Hand Picked Spring Tieguanyin (2012)

Uh oh, first to review this one? Eep.

Dry tea smells quite vegetal. Almost overwhelmingly.

First infusion (204F/30s)
Smells floral. Smooth, light, buttery. Delicious. I think I’d prefer it to be stronger, but it is delicious.

Second infusion (204F/1min)
A bit vegetal, and there’s a bit of a sharp spicy almost astringent flavour that is quite lovely. That flavour is familiar, but not always as strong in other teas. Still somewhat floral, and an oolong aftertaste.

Third infusion (205F/1min)
Less floral, again I think I’d like it a bit stronger.

Fourth infusion (205F/1min (I think))
Losing flavour, more of a fruity, round sweetness with lingering oolong aftertaste. I think if I continue steeping I’ll bump up the infusion time. Nearly did it earlier.

Ooh, returning to the first sip, it’s definitely sweeter. Mmmmm. I take back my comment about it being too weak. Retrospectively, the second infusion is actually too strong.

Oh, this is fun. I’m sipping back and forth between my four cups, tasting them all in and out of sequence. Yum yum yum.

I think next time, I’ll go with 30, 45, 60, 120 seconds for my infusions.

I have to admit that during steeping, when smelling the wet leaf, I was very worried that this was going to be intensely vegetal, but only the second infusion was a bit.

Man. This was good. I’m going to have to compare it to the Autumn Tieguanyin, and the one from DavidsTea. I don’t know whether a “good” oolong is judged by its longevity (i.e. how many good infusions you can get), or its flavour. I’m not sure I’ve yet had a “bad” oolong. Or at least, not a bad green tieguanyin-style one or milk oolong.

I just read this over and apparently I am incredibly scattered tonight! Ah well. I was in lovely oolong land. Forgive me :P

ETA: Love how I reviewed this, and was promptly followed by two others :P I guess everyone received their orders last week and waited to try things until the weekend! Fifth infusion (203F/2min). The aroma is wonderful – I don’t know if this is because the leaves sat overnight, or what. But Yum. All oolongy and floral. The flavour is surprisingly strong for a fifth infusion. I am getting some grassy notes and astringency along with – oh, there it is, the oolong aftertaste! Nom nom nom – the rest of the deliciousness, but they’re manageable. Looks like I should be taking this to a sixth before throwing out the leaves so I can try my shu nuggets…

This oolong is still ridiculously awesome. On my oolong kick, so I decided to gongfu some of this tonight. Yes, it’s a bit late for caffeine, but I realized I haven’t drank this in ages and it’s already about 6 months old :( and I’ve also been crazy tired today even with caffeine so I doubt I’ll have trouble falling asleep. This tea is perfection. Tonight its silky smooth, cream, delicious, soothing. It’s helping my headache a bit too, and im currently lounging in the recliner with a pillow surrounding me and my tea and my boyfriend watching my bf work diligently on our lab. Night steepster! Oh, and see previous notes on this perfect tea. :)

To set the scene, yesterday in Minneapolis was perfectly sunny, just hot enough to make you move a bit more slowly than usual. Humidity was hanging in the air, and the smell of grass and new flowers was wafting in the windows. The fan was on low with a soothing hum in the background. That is when the last box of our spring shipment arrived at the door, and we cut it open to see those vacuum sealed shining gold bags of Tieguanyin.

We had ordered enough Spring Tieguanyin to last a few months, or so we thought when our last batch came in. It sold out in two weeks and we had to rush ship the freshest picking of Tieguanyin in this week. The sensible side of me thought, “this batch will surely taste like the last one,” but the trained taster knew that a few weeks difference in picking time can make a huge difference in flavor. Luckily Weiwei never lets us down with Tieguanyin, so we were not nervous at all to cut open the first bag.

The aroma of creme brulee, saffron, lilac, and flaky pastry burst forth from the bag. Oh, yes, this was something different entirely. The first steeping was juicy, and had the fruity tones of goji berry. There was a tingling spearmint sweetness on the tongue. This was an exciting tea!

That is where it took a sharp turn towards rich and creamy. It really tasted like a saffron and almond laced rice pudding reduced on the stovetop for hours. It was silky and completely enveloping. If the last batch was the essence of a sunny spring day, then this is a later spring day in the afternoon right after a heavy downpour of rain with steam rising off the grass and flowers.

As soon as the orchid flavors, the sweet parsley green notes, the mango juiciness and the vanilla came in, we were in real trouble. It was the first time since college that I had an overwhelming desire to play hooky, ditch work for the day and go pick flowers along the Mississippi River. Seriously- be careful with this one. I was so close to skipping off with a bag of this tea in hand, pulling my wife from work for a “family emergency” and taking off. The tea just does that to you.

Luckily, I came back to my senses despite my strong desire not to. Why, you ask? Because I wanted to get this tea, and the new spring greens up on the site so that I can share the experience around. It wouldn’t be fair to hoard this tea ll to myself, as much as I might want to. I would rather see other people connect with the tea instead.

All the support for our Tieguanyin here on Steepster has really shaped the way that Weiwei sources it. I pass on all the compliments, and she feels more honor-bound to follow up with an even more stunning tea each season. I am not always sure why the farmers part with tea like this, but I am more than pleased to share the tasting experience.

I’ve had this tea for awhile, unopened. I was saving it for a special occasion, which wasn’t planned, but ended up being today.

The side-effects associated with migraine and fibromyalgia take over from time to time, and there’s not much I can do about it. Sleeplessness and depression are the two symptoms that I’m glad to get over with the fastest. Physical pain is easy to handle by comparison.
Today I woke up and reached for my Kindle Fire next to the bed. My daughter had a new entry on Facebook with a link to her blog that began with this quote:

“Stand at the brink of the abyss of despair, and when you see that you cannot bear it anymore, draw back a little and have a cup of tea” ~Elder Sophrony of Essex

Then she went on to quote me (shock):
My mother reminds me often that tea has a way of keeping you in the moment. It’s not like coffee which in our society is meant to keep you always moving forward.
Tea encourages the partaker to sit down and rest a moment. It is a sort of “reset” button for the weary.
If we push ourselves beyond what we can bear for the sake of being strong, we will fall over, teacup and all, and find staring up from the darkness of the abyss… far more terrifying than standing at the brink.

(Hum, I thought…something from an Elder (Monk) and my daughter to think about in the middle of my depression, and I went about my morning…considering those words from time to time.)

At about 4PM, I couldn’t figure out where the time had gone. I felt foggy headed and the depression had closed in on me.

I remembered the quote from the Elder (Monk) and went to my tea cupboard…rummaging about until I found the one unopened SPECIAL OCCASION tea that I had left.

Standing on the edge of the cliff as I was, seemed a great time for Hand Picked Spring Tieguanyin!

Without a care for the opinion of others, I smelled the leaves. They reminded me of the many years of art classes, the sweet scent of oil paint on my brushes and canvas (and on me).

When I rinsed the leaves, I was washing the gloom away with tea liquor like a new ritual, washing my hands and face with it’s pale perfume.

Each leaf was so dark I wouldn’t imagine it had seen more than the most gentle rays of sunshine.

I drank the tea.

Beautiful, delicate orchid, cool spearmint like a pool of mountain water…honey cream…that made me sit in another moment different than the one I had been in before.

Drinking the tea, I drew back from the ledge and the sadness was interrupted.

Through cups and cups, I continued to let the tea lift my spirit.
(Not only through the way natural chemicals in tea helps the brain, but through the exceptional flavor of this particular tea.)

Time and again, tea has come to my aid when my body gets the best of me.

I’m feeling…better!

Had my birthday party last night, where I converted a few people with this tea! Yay!

Sadly, it wasn’t as tasty as it has been, simply because of the vessels I had on hand. They were plastic. Wow – it affected the flavour a LOT, but since my guests didn’t have any note of comparison, they were still quite impressed! I am happy for that :)

Today is my real birthday and it is kind of awful because I had a migraine last night as the party was winding down, and now today I feel weird and sick. Blargh.

I will have a blog post soon about the great tea gifts I received from my boyfriend, they are gorgeous and I am happy :)

Yay for tea, yay for new converts!

Azz this sample is being drank with great appreciation towards you. I’m also glad that I did not make the mistake to totally dismiss this tea, for I had made a small amount of a Spring Tieguanyin and found it to be bitter, problem is it was earlier on and I very well may have messed it up. I don’t think I messed it up this time…
A jolly little drink to be sure. Flavors jumped out at me too fast to pen with the first few sips, so I will try to get what I can out of it.
I followed the well written and informative directions to a TEA (yukyuk). At first I noticed a creamy/buttery mouthfeel that was saturated with a floral sweetness. We had honeysuckle growing thickly on a fence so I feel informed enough to agree with the description as to this part. I tasted the orchid note as well.
As the drink cooled the green flavors started to surface, though with such a faint astringency that I, AWM (see comments on Bananas Foster), was able to overlook it. The grassiness was not super strong either.
I’m on the third steep now and surprised at how strong this is still going. It’s changed without deminishing. There’s some kind of mouthfeel that reminds me of chicken noodle soup, though clean and not oily at all. I guess it’s the overall presence being bold, yet light, that impressions me with soup broth/stock.
The quality of this tea is obvious. I would definitely suggest this to others.

This was my birthday tea on Friday. It was the tea I woke up with, and it seemed to be the theme of the day. My husband called tieguanyin my “birth tea” (like a birth stone, only tea!), and I find it’s more and more appropriate as time goes by. He’s certainly right, if only for the fact that the time of year lines up perfectly: the past couple of days, the big lilac bush has bloomed and it literally hits on in the head with that delicious smell every time we walk in the kitchen door, leaving us craving Guanyin’s nectar..

I woke up with this tea. My husband woke up before me (to decorate the living room with streamers! and also herding our cats so they didn’t /eat/ the streamers) and he brought up our raku tea bowls filled with this beautiful spring tieguanyin. Drinking it was like coming alive. At first, I could only smell. Opening sips were warmth soothing my throat and, gradually (as my sense continued to adjust to the waking world), that gorgeous creamy texture. Aahhh.. spring. Finally, around sips ten or so, my tongue came fully online and started sending me information about all of the lovely tastes. Definitely a great way to wake up to your birthday day off in the spring time: coming alive again with this tea, sense by sense.

Breakfast continued on the theme with perfectly ripe cantelope melon, apples dipped in local MN honey..so floral and wonderful.. and a selection of light cheeses from the Seward Coop. Yummm. We didn’t eat these with the tea, but the textures and particularly the melon/honey/apple flavors synergized extremely well with what the tea has already laid out. Home-made (did I luck out or what??) lunch included an incredible piece of salmon, marinated in soysauce-wasabi, cooked up just so with cilantro and ginger.. the texture- it just fell apart in your mouth! So sweet and mouthwatering, with a real feeling of nectar.. you wouldn’t think it would be so, but it still fell very in line with my tieguanyin day.

We continued drinking tieguanyin throughout the afternoon, and we could do so freely, because my birthday present included 8oz of this spring picking!! It makes me feel free to indulge and have the good stuff more often. Instead of saving it for a special night, we will have it and make the night special as a result. Open the windows, let the lilac pour in, drink it up from the thimble cups.

This tea makes me think of many things. With the fan running on low, it makes me want to play hooky all day and lay out in the freshly cut sweet grasses. It makes me feel like I’m in a spa, and I want to light candles and run a lilac bubble bath with intense moisturizers. It is so fine fine fine.. a classy lady that’s just gorgeous /and/ sweet. Dessert. The creamy flavors, the smooth and lovely textures that feel like you’re being wrapped up and taken care of… It could only taste better if I were drinking it in Hawaii.. on the rainy side of Kawaii, looking out over ocean cliffs, plumeria in the air.

It’s decadant nd fine, but it’s not blowing loud and brassy horns in your ear. Instead, the flavors are all soft (yet strong and impossible to ignore), full and bouyant: melons, creamy whipped florals, exotic melon-berry nectars (juice is too thin and tangy a word). It’s downright sensual. Be careful- you might have to resist the urge to kiss whoever’s drinking with you.

Spring spring spring. How lovely. How do these TGY’s keep being so good? It’s ridiculous. As chadao wrote a little while ago, these tieguanyin’s feels scandalous- like you’ve been slipped a sample of something that should have cost a fortune and is instead just under the price of Rishi’s Citron Oolong (in a tea shop… $10). I think I’ll always prefer autumn TGY’s secretly, just because they feel a little more complex, but not in this particular situation. It has all the oomph and depth I would want from Autumn, but wrapped in the lovely honey-soft touch of spring. Ridiculous. I am so lucky to be able to drink this whenever I want, plus I still have several ounces of Autumn left.

Quick rinse

Wow, the fresh smell of the dried leaves is just dreamy. They look so beautiful, green and rolled. They look and taste of supreme quality.

5 seconds
Steepings 1-4: Creamy, sweet, floral. So smooth with a slight vegetal note. This takes me back to when I was a kid, drinking hot milk when I couldn’t sleep. This tea (same as the hot milk) gives you the feeling of comfort and safety.

5 seconds
Steepings 5-8: Less vegetal with a creamy, buttery, vanilla sweetness. I do notice some tingling on the tongue as well. For sure, my favourite group of steepings.

8 seconds
Steepings 9-12: Still sweet, but less buttery and creamy. I am picking up some fruity notes now.

The leaves are now almost filling my entire gongfu pot. They are so pretty. This tea could probably handle more steepings but I have some errands to run , then I want to try the Laoshan White.

This is really nice! Definition of SPRING for sure! It’s creamy, green and springy, hints of berry and gentle floral notes, but incredible clean and pure! I’m LOVING this the more i drink it and will do multiple infusions. Thanks David! This is a treat!

Currently pairing this infusion with All Along The Watchtower ~ Jimi Hendrix

Oh my. oh my oh my. I am somewhat speechless. This is … wow. I feel like I’m drinking the soul of lilacs, young grass, ripe juicy peach and plum. It is the bounty of Mother Earth coming to life even as the last patches of snow are melting away. The taste lingering on your tongue is exquisite. I don’t know if I want to keep drinking this tea or just savor that peachy flavor in my mouth. There’s also something like apple.

I’ve been drinking Tieguanyin all my life, but this is different from any other I’ve had. Is is fair to put this tea in the same category? I suppose this is the freshest tieguanyin I’ve ever had. Picked this very season! I wonder what the leaves tastes like fresh off the plant?

The leaves are much greener than other tieguanyin as well. The smell of the tea was so vegetal at first I was a bit put off. But the flavor of the tea really takes a few sips to unfold. Then you slowly realize what a treasure you have in your cup.

Lovely.