Master Zhang's 30yr Aged Tieguanyin

I think there are 2 listings for this tea….so I will repeat the same notes. I love this one, beautifully complex and balanced, the nose I get bourbon ( really good bourbon — Pappy Van Winkle 25 year good ), fresh baked sweet wheat bread, woodyness, and just a bit of dried orange peel. Palate, same bourbon, burnt caramel, same wheat bread but a bit sweeter, roasted barley, some woody flavor. Just wonderful!

So I heard a rumor that aged oolongs can get one “Tea drunk” so I decided to fire this up and see how it goes. This is also my first aged oolong. Tea drunk aside, this oolong is delicious!! I normally am not a huge fan of TGY because they’re too light but this is really really good. I decided to break out the setup and do it gongfu the best I can. I’ve read other tasting notes and it seems that other people are using yixing, but I decided to just use my ol’ reliable “easy gaiwan”.

There’s definitely a lot of roasted notes and nuttiness in this tea. I wouldn’t describe it as light at all. It’s also a little sweet although not overly so. It’s definitely more on the savory side, which I actually appreciate. On the verdant website they describe it as having a “sticky rice” taste and I definitely agree.

I’m following the parameters on verdant’s site of 6 oz of water per 6g of tea (or more like 5g since that’s all my sample was for). Doing 10s infusions + 3sec for each one. I’m on my third infusion and so far each one tastes similar, but I’m curious to see how the tastes evolve. I’ll definitely be seeking out more aged oolongs in the future!

Dry: The leaves smell faintly of chocolate almond biscotti. The aroma is very faint.
As it’s steeping: It smells of fresh tobacco and wood smoke. The liquor is a dark golden brown.

Flavor: Incredibly smooth and balanced. Almost, but not quite, sweet. Caramel with autumn leaves, oak wood, and some slight umami. Very refined with sweet fruitiness coming out in later steepings.

Sounds obvious, but steeping vessels really make all the difference. Especially for oolongs, I’ve found.

The first four steeps of this were in a glass teapot and while it was clearly a good quality tea, it didn’t have the complexity I expect from an oolong as old as this. To be fair, my only point of reference for aged teas is the 9 Years Aged Da Hong Pao from YS so perhaps I don’t know what I’m talking about.

Fifth to tenth steeps I transferred the leaves into a new, previously unused and unseasoned yixing and the teapot brought out so much additional sweetness and warmth. Perhaps it was the minerals in the clay. Perhaps it was just being able to keep the temperature closer to 100C which worked best for the tea.

As the first five steepings of this were not in an optimal vessel, perhaps I missed out on a lot of interesting tastes because this ended up a little disappointing. The best TGY I’ve ever had is actually from a yum cha place near me, which is so crazy but I think I prefer that one to this.

This tea tasted like an above average roasted TGY with all the notes described by Verdant, but the one flavour I enjoyed specifically was that of Thai sticky rice.

Will report back again when I brew this in a yixing all the way and adjust my rating later.

Completely unlike Verdant’s / Master Zhang’s young Tieguanyins. The best adjectives I can put to it are warm and coconuty. Not that it tastes just like coconut, but there’s a flavor element that’s very reminiscent of a Mounds bar, so perhaps there is a bit of a chocolate note in there, too. Whatever the flavor is, I love it, despite the fact that I usually prefer much lighter and floral flavors.