There are two primary types of Tie Guan Yins, one being the 'jade' version which is more commonly available, and another being the 'roasted' version which this one is. The jade oolong usually has a lighter, more gentle taste to it and is frequently described as 'grassy'. The roasted versions usually have a stronger earthy smell to balance out the grassiness. I personally dislike spinachy/grassy teas which is why I opted for this light roast Tie Guan Yin.

Brewing

I brewed this tea the standard way with my Gaiwan. 1st brew at 95c for 20s, 2nd brew for 30s and 3rd brew for 45s. Fourth brew for 75s was rather... sour so I stopped at four brews.

picture of first brew! the color is light but it gets stronger by the second brew.

Tea

On opening the tea package, there was little to no smell from the rolled-up balls. That isn't too unexpected from rolled-up oolong though. On first taste, I immediately picked up notes of the dreaded grassy smell, with a slightly sweet woody taste to it. It reminded me too much of a jade oolong rather than a roasted one. The second and third brew came out not too different from the first, except for a weird sourness around the third brew ( which tasted weird in a bad way ). By the fourth brew, the sour, grassy taste started taking over so I stopped.

I'll try to brew this tea again with a lower temperature sometime and revisit my review, however, I'm already dreading my next session with this tea. As of this post, I have rated both of the Tie Guan Yin's I have reviewed so far rather unfavorably. I'll try a more heavily roasted version next time to make sure I don't just hate TGY's. Verdict: 1.5 / 5.