Ti Kwan Yin

Gongfu Sipdown (2782)!

This tea was kindly added as a freebie in a past order! I feel like in the last half year my perception of Ti Kwan Yin/Tieguanyin has really been challenged. I used to think of this as a tea type that was fine but not really my thing, but the last few rea sessions I’ve had have got me rethinking that. I very, very much enjoyed this oolong. In particular, the mouthfeel was of special note: it was so smooth and velvety in an almost creamy pudding-like way. Combined with an almost vanilla-esque profile with such silky and floral orchid undertones and almost a cadamelized sugar quality, my mind kept wandering both to the tapioca pudding cups that I loved as a kid and the more caramel tasting and flan-like pudding popular as a topping for boba. It’s not that the tea was necessary sweet or particularly decadent, but the mouthfeel combined with these more prominent tasting notes really drove me to that comparison steep after steep. And there were other tasting notes! Magnolia, macadamia, shea butter. But it was the pudding of it all that I’ve been thinking about non-stop since finishing the session…

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DHO8bC1SfKZ/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4JJyjkfuUM&ab_channel=PorshBets