Hand Picked Early Spring Tieguanyin is an oolong from Verdant Tea. This batch was picked on April 12, 2013.
This tea is hand in the mountains near Daping, China. However, this particular batch is hand picked by us at Oolong Owls, as I accidentally spilled the pouch of tea on the floor. Sigh. By the way, tieguanyin is painful to step on.
I preordered this tea and received it sometime in May – talk about fresh! However, mass tea backlog here at Oolong Owl got it shuffled to the back. Thankfully, as I write this, Hand Picked Early Spring Tieguanyin is still available to purchase.
Dry Leaf: The Hand Picked Early Spring Tieguanyin leaves smell very fragrant, like floral tulip perfume. I’d totally wear this scent! Appearance wise, the tieguanyin is tight balled up lumps of tea in a grassy green colour.
The tea owls and tea turtle helped set up the gaiwan for today’s oolong session.
Steeping Instructions: Verdant tea has steeping instructions for each style of tea brewing: Western, Gongfu (recommended), cold brew and iced. The bulk of this review will be using the gongfu method. I used 212f water, 5 grams (1 Tablespoon) of tea and a rinse.
The rinse made the dry tea awaken and burst with vibrant green colour!
I started with 6 second steeping, adding 5-15 second steepings for the first 5 infusions. 30 second infusion for infusions 6-10. 1 minute for the final infusions.
The tea is a vibrant, yet pale yellow green spring colour, with the scent of daffodils and butter.
First, Second Infusion: The tea sips in with a moderate flavor level – sweet, buttery grass with a hint of milky texture. There is a really neat end of sip and aftertaste. It is a floral flavor, say 6/10 on the Floral-o-meter, but it is not a jasmine, rose, or magnolia variety floral, but truly like liquid daffodil. It has a fresh, spring floral flavor with a hint of pine and new earth, making it close to daffodil in flavor.
Third, Fourth, Fifth Infusion: Hand Picked Early Spring Tieguanyin is tasting less creamy each steeping and more crisp, yet still maintaining the sweet grassy and floral qualities. I am getting a slight tang end of sip, tasting a little like apple, but quite buried under all the floral.
By the 4th infusion, I already have a giant leaf that is over 3 fingers wide.
Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth Infusion: The sweetness is beginning to slip away leaving a more vegetal grass quality throughout the sip, with a soft floral sweet aftertaste, 3/10 on the Floral-0-meter. More I sip, the more I notice a creamy lip feeling and the return of the creamy taste!
After the 7th infusion my gaiwan is beginning to burst with leaves!
Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth, Thirteenth Infusion: Hand Picked Early Spring Tieguanyin now has a mineral wet stone sweet note mixed with a creamy texture. The floral is reduced to a little flavor sticking to the teeth, but disappears in final steepings.
Comments: Verdant Tea‘s Hand Picked Early Spring Tieguanyin is a beautiful spring floral tea, similar to sipping tea in a field of sunny daffodils. This tea owl really enjoyed the early steepings of the unique daffodil floral note and the mid infusions of crispy apple tang.
This tea is geared for the floral oolong lover! Snag it before it is gone! Now that fall is just about here, I will keep this tea around to remind me of the scent of spring flowers.
Bonus: Little green owl wants to know if his feathers will turn tieguanyin oolong green when he grows up.
