Sunday 22 May 2011

Yellow Gold Oolong/Tie Guan Yin


Yellow Gold Oolong

"There’s a new gold rush in town and while we can’t promise it will make you rich, this Yellow Gold Oolong tea will definitely make you feel like a million dollars. The hand-rolled leaves open beautifully to create a complex mix of sweetness and tangyness topped off with notes of fresh grass."

Type; Oolong, China, Tie Guan Yin

Price; £ 12.98 for 100 grams from Eteaket

Review; As promised, please find delivered my review of Yellow Gold Oolong. There remains two predominant traditional styles of oolongs, if indeed one wants to try and categorize them as such; which can be defined as light and dark. The dark presenting more roasted, higher levels of oxidation. The lights presenting as delicate and floral as buds on a bush. Oolongs are defined, along with being a completely different style to processing tea, as a range of oxidation and fermentation ranging from almost zero like greens, all the way to 90 percent, close to black teas. Yellow Gold Oolong is one of the few teas to have captured my soul. the first time I tried it, I opened the tea pot searching through the leaves for the mysterious source of the fragrance to identify. Years have now passed, the fragrance remains, that of tea. If this review is already seemingly more loopy, and "poetic" than normal, it is a direct testament to this tea. Teas are meant to alter our mind, bring consciousness, invigorate us.

There is literally not a single bad word to be said, floral, delicate, the floral scent first reminded me of a peony, or a gardenia. With such a heady scent, it is truly amazing to realize a tea when it is at its full potential.


I have already done a review upon Tie Guan Yin before for the observant reader to notice. However this one I have felt needs specific notice. For those curious about Tie Guan Yin, this is a surprisingly decent wiki article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tieguanyin. However there has been a growing trend in China to title almost everything Tie Guan Yin. Even greens or blacks have managed to procure the name, as in a failed attempt that the name by proxy deliveries the delicious notes to the palate.

Enjoy!

-Tea Fanatic