Review: Charcoal Roasted Tie Guan Yin

Details

Name: Charcoal Roasted Tie Guan Yin

Type: Oolong

Variety: Tie Guan Yin

Origin: Anxi, Quanzhou, Fujian Province, China

Leaf Quality: High grade

Processing: Charcoal roasting

7.31g steeped in a gaiwan for 10 seconds at 203°F (95℃)

Tasting Notes

Top: Straw, soil, brown sugar

Middle: Cocoa, lychee

Last: Burnt rice, hojicha, burnt sugar

Tea Leaves

While dry, the leaves are a deep, inky black and rolled up. They have an aroma of hojicha and brown sugar. After steeping, there is a dry, sweet smell like incense, or perhaps the sweet, slight bitterness of Chinese herbs. The leaves are extremely black, hard, and stiff. They are about 3-4 centimeters in size, and it seems like buds have also been included.

Impressions

I received this as an extra from a tea shop.

Each portion is in an individual pack, and weighs 7.31g, which is larger than I usually brew. The clearly heavily roasted, deeply black leaves have been balled up.

The liquor is amber, with aromas of fragrant straw, soil, and sweet brown sugar. Sipping the tea, there is a faint, fruity note like lychee within the strong fire-like aroma. The flavor is strongly sweet and slightly sour, underpinned by a gentle astringency and bitterness. The liquor has a smooth, dry mouthfeel. After swallowing, I sense savory notes like burnt rice and hojicha, as well as a strong burnt sugar aroma, and the sweetness and gentle astringency lingers in my mouth.

Although the roasted smell is weaker in the second steep, it’s still strong. The astringent taste becomes stronger and leaves a more profound impression. While the liquor had a softer texture in my mouth, the dry sensation after swallowing was also stronger. The third steep was not largely different from the second, aromatic and deeply rich. It doesn’t give the impression of having weakened at all.

Throughout all the infusions, the roasted aroma was too strong immediately after steeping. I feel that it was more delicious after cooling down, with a more even flavor. With this degree of heavy roasting, the roasted flavor too dominant and masks all other tastes, so I can’t call the flavor delicate by any means. However, the fragrant and heavily rich aroma derived from the roastiness is easy to like, and seems like it would go well together with food.

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IG: grandguignol