A Tea Addict's Journal

So, yesterday was the Puerh day from Upton, which wasn’t so good. Today, I’m trying the new Tieguanyin I got.

Packaging — the thing comes in a small, round tin can. Inside is about 10 packs of tea, each individually sealed and is vacuumed. One bag, however, seems to have the vacuum seal broken. Since one pack is not really big enough, I decided to open two packs at the same time, and picked out one of the regular ones and the one that has its seal broken.

I opened the pack, stuff comes out, green, little beads of tea leaves. The colour is a nice fresh green, at lesat for the pack that is sealed properly. For the pack that isn’t sealed, it is obvious that a little oxidation took place and the colour is a little darker. For the sake of testing, I’m using a gaiwan today, as opposed to my qingxiang Tieguanyin teapot, so that the taste of the tea is coming from the leaves and not the pot.

Taste — hmmm, it is rather interesting. The tea is slightly bitter, but that might be because I used two packs, which is a little too heavy for the small gaiwan I use. Also, the fact that one pack oxidized might have made a difference. The taste is mellow, but it has the proper Tieguanyin finish — a very long aftertaste that lingers in the mouth/throat for a long time. Nice! I don’t think I’ve had Tieguanyin bought in this country that has this taste, so this is a nice change. Taiwan teas don’t do this and it’s a major drawback of their style.

The tea smells like nothing. The lingering smell in the cup, however, is a fairly nice fragrance. For $20, this is not too bad, actually. Like I said, I can probably get this in China for half the price, but alas, you pay for convenience. I might get more of this in the future when I run out. I need some qingxiang tieguanyin to feed my teapot, and it is actually one of my favourite styles of tea. This will be a useful, everyday drinking type of tea for that purpose.