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I bought this tea in 2015 during my “I need to try everything immediately” phase. Eventually, around 2020, I hope to have worked through my stash of old purchases. This was a pretty reasonably priced Jin Jun Mei, so I’m not sure how representative it is.

I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The first steep has notes of malt, honey, and Triscuits (weird, I know), with a punch of tannins and astringency in the finish. The next few steeps add notes of wood, grain, cardboard, and minerals, with an intriguing tomato vine aroma that doesn’t make it into the taste. I find this tea to be very drying in the mouth in spite of its honey-like sweetness. By steep eight, the liquor is mostly malt, tannins, and minerals.

While I enjoyed the honey and mineral notes, this tea is quite astringent if you use too much of it. It’s also rather long in the tooth. That having been said, I’ll have no trouble finishing this JJM and will consider buying another one in the future.

I enjoyed the 2016 version of this tea so much that I bought 25 g of the 2018 harvest. Using the same steeping parameters, I got the same jasmine, citrus peel, orange, guava, and vegetal (broccoli, spinach) notes as were present in the 2016 harvest, making this a refreshing Dan Cong for what I hope will be the last hot day of the summer. I got a good seven steeps before the inevitable vegetal fadeout.

If you like greener, floral- and citrus-heavy Dan Congs, I highly recommend this tea.

This is a free sample I received with my most recent order. My web browser and TeaVivre’s shopping cart system do not get along, and I had to e-mail them my choice of samples after the purchase. Without being able to see the list of samples, I asked for their Li Shan, and they gave me this Ali Shan Jin Xuan instead. While I’m grateful to TeaVivre for their excellent customer service, Alishan is the white bread of high mountain oolongs and I would have picked something else if I’d known that the Li Shan wasn’t offered.

I followed their instructions and steeped 7 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at boiling for 25, 25, 30, 40, 60, 90, 120, and 180 seconds.

The first steep has notes of white flowers, peas, cornhusk, and cream. Even with 7 g, the liquor is sweet and pungent with no astringency. Subsequent steeps have notes of lettuce, kale, and more flowers. By the fifth steep, this tea is entirely vegetal.

Although the first couple steeps were pretty good, this Alishan faded quickly and was fairly uncomplicated. I imagine it would make a tasty cold brew.

This is a sipdown of a TGY I bought in the spring of 2016. I steeped 5 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 120, and 240 seconds.

The first steep is grassy, tangy, and very floral. In the second, notes of orchids, violets, cream, peach, and grass become more prominent. (I never actually thought I’d use the descriptor “sweet, warm grass,” but that’s exactly what this is.) Though the tea isn’t astringent, it has a drying quality in the mouth. The wonderful peachy florals continue for around six steeps, and are joined by herbaceous and vegetal notes later in the session.

I’m finding that the better (and pricier) the Tie Guan Yin, the harder it is to pick apart the flavours. Maybe for this type of tea, quality is measured by its smoothness and consistency rather than its variety or evolution. Anyway, I’m sure this tea also deteriorated somewhat due to age. I look forward to opening my 7 g packet of 2016 Competition TGY.

I’m surprised this is the first review of this tea. Thanks, TeaVivre, for sending it as part of a free sample promotion earlier this year. I put the entire 7 g sample in a 120 ml teapot, which it filled right to the brim. Steeps were at 200F for 7, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 120, and 240 seconds.

This lives up to its name, with honey, orchid, mild roast, and lychee-like sweetness. There’s a slight astringency in the aftertaste, which is not surprising given the amount of leaf. In later infusions, notes of wood, minerals, and veggies emerge.

Although this was by no means a complex tea, its honey and orchid character was pronounced and pleasant. I’ll have no problem finishing the two other samples I have on hand, and would consider buying more if I didn’t already own three other iterations of this type of tea.

This is the final Tie Guan Yin in my set of free samples. (Thanks, Teavivre!) I steeped 7 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 8, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 120, and 240 seconds.

While the first steep is slightly floral, tangy, and vegetal, the tea really gains its stride in steeps 2-3, with strong grassy, butter, tangerine, orchid, floral, coriander, and tannin notes. Seven grams may have been a bit too much leaf, since the aftertaste is bitter and vegetal. By steep six, a lot of the fruit is starting to disipate, to be replaced by minerals and grass. The astringency is a lot more noticeable in this TGY than in the two others I tried.

Although this Tie Guan Yin had a promising beginning, it didn’t have the staying power of its two siblings. It was also the most vegetal of the bunch. While this would make a good everyday tea, I think TeaVivre offers better options at around the same price point.

This is the second of the three teas in my Tie Guan Yin showdown. (Thanks to TeaVivre for the samples.) The leaf is more broken up than the Zheng Wei TGY, although the orchid/vegetal aroma is very similar. I steeped 7 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 8, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 120, and 240 seconds.

The first couple steeps feature orchids and other florals, citrus, herbs, stonefruit, and a vegetal backbone. Its heavy and slightly soapy body reminds me of Chou Shi Dan Cong from Yunnan Sourcing, which is a tea I really like. The citrus, florals, and herbs intensify over the next few steeps, and the stonefruit resolves into peach or maybe nectarine. By steep four, minerals, spinach, and possibly jasmine emerge. Can you tell I’m enjoying this tea? The flavour stays consistent for around eight steeps before experiencing the typical vegetal fade-out.

This was a very enjoyable Tie Guan Yin and a strong contender among the samples. It has the fruity tang I want in a TGY, while still possessing lots of florals.

ETA: For me, this one was the winner.

I took advantage of the free sample promotion that Teavivre was running a while ago to pick up three Tie Guan Yins, with the aim of choosing one to get me through until 2019. (Thanks, TeaVivre, for the free samples!) I steeped 7 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 8, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 120, 180, and 240 seconds.

The first steep is fairly vegetal, with notes of orchids, florals, and grass. The slightly bitter aftertaste probably means that I used too much tea. In the next few steeps, the orchid gets more pungent and notes of butter, lilacs, and violets show up. The aftertaste is long, with no bitterness after the first couple infusions. The tea holds steady for about eight steeps before it starts to fade.

This was a very floral-heavy Tie Guan Yin that hit most of the right notes for me. However, I didn’t get any of the fruit that other reviewers mentioned. I didn’t find it all that complex and while it’s clearly a good tea that gives lots of steeps, there might be more interesting TGY’s out there.

This is another of the teas in the India taster kit. While I enjoy trying things from less well-known growing regions, the reviews of past offerings from the Temi tea garden didn’t look promising. For this reason, I probably wouldn’t have purchased this on its own.

I made two attempts to brew this tea correctly. Both times, I steeped two teaspoons of the unbroken khakhi leaves in 355 ml of 200F water. In the first session, I steeped it for 3 and 6 minutes, respectively, but because the flavours weren’t coming through, I upped the time to 4 and 6 minutes in the second round. My notes are for session number two.

First off, the aroma is wonderful, with notes of sweet muscatel and papaya. In the mouth, wood, tannins, grass, dried flowers, and lemon balance the profile. The longer steep time did produce a bit more astringency. The second steep is a muted version of the first, though I could detect faint hints of the spice promised in the product description.

This is an enjoyable Darjeeling-like tea that I won’t have any trouble finishing. It’s not mindblowing, but it’s better than I was led to believe by some of the reviews of previous lots.

Woohoo! I finally have some spring 2018 teas! Camellia Sinensis is one of my favourite Canadian tea retailers, not least because I don’t have to deal with the U.S. exchange rate.

This Darjeeling is part of a three-tea India taster kit. If I remember rightly, the EX preface on the invoice number means that it’s harvested before the standard DJ invoices, and the fluffy green leaves bear this out. I steeped two teaspoons in 355 ml of 203F water for 4 and 6 minutes.

The first steep has notes of salt, minerals, umami, muscatel, dried flowers, and herbs, with a drying astringency. The aftertaste is especially green and herbaceous. My initial four-minute steep may have been a mistake, and next time, I’ll cut it down to three. The second steep is also vegetal, herbaceous, and astringent.

A very green first flush Darjeeling, this tea would probably benefit from shorter steeps and lower temperatures. As is, I like the herbaceous character, but wish there was more fruit to balance it out.