Roasted TGY Taiwanese Style Ti Kuan Yin Oolong Tea

Roasty.Toasty, Semi-Charcoal, almost quesi-Wuyi Rock-esque type oolong. It’s a good one! Yet another winner from Fong MonG!

This one is a nice Ti Kuan Yin, it has greenish floral notes that are very subtle and sweet followed by a toasty nuttyness, very buttery smooth mouthfeel. I like this one I think I want to buy some more. It reminds me of my favorite oolong :-). Also this one can make several tasty steeps pending in how you steep it. I let a cup of it go cold by accident and that wasn’t bad at all just the floral notes really come out when its cold.

I’ve only tried one other ti kuan yin which was from Teavivre, so going into this I expected something similar to that. I was expecting the tea to smell and taste floral, but what I got was totally different. I didn’t expect it, but this one is roasty like a wuyi oolong. But it’s not as simple as the roastiness of a wuyi, there’s some “greener” character fighting to come out. It’s like this tea has layers of toasted flavors and layers of green flavors, and I’m really liking the combination. Delicious.

I wrote most of this review last night, but got sidetracked by the U.S. election, for which this tea turned out to be a perfect accompaniment.

I thought a roasted Tie Guan Yin would be perfect on this rainy fall day. Thanks to Fong Mong for the sample. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 190F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

In the teapot, the dry leaves smell like smoke, roast, wood, caramel, and walnuts. The first steep is sweeter than I expected, with warm notes of roasted grain, caramel, wood, and a bit of char. The sip starts off sweet and then becomes roasty, returning to sweet in the aftertaste. The second steep has additional notes of honey, banana bread, and nuts. These flavours continue well into the session, with minerals and some astringency appearing around steep six. The last few steeps are all about the smoke and roast, but with enough toasted grain sweetness to make them enjoyable.

This is a very complex, satisfying Taiwanese Tie Guan Yin that I wouldn’t mind having on hand this winter.

I loved this tea, the clean roast aroma and flavour is a real winner in my book. Characteristics fruity but also somewhat similar to a black tea with malty and caramel flavours as well as a little vanilla sweetness. For the price this makes a good buy, especially if you enjoy the GABA effects. I found it quite relaxing and soothing, maybe too much so for a first thing in the morning cuppa but great in the evening.

Thanks to Fong Mong for this sample. I started by heating the yixing with 200 degree water, and putting the dry leaf in for a little shake. I gave the tea a super quick rinse just to help it open up a little. I got an aroma of honey, cinnamon , nutmeg and apple. There might be a bit more floral and fruit under that, but Im not getting them yet.

First brew, I get a clear pale honey color liqour, showing the roast on this is light to medium. Which seems to fit in with the flavors and aroma Im getting, a mix of floral,fruit and spices. Though not much actual roast flavor or aroma.

Second brew , with this brew im getting a bit more roast as well as more spice flavor including cloves. Im a bit surprised by this as its not an aroma I normally pick up in TGY, but it smells heavenly. The color is also a bit darker.. maybe I should have given it a slightly longer rinse :P . Oh the flavor is really nice as well, a bit of roast, fruits, spice all blending together wonderfully.

Third brew is slightly darker still with more clove, fruits, less roast. Still some floral, I also inspected the leaves after this brew and they are quite large and leafy and very nice looking. Im also getting a bit of peach and honey now. Wonderful tasting tea, a perfect after lunch or afternoon tea.

Im going to brew this out a few more times, as it seems it really has some life left in it. Roasted TGY tend to be pretty strong brewers. This is an excellent tea if you are looking for a light to mid roast TGY.

Highly recommended