Tie Guan Yin

[GARCH]

Hi there!

I recently bought the Traditional Nanyan and Traditional Anxi Tie Guan Yin from Fook Ming Tong:

http://www.fookmingtong.com/eng/tool03.asp

Has anyone else tried their Tie Guan Yin? I just finished a session of the Traditional Anxi one and it was surprisingly good!
It isn't the overly floral, nuclear green type and the leaves are with proper red edges (some leaves are more oxidised than the others). I brewed 5g in a 110ml Zhuni pot and it can barely contain the leaves as they open up pretty wide.
It has a deep and strong Yin Yun and the tea easily lasted 6-7 infusions.

I am still on the hunt for a good, traditional charcoal roasted Tie Guan Yin though.
I live in Singapore but I don't seem to find any so far.
Does anyone happen to have any good recommendations?

[debunix]

I've been very happy with two free m Norbu: one from Taiwan, and one from Anxi. The Anxi was a 'traditional roast' and the Taiwanese was charcoal roasted. Haven't checked recently but if he describes a traditional tea, I expect it to be very good.

[jayinhk]

I have some HK electric roasted TGY that is really nice...there is an outfit that still roasts with charcoal in HK, but it's a long way away. Lovely TGY, but quite sour. I've had some aging for a few years!

[GARCH]

Thank you debunix for your recommendations! I shall go try out a small sample from Norbu and see how they compare.

Jay do you find all aged TGY to be generally sour? I bought some charcoal roasted style from Taobao a few years back and it was too sour for me.

[jayinhk]

Thank you debunix for your recommendations! I shall go try out a small sample from Norbu and see how they compare.

Jay do you find all aged TGY to be generally sour? I bought some charcoal roasted style from Taobao a few years back and it was too sour for me.

No, not at all. Brewed strong there will be some sourness, but I have high roast TW TGY that isn't sour at all.

[kyarazen]

Hi there!

I recently bought the Traditional Nanyan and Traditional Anxi Tie Guan Yin from Fook Ming Tong:

http://www.fookmingtong.com/eng/tool03.asp

Has anyone else tried their Tie Guan Yin? I just finished a session of the Traditional Anxi one and it was surprisingly good!
It isn't the overly floral, nuclear green type and the leaves are with proper red edges (some leaves are more oxidised than the others). I brewed 5g in a 110ml Zhuni pot and it can barely contain the leaves as they open up pretty wide.
It has a deep and strong Yin Yun and the tea easily lasted 6-7 infusions.

I am still on the hunt for a good, traditional charcoal roasted Tie Guan Yin though.
I live in Singapore but I don't seem to find any so far.
Does anyone happen to have any good recommendations?

can i procure a sample from you?

[Bok]

Isn’t sourness a sign of not so high quality tea or overbrewing?
At least that is what I thought so far…

[ethan]

Isn’t sourness a sign of not so high quality tea or overbrewing?
At least that is what I thought so far…

I think that is often the case. When I like the tea, I don't think "sour", rather "tart". I drink Imperial Pearl from Mountain Tea which is not high quality but refreshingly tart for starting the day.

[jayinhk]

Sourness can also indicate too much humidity in storage. A little sourness is desirable to old school gongfu cha heads, but too much is no good either.

[GARCH]

can i procure a sample from you?

Definitely! I'll PM you separately, lots of goodies to share hahaha.

Sourness can also indicate too much humidity in storage. A little sourness is desirable to old school gongfu cha heads, but too much is no good either.

I agree! A slight tartness or the illusion of it is actually pretty refreshing. I have some oolongs I bought from Taiwan awhile back which was supposedly already 10years old. If I brew it strong (with enough leaves) I'll get a hint of sour plummy taste. Very fleeting moment but it makes you sit up and take notice

[kuánglóng]

Sourness can also indicate too much humidity in storage. A little sourness is desirable to old school gongfu cha heads, but too much is no good either.

My observation too and needless to mention mainly based on storing or teas traditionally in less than airtight containers. What I don't get here is that there's been materials to store tea, e.g. oolongs properly for quite a while but it still happens and then the affected tea gets re-roasted for the umpteenth time losing more and more of its goodies down that road.
What still puzzles me is how fast most Himalayan leaves die, once they have picked up a little moisture.
Last year I've bought some lovely hand-made Chongtong oolong and it completely died on me within 10 days after I got it. Since I take utmost care to keep my teas properly sealed those leaves must have picked up moisture at the vendors place. I tried to reanimate those leaves but to no avail, there were almost no aromas and flavors left - pretty annoying.

[jayinhk]

Sourness can also indicate too much humidity in storage. A little sourness is desirable to old school gongfu cha heads, but too much is no good either.

My observation too and needless to mention mainly based on storing or teas traditionally in less than airtight containers. What I don't get here is that there's been materials to store tea, e.g. oolongs properly for quite a while but it still happens and then the affected tea gets re-roasted for the umpteenth time losing more and more of its goodies down that road.
What still puzzles me is how fast most Himalayan leaves die, once they have picked up a little moisture.
Last year I've bought some lovely hand-made Chongtong oolong and it completely died on me within 10 days after I got it. Since I take utmost care to keep my teas properly sealed those leaves must have picked up moisture at the vendors place. I tried to reanimate those leaves but to no avail, there were almost no aromas and flavors left - pretty annoying.

After ten days? That doesn't sound right...

[kuánglóng]

Sourness can also indicate too much humidity in storage. A little sourness is desirable to old school gongfu cha heads, but too much is no good either.

My observation too and needless to mention mainly based on storing or teas traditionally in less than airtight containers. What I don't get here is that there's been materials to store tea, e.g. oolongs properly for quite a while but it still happens and then the affected tea gets re-roasted for the umpteenth time losing more and more of its goodies down that road.
What still puzzles me is how fast most Himalayan leaves die, once they have picked up a little moisture.
Last year I've bought some lovely hand-made Chongtong oolong and it completely died on me within 10 days after I got it. Since I take utmost care to keep my teas properly sealed those leaves must have picked up moisture at the vendors place. I tried to reanimate those leaves but to no avail, there were almost no aromas and flavors left - pretty annoying.

After ten days? That doesn't sound right...

It has happened only a few times in the past and always within a short time, max. 2 weeks after I got the tea, never after I had it here for a while. Once they've picked up a few percents of additional moisture from the atmosphere they just die, pretty scary. I guess a lot of it has to do with the relatively smallish leaves > much higher surface/weight ratio of Darjeelings compared to say typical chinese oolongs. I always get the creeps when I see vendors leaving their containers open for extended periods, exposing their teas to the elements (humidity), especially in foggy Darjeeling.
Back to TGY

[ethan]

A little sourness is desirable to old school gongfu cha heads, but too much is no good either.[/quote]

I agree! A slight tartness or the illusion of it is actually pretty refreshing. If I brew it strong (with enough leaves) I'll get a hint of sour plummy taste. Very fleeting moment but it makes you sit up and take notice [/quote]

+1 Jay & Garch.

Also, same tea sometimes gives tartness & sometimes not even when brewed the same.

[William]

Kuánglóng, if a tea looses most if not all of the aromas/flavours after a couple of days (due to moisture the leaves have absorbed), the only reason this happens is of a serious flaw in the processing of that particular batch.

Usually, this flaw is a direct consequence of the failure (rare) or incorrect decrease (extremely common) of the percentage of moisture retained by the leaves after they have been picked. Tendentially, this kind of mistake can not in any way be fixed heating the leaves once we brew them at home, because the quality has (unfortunately) been irreversibly spoiled.

It is something that usually happens with Pu Er (especially those processed by minority without the proper equipment), when the sha qing has been incorrectly made and the tea leaves have been compressed rather hard .. the high humidity still retained by the leaves combined with the high compression, bring to unpleasant and greenish flavours that only worsen with the passing years.

Always sample, this is the only way!