Iron Goddess of Mercy (Tie Guanyin)

This tea is packaged in air-tight, oxygen free packaging from Taiwan within the Rishi box.
The dry leaves are tightly rolled little nuggets and they have a scent of soda bread and minerals.
Brewed, the leaves unfurl into curly-cues with stems and the liquor is a dark golden color with essence of toasted chestnut just as the packaging suggests. It really smells wonderful.

Wow, the flavor is smooth. It is a roasted flavor but not a strong roast, it is just enough.
As the tea cools, subtle flavors and scents of vanilla orchid come thru. There is a tiny tiny astringency.
Really delicious and awakening tea but not harsh with caffeine, it’s just right.
Lovely tea.

Upon the second steeping, I am getting a bit of stomach upset as more tannins are probably coming through with the leaves being more open. The Iron Goddess is not showing me mercy :( :( :( Must be sure to drink this one with a full lunch.

This is on the border between a medium roast and a dark roast tieguanyin. It has a very bready aroma and taste to it with a slight hint of sweetness, like walking into a bakery. This is an extremely forgiving tea, I’ve brewed it boiled, and at 195, both are fantastic. Got a good three steepings out of it.

Had this a while ago , very floral with caramel nutty notes.

The warm baked quality of this oolong is certainly its most apparent quality. The barley taste inherent to most oolongs is a little more understated in Iron Goddess.
Be careful to follow the instructions to a T. A little bit of this tea goes a LOOONG way.

This is one of our cabinet staples. It was the first tieguanyin I ever tasted, and so far, remains my favorite tieguanyin. It’s slightly sweet and very lightly floral. When infused for long enough, the sweetness drops away and the tea becomes more robust and slightly nutty. For me, it causes an ever so slight drying sensation in my mouth, which, oddly, just adds to the experience. We used to make this “dorm room” style, tossing the leaves into a cup, adding hot water, and drinking as soon as it was cool enough to handle. We would then top off our cups with more water for hours, until we got every bit of flavor out of our tea (we had to get the most of our $12 for 2 oz box of tea! What an investment!). Today, I started out brewing the tea according to the instructions on the box, western style with an infuser basket, though I did decrease the amount from 1 tbs for 8 oz of water to only .5 tbs. While that was nice and all, I switched over to “dorm room” style after a few steepings, because there is just something so comforting about recreating my silly late night tea experiences with my friends. Also, I can personally guarantee that this tea pairs well with cheap, greasy Chinese takeout.

As a side note, I am amazed by the quality of this tea, considering it comes from a large, nationwide distributor, and sold in grocery stores. I mean, Whole Foods, but grocery stores! Some of the leaves are nearly as long as the palm of my hand! I think this is a great introductory tea for getting people more into loose leaf. It’s entirely inoffensive, easy to obtain, incredibly forgiving in terms of steeping time and water temperature, and delicious!

I recently tried this tea, and I was quite impressed. The first infusion was steeped for 30 sec. with 190 degree water. This started with a rather weak brew. But the second infusion, water 190 and 45 sec. was amazing. It had a sweet mellow flavor with a cinnamon after taste. I really enjoyed this tea. Subsequent infusions were not as impressive, but it was still worth resteeping.

A fantastic tea. Frankly, I was hooked after the initial rinse. The aroma is rich, sweet in the first two infusions, full-bodied in subsequent steepings, with a roasted/toasted nutty fragrance and a slight caramel finish, reminiscent of a high-quality cigar. And the tea itself tastes just as good as it smells.

I make this in a 3.5 oz gaiwan; about 1.5 tsp of dry tea is enough to fill the pot with the expanded leaf. Short infusions yield about nine decent steepings, or three standard mug-sized cups, which makes this tea less expensive than vending machine coffee.

This tieguanyin deserves my highest rating.

I like the sweetness and smoothness of this tea. It was still good after I let it cooled to room temperature, a definite plus for me. I had this tea steeped in a mug and gongfu style. It stood up well both ways. I’ve recommended this tea to a few friends already.

This is a really nice oolong from Taiwan, that creates a nice coppery infusion from the nicely aromatic leaves. Sweet, subtle and warming. The wet leaves have an amazing aroma, and can be steeped at least three times. A very good introduction to Taiwanese oolongs, that is very nice on it’s own or pairs up nicely with a variety of foods. I think I’ll go and make myself another cup!

This is great, I just ordered it at a local cafe. A great oolong with a lasting mouth-feel thats really enjoyable. Ordered it at a cafe, but will definitely look into ordering some to bring home.