Charcoal Baked Tieguanyin

This was my first roasted tgy – after this one, I’m fairly convinced tgy should always be roasted. I think I might have overdone it on the leaf a little bit – 7.7g in a 100mL gaiwan, but it was still good. The dry leaf had a lightly roasty and buttery aroma to the. After a rinse, I smelled the roast pretty prominently along with a bready note and a bit of a floral character.

The tea started out a little bit fruity and floral, with a bit of the nasal sharpness I’ve come to associated with tgy – more blunted in this instance. The texture in these first few steeps was slick, and there was a slight cooling mouthfeel. The highlight of this tea was probably the lasting floral sweet aftertaste.

Steeps 4-6 were a bit rougher – slightly sour on the front with an almost too intense roasty floral note and a touch of bitterness. I’m guessing this is just because I used a little more tea than was optimal for the gaiwan.

The sourness faded for the most part by steep 7, after which I got another 7 more steeps or so before the tea gave out on me. These were much softer, mostly exhibiting the floral sweetness along with a bit of the sweetness which came from roasting the leaves – I want to say caramel, but it wasn’t intense or sugary enough – so I think it just kind of highlighted the floral sweet tones this tea had.

Part of a super fun Aliexpress order that includes almost 20 samples for me to go through – trying some oolong styles I haven’t gotten to yet! Roasted tgy is one I’ve been wanting to try, and (in my very limited experience) definitely has something over green tgy.