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Had another mystery tieguanyin this morning. Didn’t taste like a spring picking, but then again, the bag had been open, and I think this was something I received in 2011. First sips reminded me of breakfast.. a little thick and very slightly roasty, with berries and darker flavors couched within the usual sweet green TGY.
Leaves were large and beautiful, but as it sat in the cup, it turned and barreled towards metallic and lemony. Ah well, you were yummy while you were…. I bet you’ll still be nice for big ol’ morning pots.
Steeped this one again for the first tea of the morning. Re-steeped pretty well, all things considered. Sweet, mildly vegetal with some powdered-sugar-spring taste. Aftertaste a bit metallic and lemony, but still a very pleasant thing to wake up to.
Preparation
Starting an experiment.. actually log the teas I drink in a day, caring not a whit about rating or even notes. Just logging.
An Anji Bai Cha (which is often classified as green?). I have little experience with this tea. The leaves are gorgeous floating in my cup. I’m having trouble figuring out what Anji Bai Cha offers that’s unique.. that’s craveable.. that sets it apart from all other green or green-white teas.
So far, it’s sweet. interesting mouth coating that puckers the back of my tongue- verging on unpleasant but not quite. A little.. chalky? In a way that reminds me of some matcha-dusted green teas (again, not sure if I enjoy it, but I certainly don’t not enjoy). Reminds me of a sweet dragonwell-style green that is over a year old and that I’ve been steeping all day. But gorgeous leaves, I must say.
Steeping this way is not astrigent at all (just floating in a glass), but there is a building dryness that I remember from gong-fu-ing this one. Since I’m brewing something up to combat morning dryness, I think I will move onto something else when I near the end of this cup.
Those of you with Anji Bai Cha experience.. what do you look for? What are you craving? What should I listen for?
Preparation
I crave that freshly baked chicken aroma that only a Ming Qian Anji Bai Cha can give me. I currently have the 2011 crop in my cupboard from Seven Cups, and I’m saving up for some 2012. There is definitely a sweetness to it, from the high concentration of amino acids (again, only from a Ming Qian variety), but I cannot recall a dry finish to it. I’ll have to taste it again.
Baked chicken, eh? I’ll have to look out for that! How far towards savory does that usually go for you? (in the butter —> smoked turkey spectrum)
As for the dryness.. it’s not really hard on the back of the throat but rather lingering at the back of the tongue (right underneath the point where the hard and soft palate meet). Nowhere near what I would expect from, say, a CTC Indian black, but definitely noticeable over time.
I like how light, sweet and refreshing Anji Baicha can be. Really nice to drink even on a hot day.
“Baicha” refers to the cultivar, which is an old style with inherently pale leaf color on the bush. Classically produced as compressed green tea followed by the light, nutty, open leaf loose green we have today.
This one remains a mystery and I have been too lazy to take and post a picture. It is in a lovely white tin with blue roses and a medallion that looks like a Blue Willow china plate.
The only English on the tin and the inner pouch is a very awkwardly spelled description (lovely “flayour” and “tenderraw” leaves) that provides no further description of its provenance. The lid of the tin was sealed with a very prominent green “2014” sticker and it came to me via a friend’s hubby who was in China very early this year.
Anyway, it steeps to the color of champagne/honeysuckle and is heavy, satiny, and tastes like sweet hay. Made a whole pot so I could enjoy a regular cuppa and try chilling a jar as well. At the rate I’m going, there may not be any left to chill.
Edit after I Googled “2014 green tea blue and white tin” (sometimes you find stuff!) It appears to be a Bi Luo Chun: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/150g-Top-Grade-biluochun-Spring-2013-green-Tea-Chinese-health-Care-Weight-loss-Bi-Luo-Chun/1412979198.html
That tin is so pretty!
I have always loved the Blue Willow china pattern—that’s what the tin reminds me of.
That is beautiful! I use an odd assortment of Spode Blue Room dishes, mostly the floral series, that I collected at discount shops over the years. My only blue willow is a couple of pieces I inherited from my godfather, and he inherited them from his mother. I display those, but don’t use them.
Lost the only BW plate I had in the you-know-what…ever watch Andy Griffith closely? That’s what they eat on for everyday!
I’ve always loved blue willow as well. I love these blue and white tons as well. They have almost sucked me into certain aliexpress purchases but so far I’ve controlled myself.
OK, experts, Name This Tea. Here is what I can tell you:
—A work friend’s husband brought it home this week from a business trip to China; was presented several tins by colleagues.
—It is in a lovely white tin with blue roses and a medallion that looks like a Blue Willow china plate.
—The only English on the tin and the inner pouch is a rather awkward Speciaally selected and processed from the finest and tenderraw tea leaves. Rich in aroma and smooth in flayour. (Misspelled verbatim.)
—The lid of the tin was sealed with a very prominent green “2014” sticker.
—It isn’t a long jing. The leaves aren’t that flat and thick; they’re thin, straight, longer than my measuring teaspoon, and very clearly two-leaf tips.
—At a cautious 2:30 steep, it is champagne-colored, thick, silky, and tastes like barely-there honey and sweet straw.
Liking it immensely—but what am I sipping?
Second experience with this particular mystery leaf—coworker’s spouse brought back from China; that’s all I know. And it seems to be a completely different brew from the first. With water a little hotter, and possibly a shorter steep (you know how scientific and precise my tasting notes are—not)it is cleaner, brighter, almost a little lemongrassy. Pleasant for a rainy afternoon with a contented cat lounging on your lap. Tazo says hey.
Thoughtful of my doctor’s office to offer me a cuppa while I was waiting. Not-so-thoughtful to whomever (I didn’t look at the brand) packages green tea for a Keurig that gets the water entirely too hot and ruins it. Bitter and plasticky. The manufacturer should know better! (I didn’t know it was going to be green, or I would’ve stuck with water.)
Coworker’s hubby returned with tea from a trip to China and she shared. Big, curly green leaves—trying to place the smell, my husband said he was whiffing “peppery” and “nutmeggy.” Steeped up into a gently spicy green broth. When I get the chance, I’ll try to pinpoint city an region, but what a nice treat at the end of a long day!
Hit my favorite Cheapster Steepster tea place this afternoon and they had a new bin of unlabeled green tea at a whopping 62 cents an ounce. Couldn’t resist.
Leaves are flat and short, but not tiny and shredded. At a moderate temp and time, 3 minutes, give or take, this steeped up pleasantly smooth, velvety, and fruity green instead of vegetal green. Essence of lime rind, maybe.
Thinking it’ll be a great, inexpensive blending medium for other stuff.
(My little pod of kiddos bumped from 5 to 8 today, including one sweet and prickly stray kitten of a little girl who needs a lot of extra love and affirmation. I taught her mama a—(ahem!)—few years ago. I’m now a Vacation Bible School grandma.)
I’m not sure where thi
s one came from or who sent it to me, I found it while cleaning up it was in ziplock marked “organic Darjeeling” I dont know anything about darjeelings but I wish I did know what this one was because I liked it alot, it tastes like a darker oolong with nutty chocolate notes almost malty even but not at all like a black tea. What Darjeeling could this be.
Okay, Steepsterites.
Yesterday I had the Clear Jade Orchid and I just keep steeping the same leaves throughout the day. Three cups all in all, the last one I had sort of mid-afternoon-ish and at that point I had to pee constantly. Large cups, these.
Today we’re having another oolong and this time it’s a real genuine chinese Tie Guan Yin. Yes I am aware that all Chinese tea is genuine Chinese tea, but as this came to the household via a chinese colleague of my boyfriend’s who brought it with her when she got to Denmark and then gave him, for some reason, a whole bag of the stuff. We don’t know why but my theory is that he must at some point (he has worked with her before, and then she was home in China for a few months and is now back to work there again.) have told her about me and my interest and that would be the reason why.
My gain, anyway.
This is packed in portion sized samples and it’s in those wrappers where all air has been sucked out of it before sealing. It only says ‘Tie Guan Yin China Tea’ on the wrapper, which is golden, and then it’s got some Chinese characters on it as well. Nothing wtih western letters giving a clue as to brand or similar. I have attempted to take a picture of the wrapper so that you can see, but as the kittens were ‘helping’ me operate the camera… I have included picture links at the bottom. If anybody can read the Chinese writing for me, I would appreciate it. One portion packet seems to go quite well in size with my small teapot, so that’s what we’re going with here. That tiny wrapper held a whole little handful of leaves. Amazing how little space things take up just by having the air sucked out of it.
I actually remembered to smell the leaves before putting them in the pot. They had a rich, thick smell. Sort of dark green and woodsy, which made me think of a forest environment. Deciduous, mostly. I know it’s really fields and plantations, but I rather like the idea that it might be tea growing among a bunch of other plants and trees, and maybe, just maybe, there’s a tiger or a firefox just around the corner…
After steeping it smells more toasty and woodsy, and the colour has changed. It’s more orange now than green. Strangely enough it’s the same orange as the colour of the tea in the cup so that leads me to think that perhaps this particular smell does not actually trigger synesthesia so much as my brain belives it does because it makes the association with what I can see in the cup. It does smell like that colour though, so who knows, really?
There is a strong floral note to the aroma as well. If I close my eyes I picture little white flowers, although I have no idea what sort of flowers they are. I don’t know plants. I think my brain is just inventing some random flowers really.
It has a very full flavour. Just a few sips and my whole mouth is filled with a strong aftertaste. Again it’s got a quite toasted note which I rather like. In spite of the leaves looking very green oolong it gives the flavour a more darkish oolong boost. I’m not really a fan of those very very green oolongs. To me, with those one might as well have gone for a green tea proper instead. I like it when an oolong actually tastes like oolong.
That means woodsy, slightly earthy and toasted flavours. It’s kind of grainy and nutty too. A bit like the ricey aspect of a genmaicha, really. If you picked a genmaicha apart and focused ONLY on the flavour that the popped rice in it imparts, that’s what I’m reminded of.
I’m very pleased with this and would rate it around 85 points. As I don’t know the brand, I’m not going to put an official rating on it though. Others might have other unknown TGY’s and it would just be a mess, I think.
Picture of the wrapper: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/sOYrqqoOej7KewgJg0Ppxjt0rtk7VScRcTAqR2hWR8Q?feat=directlink
I’m totally the same when I drink oolong. I’m making a trip to the bathroom every half hour or less. I started making each infusion only quarter cup of liquid so that I can taste the tea without overloading my bladder.
If you’re looking for something with a bit more gardenia/floral notes, I’d reccomend a Dong Ding. I love taiwanese oolongs, but don’t really care for TGY as much as others because I like mine a bit “greener.” You can get 7-10+ solid steeps out of a high mountain oolong — I love these things! Pretty potent diuretics, they are :)
Cole, I’m not really a fan of floral. Scented teas tend to often be a bit to perfume-y for me to really appreciate them, and I do best with floral when it’s naturally occurring and when there are plenty of other aspects to the flavour to even it out a bit. So something that was more floral than this, I would probably avoid. Or at least save for last. Thanks for the thought, though. :)
Mercuryhime, I took that advice with the barley oolong yesterday and drank that all day in half pots. (It’s one of those tea-for-one sized pots) It also gave me the advantage of actually being able to have more than one, perhaps two steeps, before I got tired of it and wanted something else. Six whole cups I got out of that one, although the sixth was rather weakly. Could probably have been more if I had raised the steep time higher than I did at that point.
Nice! I also use a tea-for-one pot for oolongs. I had it for years and years and never used it until one day a light bulb went off and I thought “This is perfect for gung fu style!”
I’m happy you got more out of your tea this time. Tasting all the differences in the different steeps is part of the fun of an oolong. :)
To be honest, apart from it getting weaker towards the end, I don’t pick up very many differences generally. But I feel like I’m getting more out of the leaves without the constant toilet trips.
