/products-pa ... -guan-yin/
http://teaurchin.com/lishan-tie-guan-yin-2007.html

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Sep 13th, '14, 13:59
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Re: A good medium-roasted (Taiwanese) TGY?

by Balthazar » Sep 13th, '14, 13:59

Wow, thanks for the suggestions. They all look great. I've ordered from TU before, but only pu. The others are new to me, but all look good! I'll have a closer look, but I may put in an order from Floating Leaves. Have you tried both the "daily drinker" and the more expensive one? Did you find the difference significant? Not I consider either pricy.. Might order a bit of both.

Thanks again.

Sep 13th, '14, 14:04
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Re: A good medium-roasted (Taiwanese) TGY?

by drinking_teas » Sep 13th, '14, 14:04

Balthazar wrote:Wow, thanks for the suggestions. They all look great. I've ordered from TU before, but only pu. The others are new to me, but all look good! I'll have a closer look, but I may put in an order from Floating Leaves. Have you tried both the "daily drinker" and the more expensive one? Did you find the difference significant? Not I consider either pricy.. Might order a bit of both.

Thanks again.
I haven't tried the more expensive one, but the Daily Drinker is really good. If you want a light-medium roasted oolong (like the ones they sold at Origin), try the Roasted Hehuanshan as well, it's excellent, especially for the price.

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Sep 14th, '14, 00:01
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Re: A good medium-roasted (Taiwanese) TGY?

by Tead Off » Sep 14th, '14, 00:01

For a good, light roasted Dong Ding, you can try Tea Hong.

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Re: A good medium-roasted (Taiwanese) TGY?

by braille » Nov 10th, '14, 09:50

Hou De's 2014 Dong Ding is nice..

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Re: A good medium-roasted (Taiwanese) TGY?

by Poseidon » Nov 10th, '14, 10:51

JKteashop's aged TGY oolong is a lighter roast. I would classify it as medium.

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Re: A good medium-roasted (Taiwanese) TGY?

by Tead Off » Nov 10th, '14, 11:40

Balthazar wrote: Also, I don't know if there's much of a difference between TGY from the Mainland and Taiwan. OT's was from Taiwan, but I am too inexperienced in the world of oolong to know whether that makes for much of a difference.
Balthazar, the mid-roast Lishan is not a TGY. It is a Taiwanese gaoshan oolong. I still have some of this and I like it, too. I will also have to look for another source.

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Re: A good medium-roasted (Taiwanese) TGY?

by Balthazar » Nov 12th, '14, 06:05

Tead Off wrote: Balthazar, the mid-roast Lishan is not a TGY. It is a Taiwanese gaoshan oolong. I still have some of this and I like it, too. I will also have to look for another source.
Must be a common classification error, OriginTea called it "2012 Mid-Fire Lishan Tie Guan Yin - 中火梨山鐵觀音", and TeaUrchin similarly sells a 2007 "梨山鐵觀音". Maybe it's because TGY is such a familiar name to most oolong consumers? I have no idea, but thanks for the clarification.

By the way, as mentioned in the "Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?"-thread I went with Floating Leaves Tea and was not disappointed (neither was my GF). I'm really starting to like roasted oolongs, and will have to explore this more in the future. Thanks for all the reccomendations.

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Nov 12th, '14, 08:17
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Re: A good medium-roasted (Taiwanese) TGY?

by Tead Off » Nov 12th, '14, 08:17

Balthazar wrote:
Tead Off wrote: Balthazar, the mid-roast Lishan is not a TGY. It is a Taiwanese gaoshan oolong. I still have some of this and I like it, too. I will also have to look for another source.
Must be a common classification error, OriginTea called it "2012 Mid-Fire Lishan Tie Guan Yin - 中火梨山鐵觀音", and TeaUrchin similarly sells a 2007 "梨山鐵觀音". Maybe it's because TGY is such a familiar name to most oolong consumers? I have no idea, but thanks for the clarification.

By the way, as mentioned in the "Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?"-thread I went with Floating Leaves Tea and was not disappointed (neither was my GF). I'm really starting to like roasted oolongs, and will have to explore this more in the future. Thanks for all the reccomendations.
That's interesting about the two Lishan teas being called TGY. I have Origin's 2011 mid-fire Lishan and it doesn't say anything about it being TGY. Maybe there are some farms that are growing TGY up in Lishan. Usually, it comes from a different area in Taiwan. I'll have to enquire. Thanks.

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Nov 12th, '14, 10:11
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Re: A good medium-roasted (Taiwanese) TGY?

by Tead Off » Nov 12th, '14, 10:11

Eugene (Tea Urchin) just confirmed it. They grow TGY on Lishan. Never knew that. :D

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Re: A good medium-roasted (Taiwanese) TGY?

by Balthazar » Nov 12th, '14, 10:44

Well, nice to get to the bottom of that. Thanks for sharing :)

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Re: A good medium-roasted (Taiwanese) TGY?

by thirst » Nov 13th, '14, 06:50

To understand this, TGY is both the combination of a specific »TGY« cultivar and a production method used on mountains in Anxi (more genuine), or just the cultivar and production method, planted elsewhere (less genuine), or just a production method (even less genuine), is that correct?

With regards to Taiwanese mountains, with a tea from a specific mountain, would one expect it to be from a specific cultivar?

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Re: A good medium-roasted (Taiwanese) TGY?

by kyarazen » Nov 17th, '14, 21:45

thirst wrote:To understand this, TGY is both the combination of a specific »TGY« cultivar and a production method used on mountains in Anxi (more genuine), or just the cultivar and production method, planted elsewhere (less genuine), or just a production method (even less genuine), is that correct?

With regards to Taiwanese mountains, with a tea from a specific mountain, would one expect it to be from a specific cultivar?
primarily cultivar, combined with a production method. but the production method has been evolving etc, just to meet market demands, i.e. in past ten-fifteen years, the green movement to feed the domestic market.

the closest to "anxi tieguanyin" is the muzha tieguanyin of taiwan, where the cultivar was brought from china to taiwan in the early days, with similar processing methods.

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Re: A good medium-roasted (Taiwanese) TGY?

by shah82 » Nov 28th, '14, 18:09

I am drinking a little bit of 2007 TGY from taiwan that I bought from Houde almost six years ago. I like it much more now than I did then, when it was just two years old. The throat action and mouth coats are just marvelous.

Yeah, it seems like it's just hard to get *any* good tea. I have a precious stash of the special 2009 muzha TGY that's totally the bomb. There hasn't really been a special tea like that since, but then I don't buy oolongs, so how would I know?

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