Tae Guan Yin

Tea: Tae Guan Yin
Vendor: Swan Sisters
Price: $8.00 / oz.
Harvest Date: 4/07

About This Tea: Swan Sisters is a local company which I believe is only recently just starting. They sell their teas at the local farmer's market and by direct phone ordering I believe. They currently don't have a website to speak of. From what I have gathered they have been going on buying trips to China and bring the tea back and sell it at farmer's market. They bring back the regular big name teas from China, Dragonwell (Long Jing) , Iron Goddess (Tae Guan Yin), Silver Needles(Bai Hao Yinzen), White Peony (Bai Mu Dan), etc. It will be interesting to see how they do in eventually opening an online presence and possibly a brick and mortar presence in this town.

Leaf: The leaf for this tea was very green and interestingly comma shaped. This is not unusual though for an oolong, but there was a large amount of small dust particles in the mix. I found this to be a bit unusual and disappointing.

1st Infusion: The first infusion had a very strong aroma to it. I'm not sure how to describe the actual aroma though, but it was not a sweet aroma, it reminded me of a citrus, but without the sweetness or sharpness of it. The liquor had a very strong flavor at the onset, it matched the aroma quite well and produced a very difficult to describe flavor as well. The flavor builds up gradually on the tongue and then intensifies rather quickly. After intensifying it drops off. There is a definite richness to this flavor, but it is not bold.

2nd Infusion: This infusion had a strong sense of bitterness to it, but the flavor and aroma were very similar to the first infusion.

Used Leaf: The used leaf for this tea was very interesting. I have not had much experience with oolongs, and so I was intrigued by the used leaf, the leaves were much larger than are used for many other teas and expanded quite a bit from the small comma shapes they had originally been. There were lots of small pieces broken off from the edges of the leaves though, this was most likely the source of the dust that I noticed.

Rating: 3/10

Conclusion: The flavor for this tea was interesting, but I'm not sure that I really enjoyed it that much. The small broken pieces of the tea were a bit disappointing. I'm not sure if it is simply this tea or the style of tea that didn't really appeal that much to me.