Hmmm, having just joined this site and reading your replies, illium, I need to contact you as my tea supplier in the US
I think one thing to add though is that TieGuanYin, at least from what I have learned from my many hours spent in teahouses in Hong Kong, is that they ideally should have a lingering "aftertaste" that ordinary oolongs, especially Taiwanese oolongs, wouldn't have. Lots of people would try to sell you Taiwanese "TieGuanYin", but the real deal really should only come from Fujian.
From Anxi in Fuchien (Fujian) province. The real deal is WONDERFUL! The wrong deal is just AWFUL! Once I didn't really quite understand the big deal about tiekuanyin either, until a store owner whipped up his secret stash of the recently harvested Anxi tiekuanyin...man, it was awesome! There is this strong floral bouquet, buttery smell, spring grass, forest floor, eucalyptus, etc...goes down easy with an aftertaste that lingers forever.MarshalN wrote:but the real deal really should only come from Fujian.
Yess, and it's the aftertaste that makes a tieguanyin the real deal. Taiwan teas never have that no matter how fragrant it initially is. I am drinking some stuff that my girlfriend sent me from Beijing, coming from Taiwan. It's probably a autumn pick tieguanyin, and it's quite nice although a little sour.
Well I just tried ti kuan yin for the first time the other day, and if I were to give the tea a SMELL, I'd say it was kinda buttery smelling... like a pastry of some kind, but tasted NOTHING like it smelled, it was very vegital and "green" as you say, at first I thought I might have not steeped it long enough, so I tried longer and it made it bitter, so I guess maybe that's just what it's supposed to taste like, it's OK I guess but I don't really like it that much.
"It is never too late to be what you might have been." - George Eliot
Apr 4th, '06, 13:07
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jogrebe
better iced
I've found that ti kuan yin is a lot better cold than hot in my opinion, but with that being said I won't be reordering when its used up.
John Grebe
"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me."
~C. S. Lewis
"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me."
~C. S. Lewis
It is Adagio's Ti Kuan Yin Trio.MarshalN wrote:The variety in tieguanyin is endless, actually. There is, crudely speaking, the dark roast and the light roast, and they taste very different. The grades are also vastly different. Where did you get this particular rendition?
~Yresim~
"I know! We could go to the Bronze, sneak in our own tea bags, and ask for hot water."
- Willow, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Reptile Boy, Season 2)
Favorite teas: earl grey, assam, white
- Willow, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Reptile Boy, Season 2)
Favorite teas: earl grey, assam, white
To cut the long story short, what yresim described is a very accurate view the modern chinese TGYs.
Yet the "highly oxidized", "butterscotch, wood, mushroom, earth, brandy" features yresim was looking are the signatures of traditional TGYs, similar to Wuyi oolongs.
"Nong Xiang " (thick/strong aroma/flagrance in meaning) versions of the mordern chinese TGYs are still much lighter oxidized/roasted then the traditional Chinese TGYs.
If one want to see what a traditional TGY is, the Taiwan TGYs todays offers a shadow of it. Still lighter in oxidation and roasting, it midway between a traditional Chinese TGY and the modern ones.
A few example of Taiwanese TGYs below
Roasted
Before Roasting
infused leafs and tea before roasting
Yet the "highly oxidized", "butterscotch, wood, mushroom, earth, brandy" features yresim was looking are the signatures of traditional TGYs, similar to Wuyi oolongs.
"Nong Xiang " (thick/strong aroma/flagrance in meaning) versions of the mordern chinese TGYs are still much lighter oxidized/roasted then the traditional Chinese TGYs.
If one want to see what a traditional TGY is, the Taiwan TGYs todays offers a shadow of it. Still lighter in oxidation and roasting, it midway between a traditional Chinese TGY and the modern ones.
A few example of Taiwanese TGYs below
Roasted
Before Roasting
infused leafs and tea before roasting
LOL, is that why we were all responding to a two year old post!Beidao wrote:The "View new posts" messed up and showed postings very far back, but I'm glad 'cause that let me read this thread. And I was drinking a TKY much like the one decribed here while reading. Now I know SO much more about it.
Cooool
TKY still rules!
- Victoria -
http://victoriasown.blogspot.com/
http://victoriasown.blogspot.com/