Light Roast Premium Tie Guan Yin Mini Tuo Cha Anxi Oolong Tea

Ok, way cool. A super portable TGY that I can take with me on weekend trips. Don’t have to worry about it being crushed. Heck just carry it in your pocket. Go to the waffle house ask for a cup of hot water and drop my tuo cha in, voila, satisfying TGY at your waiting lips. Its not super flavorful top notch tea but definitely better than a tea bag. I let the first steep go for one minute and the second, third steeps for about 40 seconds.

Tasty green oolong with a bite to it. I used 1 tuo and tried a short hot steep followed by a cold brew (long steep).

Steep 1: 1 minute, 500mL 70 deg C water
The tuo expanded into lots of leaf. Liquid was amber yellow, smelled toasty.
The liquid is roasty toasty, notes of grain. Aftertaste is bitter, but distinctly of an Anxi oolong. It is a little bit buttery, but the roasted flavour reminds me of loam, minerals, roasted barley, grain. Have you ever tried roasted barley tea? It has this roasty grain flavour to it, but also a bitterness to it.

Steep 2: coldbrew several hours, 300 mL
Toasty, a bit more buttery and less bitter, but there is a very definite “bite” in the initial taste on the tongue. It reminds me a bit of the bitterness you get from char. Very strong flavour of grain (wheat, barley, roasted corn husk), also. I like it, but preferred the tea with some brown sugar added to moderate it a bit.