Monday, December 1, 2014

Tieh Kuan Yin - Butterfly Brand





I was told that this tinned Butterfly brand Tieh Kuan Yin (aka tgy) was considered as one of the expensive tinned tgy.  Retailing for about $30 or US$25, you get 250g worth of tgy sealed in a aluminum foiled bag and packed in a tall metal tin to ensure the tea leaves do not get broken till sold.  

I am starting to drink and explore the world of oolong and went recently on an oolong shopping day.    I am unable to resuscitate my wallet after my oolong purchase.  I can understand now why serious oolong drinkers use small teapots to brew their tea.....its so darn expensive!

I used smaller teapots to brew my oolongs.  For pu erh...I use 150-220ml teapots, but for oolongs I use about 100ml sized teapots.  I find that brewing oolong in  in a smaller teapot is ideal for me as I drink oolong on the strong side and 6 good infusions of oolong is enough oomph for a tea session.  I normally fill about 1/4 of the teapot with oolong and let the hot water infuse for about 15-20 seconds before pouring out the tea.  When I end my tea session, the teapot will looked stuffed full of the hydrated tea leaves....literally to the brim. 

Back to this tgy.  This tea is a medium roast tea, but on the heavier side.  If I use a scale to measure the roast levels of a tea....0-35 is light, 35-70 is medium while 70+ is heavy roast.  I would rate this tea with roast levels at 65 - 68. This tea exhibits a nice floral bouquet aroma with a mild hint of a sweet finish.  I personally prefer the heavier roasted tgy but overall impressions of this medium roast tea are very good.  This tea makes a very nice chilled tgy too.  One more thing...if you are using a yixing teapot to brew your oolong, use the teapot only for oolongs as the aroma does sometimes linger for some time after washing the teapot and may affect your tea session is you use the same teapot for other non oolong tea.  


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