Medium Roast TGY

Owes its flavors to oxidation levels between green & black tea.


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Oct 3rd, '09, 12:34
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Medium Roast TGY

by chicagopotter » Oct 3rd, '09, 12:34

Running low on my stash. Can anyone recommend a medium roast TGY?

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Oct 3rd, '09, 17:43
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Re: Medium Roast TGY

by woozl » Oct 3rd, '09, 17:43

I just picked this up: http://www.teatrekker.com/store/tea/ool ... C+I%3E.php

TBH I don't have a lot of experiece with this tea, but I think it's very good.
I also got some Taiwanese oolongs,hand crafted Nepal teas,and the Tai Ping.
I've yet to try most of these but they all look amazing.
I wanted some Darj. but I was already weighed down :wink:
But It's nice just to look and smell
all the different offerings.
Last edited by woozl on Oct 3rd, '09, 18:33, edited 1 time in total.

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Oct 3rd, '09, 18:07
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Re: Medium Roast TGY

by wyardley » Oct 3rd, '09, 18:07

How medium is your medium?

I think HK shops are your best bet; the Monkey-picked or "Espresso" roast from Best Tea House are pretty good teas that I would consider medium-fired (you can call their Canada branch and do mail order). Aroma Tea House (Canada branch of Lam Kie Yuen) has a gong fu king and a monkey picked; I think the latter is a little lower fire if memory serves.
http://aromateahouse.com/index.php

You could also try this one:
http://www.theteagallery.com/Elegant_Queen_p/of-eq.htm

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Oct 4th, '09, 02:59
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Re: Medium Roast TGY

by Oni » Oct 4th, '09, 02:59

Kam at funalliance has the best bang for buck TGY but it is not medium roasted, but the leaves are uniform and highly aromatic.

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Oct 5th, '09, 10:18
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Re: Medium Roast TGY

by chicagopotter » Oct 5th, '09, 10:18

wyardley wrote:How medium is your medium?
That's a good question. Sometimes I like a very deep roast, sometimes not quite as heavy, but more so than just a green TGY. I'm thinking about trying the first on this list: http://www.jteainternational.com/teas/irongoddess.htm. Does anyone have any experience with J-Tea? Intuit also reminded me that Yunnan Sourcing has http://cgi.ebay.com/Dark-Roast-Anxi-Tie ... .m20.l1116. Anyone try?

I got some roasted TGY from Altera Coffee in Milwaukee that was sourced from and roasted by TeaSource. Not bad and can get more if need be, but am looking for alternatives.

I picked up some of Kam's TGY, which I really like, and have it around for my lighter TGY fix...

Oct 5th, '09, 10:49
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Re: Medium Roast TGY

by Zanaspus » Oct 5th, '09, 10:49

I am not a fan of light roast, however, most of the better ones out there are just that. My solution; buy a lighter one and roast it myself. This is quite easy to do in a clean oven or toaster oven. Put it in an oven safe glass dish, turn the temp to 150-200, wait until oolong aroma fills the house. :wink:

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Oct 5th, '09, 12:39
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Re: Medium Roast TGY

by Oni » Oct 5th, '09, 12:39

Lightroast and light fermentation Anxi TGY is a new thing, in the past most of the TGY was dark roast and over 40 % fermentation.

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Oct 5th, '09, 12:41
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Re: Medium Roast TGY

by Maitre_Tea » Oct 5th, '09, 12:41

Zanaspus wrote:I am not a fan of light roast, however, most of the better ones out there are just that. My solution; buy a lighter one and roast it myself. This is quite easy to do in a clean oven or toaster oven. Put it in an oven safe glass dish, turn the temp to 150-200, wait until oolong aroma fills the house. :wink:
+1
Using a rice cooker or a crock pot also works extremely well, see the following for details:
http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=8090
http://tea-obsession.blogspot.com/2007/ ... -here.html
http://www.myteastories.com/2009/04/hid ... -rice.html

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Oct 5th, '09, 14:59
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Re: Medium Roast TGY

by wyardley » Oct 5th, '09, 14:59

Zanaspus wrote:I am not a fan of light roast, however, most of the better ones out there are just that. My solution; buy a lighter one and roast it myself.
The main issue I have with doing this is that the newer teas are both lightly oxidized and roasted; to me, a high-fire tea that doesn't have at least a little oxidation really ends up lacking something. I think most of the older / traditional style Tieguanyin were at least 20-25% oxidized. Also, roasting in the rice cooker / electric roaster / whatever will have a different effect on the tea than traditional charcoal roasting.

I suspect that a lot of roasted Tieguanyin that's out here is just stale tea that's been roasted later, which tends to have the same problem.

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Oct 5th, '09, 15:43
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Re: Medium Roast TGY

by gingkoseto » Oct 5th, '09, 15:43

wyardley wrote:
Zanaspus wrote:I am not a fan of light roast, however, most of the better ones out there are just that. My solution; buy a lighter one and roast it myself.
The main issue I have with doing this is that the newer teas are both lightly oxidized and roasted; to me, a high-fire tea that doesn't have at least a little oxidation really ends up lacking something. I think most of the older / traditional style Tieguanyin were at least 20-25% oxidized. Also, roasting in the rice cooker / electric roaster / whatever will have a different effect on the tea than traditional charcoal roasting.
I very much agree! High fire oolong is not my focus of interest (largely because I didn't get many opportunities to taste those of great quality), so I may dislike some flavor that many other tea drinkers like. But overall, I think it's extremely easy to get any "roasted" or "smoky" flavor from any tea, we can get it even from roasting rice grains :mrgreen: Some roasted oolong has the roasted flavor, but not much more than that.

In my impression of high fire oolong so far, it's hardest to get fruity flavor when making roasted oolong (and you have to start with high quality raw material from the beginning). It's second hardest to get caramel/sugary/honey flavor from roasted oolong (even though some people may prefer caramel flavor to fruity flavor). Even without such hard-to get-flavors, a good enough roasted oolong should have some good throat-massaging feeling, or good sweet after taste, or whatever more than just what we can get by pan-roasting at home.

Real "traditional" tea doesn't have to be high fire (even though in old days most TGY was high fired). Greener TGY can be made with traditional method. But a big difference between traditional and non-traditional is the timing of processing, and whether the raw tea is processed on the same day of harvesting. Traditional TGY is harder to make, has strict time line in processing, and is not rewarded by market (not by current Chinese market). But they are healthier. Besides, based on my observation, some seasoned tea drinkers may eventually get tired of non-traditionally made greener TGY, but not many people get tired of traditioally made TGY. I do hope to see traditional TGY coming back more and more.

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Oct 6th, '09, 00:05
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Re: Medium Roast TGY

by Tead Off » Oct 6th, '09, 00:05

Oni wrote:Lightroast and light fermentation Anxi TGY is a new thing, in the past most of the TGY was dark roast and over 40 % fermentation.
Oni, Oxidation and Fermentation are 2 different processes, sometimes mixed up. Oxidation is allowing the tea leaves to naturally wither by exposing to oxygen. White, Oolong, and, Black teas are all Oxidized. In each case, oxidation is controlled and limited in White and Oolong. Blacks are usually fully oxidized.

Fermentation is a process of introducing bacteria into the process. The best example is Puerh. The fermentation process reduces oxygen from the leaves
after the withering process. This is why Puerh ages so well in humid areas like Southeast Asia.

Sauerkraut and Kimchi are fermented foods. Beneficial bacteria have predigested these foods and changed them to be more healthful.

If you cut an apple and let stand, you will see the oxidation process turn the color very quickly and ultimately dry it. Bacteria is present but not to the extent that you have in the fermented examples.

Hope this clarifies these processes.

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Re: Medium Roast TGY

by Zanaspus » Oct 6th, '09, 07:15

wyardley wrote:
Zanaspus wrote:I am not a fan of light roast, however, most of the better ones out there are just that. My solution; buy a lighter one and roast it myself.
The main issue I have with doing this is that the newer teas are both lightly oxidized and roasted; to me, a high-fire tea that doesn't have at least a little oxidation really ends up lacking something. I think most of the older / traditional style Tieguanyin were at least 20-25% oxidized. Also, roasting in the rice cooker / electric roaster / whatever will have a different effect on the tea than traditional charcoal roasting.

I suspect that a lot of roasted Tieguanyin that's out here is just stale tea that's been roasted later, which tends to have the same problem.
I'll continue on my crusade for roasting any fermentation level of tea. One of the best teas I've ever had was a 70's baozhong, which was obviously roasted several times in its life.

That reminds me. I still have a session or two of that left... :mrgreen:

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Re: Medium Roast TGY

by wyardley » Oct 6th, '09, 09:39

Zanaspus wrote: I'll continue on my crusade for roasting any fermentation level of tea. One of the best teas I've ever had was a 70's baozhong, which was obviously roasted several times in its life.
Fermentation isn't the same thing as oxidation, and baozhong isn't inherently low or no oxidization.

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Re: Medium Roast TGY

by Intuit » Oct 6th, '09, 10:32

Nope, fermentation using microbes is usually limited to wet-process tea processing (piling) and those stored in semi-humid environments.

Leaf proteolytic and lipolytic enzymes and UV-degradation (if the leaves are laid out in the sun or a bright indirect light location, rather than deep shade spot) is responsible for the initial step of breakdown of leaf tissues, post harvest in traditional tea processing. This is aided by mechanical abrasion, like kneading. Bacteria are present, but they aren't actively involved.

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Re: Medium Roast TGY

by chicagopotter » Oct 6th, '09, 21:46

I've been cooresponding w/Stephen over at JAS e-Tea http://www.jas-etea.com/ who reports the following:

"From what I have been able to ascertain from my source in China, here is how the dark-roasted Tie Guan Yin come into being. In the past, oxidation degree of Tie Guan Yin Oolong tea was similar to Wuyi rock tea, which means the color of Tie Guan Yin was dark bloom, and was about 40-60 % oxidized, not the current about 5-10% oxidation of the shiny green TGY. In the past, the traditional Tie Guan Yin focus on the tea taste and sweetness. Today the lightly-fermented Tie Guan Yin focus is on its orchid fragrance. Probably in mid of 1990s, the slightly-fermented Tie Guan Yin came into being, and then became popularized by the tea consumers. So gradually, the traditional Tie Guan Yin was off the market and the technique for creating the tea began to disappear except for some old tea farmers who know how to make the traditional Tie Guan Yin. My source is well acquainted with these tea farmers.

So currently in the market, the so-called dark-roasted Tie Guan Yin is not the traditional Tie Guan Yin. In fact, these teas are the slightly-fermented Tie Guan Yin from several years ago, which were not able to be sold out by tea farmers. But still, in the market, there are some old tea drinkers that pursue the traditional Tie Guan Yin. Hence, the tea merchants bought this remaining slightly-fermented Tie Guan Yin and re-baked them again, which made the tea look like the traditional dark-roasted Tie Guan Yin, and sold this tea at high price to make quick money. That is how most of the dark-roasted oolong tea on the market today came to exist. Now, a lot of consumers have become fond of the re-baked Tie Guan Yin but are unfamiliar with the actual origin of the tea.

So, having talked to my source, I have decided to carry three grades of the dark-roasted oolong:
a. Good quality -
b. Better quality -
c. Best quality -

I should have some stock available in about 2-3 weeks at the most. Could be on hand in about 10 days if everything goes well."

I left the quoted prices off because I'm not sure of the rules regarding that. Don't want this to come off as a sales pitch for this vendor -- just wanted to relay the info. If Chip sezs it's OK, I can always go back and edit with the prices.

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