Chicago Coffee and Tea Exchange
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A very tart, delicious herbal tea. Quite citrus-y in taste and smells incredible. It’s very good, but, at the same time, I haven’t found anything special about it. It’s a nice and sweet tea.
It definitely grows in taste as it cools. It’s a deep red/orange color once steeped. Very attractive to look at.
To me this tea is almost as magical as it’s origin myth, blatantly copy-pasta’d from Adagio Teas..
Ti Kuan Yin means ‘Iron Goddess of Mercy’, and is a reference to a beloved bodhisattva in Buddhism. According to legend, Kuan Yin presented this tea in reward to a kind, poor farmer who lovingly maintained her old, dilapidated temple. ‘The key for your future,’ she said, ‘is just outside this temple.’ Outside, the farmer found a seedling tea bush. After much care, the bush grew rich and full, with thick green leaves. The lovely tea from those leaves was shared with and appreciated by all. Thus, the magical Ti Kuan Yin oolong came into being.
This tea came to me much like it’s origin, I a humble, poor, and learning connoisseur of tea travelled great distance for a new job, and through my hard work discovered an appreciation for teas. I queried the gracious store clerk at Chicago Coffee and Tea Exchange about which teas would be good to try, she bestowed upon me this great gift.
I hurriedly journeyed (a few blocks) back to my apartment with my prize. Brewing the first cup of this i knew not what to expect, upon tasting i was greeted with a roasted nutty flavor, initially making me think of how coffee tastes, and then followed by a sweet almost caramel aftertaste. I knew at once I must share this delicious brew with all I knew.
It’s now my staple tea, even as much as I try other things I delight in my few cups of this tea, generally starting the day with this and getting a good 3 steeps, I sometimes try a fourth, but, generally the leaves are exhausted and lack the ability to produce more flavor at that point.
I don’t want to be too harsh, as I’m absolutely sure I’m not an expert in matcha preparation. It wasn’t a great cup of tea, but, I did feel something afterwards, not sure if it’s just placebo from reading about the effects or something real though.
The taste was kind of meh. It wasn’t bitter, it wasn’t sweet. It was slightly grassy. I was trying to make thick matcha, but, ended up with a watery soup from slightly too much water. I don’t have any traditional materials for preparing matcha, just threw it in a cup and stirred gently with a spoon, I know this is like matcha-sacrilege, but, it still didn’t come out horrible, just not as good as I’ve imagined/heard it to be.
A very nice but very subtle flavor, please keep in mind that my novice skills in tea brewing may be to the detriment of some very great teas. However, with that being said, the tea leaves smell absolutely gorgeous and hint at the delicious flavor to come. While the flavoring was very subtle in the tea I brewed, the taste left on my tongue after drinking was delightful.
