I normally try my best to open and finish teas relatively quickly, but for some reason, this tea has been hanging around for at least two years, waiting for the time I needed it, which would be now. I was studying for a final and needed something a bit sweeter than a black tea – which is where this Tieguanyin comes in.

Because I’ve had it for quite a while, I don’t know anything about the tea besides what’s on the packet. Apparently it’s from a Taiwanese brand called Cha Tei. I also remembered that it’s a traditionally processed Tie Guan Yin, which means that it should be pretty roasted.

First Impressions

The dry leaves were dark balls, roughly all the same size, and with a strong roasted scent coming from them. I can see some of the leaves are attached to the stem and some without.

Tasting Notes

Because these leaves are rolled and they look highly roasted, I was comfortable using water that’s between 85-90 degrees. I gave it a short first steep and the tea liquor was a light amber colour. It’s very sweet – the word “fruity” also popped into mind – and the smoky note balances the sweetness very well. The way the tea lingers in the mouth after drinking is also really pleasant. The leaves are still fairly tight after the first steep.

In the second steep, the tea liquor darkened to amber, the sweetness was not as strong and the smoky note became a lot more prominent. In fact, the smoky note reminded me of a cigarette – not my favourite! It’s been some time since I had a traditional tie guan yin so I can’t remember if this is intentional, but I wonder if the strong smoky note is due to over-roasting. I found that this smoky note was much less intense if you use cooler water (about 80ish degrees) for the second steep, so I’ll probably be doing that from now on!

The tea remained consistent for the third to sixth steeps. Nothing quite matches the sweetness from the first steep, but the smoky note is generally pleasant and the tea makes for a good study companion. I’ve had the tea two times so far, and both times I stopped drinking at the 6th steep because I could feel myself getting jittery from the caffeine. Personally, I think you could steep the tea more than 6 times, especially if you’re brewing gongfu-style.

Like the dry leaves, the spent leaves are all roughly the same size and not too big. I didn’t see any leaves that unfurled into a bud + leaf combination, but I also didn’t see any chopped up leaves so the tea seems pretty good!

Concluding Thoughts

Overall, I like this tea, especially the initial steep, and I’m glad to have another tea in rotation! I think the two loose leaves I have open now are black teas, so an oolong is a nice change. If you’re curious about Taiwanese oolongs, I attended a workshop about them once and have a writeup here (I was looking at it to refresh my memory!)