★★★★★
DaBaby packs a stronger punch than this tea (Yeah, yeah). Very weak!
Legendary and beloved oolong tea from Fujian, China. Warm, soft and soothingly mineral in texture. Notes of toasted walnut and tender collard greens. Intriguing lingering floral aroma, lightly orchid, and gentle astringency. A meditative cup.
Customers use these reviews to describe their experience with Ti Kuan Yin, including flavor, aroma, preparation preferences, strength, and how the tea fits into daily routines. Browse the full review history page by page to compare tasting notes, steeping tips, and favorite ways to enjoy this tea.
DaBaby packs a stronger punch than this tea (Yeah, yeah). Very weak!
Oolong is so interesting to me as there is such an array of flavors.
Unfortunately, as soon as I steeped this the aroma was just too much for me. Way too vegetable. And the taste was the same.
This was simultaneously slightly floral and vegetal. The flavor was pretty mild, and while I usually don't like the green vegetal broth teas, this one wasn't too bad. I got three mild steeps, and probably could have done more if I had more time to sit and sip today. Overall, I liked it well enough, but there are oolongs close to this that I like better. (Reviewed through CommuniTEA; 3 min @195F)
I steeped my CommuniTEA packet for 2.5 minutes. The flavor is quite weak but it isn't grassy or too much like a green tea at all. It has a slightly buttery feel which I love. It resteeped alright for ~4.5 minutes with less water. There isn't too much to say about this tea, it's not on my list of teas I'll consider buying but I wouldn't mind having it again.
This is a very green oolong, definitely has the green, vegetal taste present in many green teas. Not as grassy as some greens, but if you're looking for a nice balance between black and green this is probably a decent tea for that.
I received this tea as part of the CommuniTEA box. However, as this isn't a blend, my review should be fairly unaffected by this individual portion. On with the review proper.
Upon opening the tea, I see small pearls of tea, delightful and small with an oddly almost floral scent with some greeness to it. It's intriguing, and I track down my basket to steep this, instead of my usual dinosaur friend, so that the leaves have as much opportunity to expand as possible.
I steeped this tea for two minutes in 195 degree water. The resulting tea is a pale yellow-green with a slight floral smell and is clear with minimal residue lingering on the bottom of mug. It tastes very green, and I don't get much of the nuttier walnut taste that this suggests that I should. Really, it seems like a less floral jasmine tea in taste. Adding sugar doesn't alter the flavor too much, though it does seem to pull some of the more nuttier flavors to the fore.
Overall, it's a passable tea. I don't terribly enjoy it, though I will admit that steeping it longer, or steeping it multiple times could have encouraged me to enjoy this tea more. I likely won't buy it again, though I wouldn't turn it down if I was offered a cup of it.
How do you review a tea that stands up to multiple infusions, and tastes different with every steep? This green oolong steeps to a light greenish-yellow and has a lovely smooth flavor that is vegetal, floral, and like a green tea without the grassiness. The first steep needs a little longer (3 minutes at 190°F) to allow the tea leaves to unfurl. Watching this process adds to the tea experience. I steeped subsequent steeps (4) for 2 minutes. The tea is good plain or with a drop of honey. Excellent! Will be a staple for me.
“A meditative cup” is very accurate! At first sip, I was underwhelmed. I wasn’t struck by flavors and just noted a little astringency. BUT THEN as I kept sipping, the delicate flavors began to unfold. Complex and subtle; a truly enjoyable cup.
Green and grassy with strong vegetal flavor. A really nice tea!
Sophisticated and savory green tea with a buttery vegetal taste
This is clearly a very high quality tea, and I do enjoy the green-esque oolongs. They are always great! This one is good but has just a very slight plasticy/chemically aftertaste to me on the first steep, as well as what I can only describe as a BO sort of smell to it. The second and third steeps were much better! It's a little more mild than most of the greens and oolongs I have had recently. Not very 'robut' or full-bodied, but that's okay. I probably wouldn't buy this one, but it's not bad!
On the oolong oxidation scale between light (akin to green tea) and dark (like a black tea) this seems about as far in the green tea zone as possible. This could be desirable for many but the resulting faint vegetable broth is not for me. I tried to like this and couldn’t make it past a few sips of steep one. The second steep is supposedly as good as or better than the first, so I tried a resteep and that was just as green, weakly vegetal, unpleasant in my opinion.
I hesitate to leave a bad review due to personal preference but “bad” reviews are just as important as favorable reviews for a full picture. Focusing on the tea itself, three stars is fair because it delivers the flavor promised. I would rate that flavor one star; I added another for resteepability and another because it’s nice to watch the leaves unfurl. I feel genuinely awful for the dedicated farmers and artisans who painstakingly picked and dried and rolled this tea only for me to end up dumping it.
It was very light floral and tasted great with a teaspoon of honey.
Very excited for this tea. It smells amazing and looks so cool steeping. Very awesome addition to the communitea.
Don't be deterred by words like 'mineral' and 'collard greens' in this tea's description. This is one of the smoothest green teas I've ever tasted, and as other have said, it gets better with multiple steepings.
Oh wow this tea almost tastes like a mellow jasmine green tea, but with that classic oolong toast. This tea is way different than I expected, but I love it!
Smelled and tasted like grass water. No color to be seen in my cup. Not a fan.
I definitely taste the collard green flavor, very strong.
This tea tastes divine. I'm grateful that this was today's CommuniTEA pick- I love it. I'm glad that it was just as floral in flavor as I detected out of the bag yet not as green, if that makes sense to anyone. No sugar was added but I suppose my favorite Orange Blossom honey would be best for this (or some other lighter honey). Just don't brew this over 195 or for more than 3 minutes and this cuppa will be fine.
Sometimes I want a tea that just tastes like tea and this one hits the spot. A bit savory/brothy but mild and overall really tasty and satisfying. I will say, for whatever reason, my resteeps lost nearly all flavor but the first steep was great and I loved how the leaves unfurled from nothing into glorious plants!
I guess im persnickety with my oolongs. I didnt enjoy this one much. I sampled this Tea as part of the CommuniTEA March box
A subtle nutty vegetal flavor with a slight floral finish.
I enjoyed this tea! It reminded me of my childhood at the local Chinese restaurant where we looked forward to sipping the oolong. The flavor was clean. This is a quality oolong for my palette.
Although this tea is actually an oolong, I approached it as if it were a green, since it had the feel and look of a green tea to me. I brewed it up at 175 degrees for 2.5 minutes, and enjoyed watching the leaves as they slowly unfurled.
The taste was quite light, crisp, and gentle, with a hint of floral, but not so much that it lingered in your throat. This made for a lovely tea to simply sip at and relax with. I actually feel that this tea would make an incredible 'spa tea' as it evoked a sense of relaxation and mindfulness. I seldom do a second steep but decided to try this, and the second steep was just as lovely as the first. I could probably have gotten a third steep from this but did not actually try this, so I can't verify whether this is truly a three steeper. Despite green teas being my least favorite, this is a very nice tea!
Curly, rolled up green tea leaves were nestled in today's CommuniTEA packet. There was a faint floral scent, along with a fresh green aroma coming from the oolong tea leaves.
Steeping as an Oolong tea for 3 minutes at 195°F, the tea produced was a lightly bright yellow green. The floral aromas still pervaded the steaming tea vapor. The first sip was bright and floral followed by a slightly nutty and faintly astringent green tea flavor.
The mouthfeel is smooth and meditative, unfurling the floral, nutty, vegetal, and astringency layers just like the tea leaves themselves unfurl. This is a tea to sip slowly and enjoy. The second steeping needed another minute to bring it back up to strength, for a total of 4 minutes at 195°F. It was just as enjoyable as the first steeping.
Overall, this Ti Kuan Yin is an excellent example of an Anxi Tieguanyin. Fresh and floral, this tea is one to enjoy slowly and meditatively just as Thich Nhat Hanh says: 'Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.'
(3 min @ 195°F) 2nd steep: (4 min @ 195°F)
When I opened the package, Ti Kuan Yin smelled exactly like carnations in a bouquet. After steeping 3 minutes at 190 degrees I could still smell the flower smell along with a little green veggie smell. The leaves opened to fill half my cup and were quite beautiful. The color of the steeped tea is deep yellow with a hint of ochre. The taste is definitely vegetal but very mild. I could not stop breathing in the smell with each sip. It was intriguing. I am not really a fan of green teas but I think I could drink this every day.
An absolutely lovely oolong with earthy, mineral notes blending nicely with a very slight floral note. A very mild astringency that lingers slightly providing that sort of dry finish. Incredibly smooth and delightful for multiple steeps.
Although I did detect a vegetal scent when I opened the CommuniTEA packet, it was not off-putting. I steeped this at 195 F x 3 min for all 6 steeps. I did try adding sugar to one and monkfruit to another cup but I preferred the ones with no additions best. The first cup had the most buttery mouthfeel and was delicious. That says a lot since I do not like any teas that have any hint of grassy or vegetal flavor.
The liquid reminded me of what boiled water looked like after collard greens were blanched, but the tea leaves smelled like tea. I think the taste is mild. That's good for me. This is a rare time that I get to try a real high quality tea like this.
Not bad, but unfortunately I’m not a fan of the buttery flavor of this tea. I know a lot of work went into making this, so it makes me a bit sad. I usually love oolongs. But there are so many other good ones, this one just isn’t for me.
Received this as a sample in the March CommuniTEA box. I really like it. I will definitely be reordering this. It tasted like a mix between oolong and green tea. Nice and light but also full bodied and strong. This was a great tea to meditate with as well. It was very vegetal but I liked that. Unfortunately I threw away the leaves before I did a resteep . Next time I have this I will steep multiple times to see how the tea changes. Anyways can’t wait to get more of this. I can taste the care it took to make this.
There's a note missing in this oolong that would make me give it 5 stars, I'm really giving it 4.5 stars. However, I would gladly buy this myself, I'm on my third brew, and they are all the same level of quality - usually by the third cup, the good ones start to drop off in flavor complexity. Only the really good ones last three or four brews.
So excited to see a high quality oolong in the CommuniTEA lineup. In the packet the dry leaves smell buttery, fresh and green. Those same notes come through in the aroma after the first steep, along with a hint of sweet floral. The body of the tea is smooth but light. No bitterness whatsoever, and there is a mineral aftertaste and a mild astringency in the finish that makes you want to keep sipping. It tastes fresh and buttery with a light natural sweetness. It's a beautiful tea, and good for multiple infusions to bring out a new balance of flavors each time. (190°F for 3 minutes)
I have to say first, I love the origin story of this tea! The leaves are tightly rolled and while steeping unfurled into beautiful full leaves...love watching that process. There is a wonderful floral aroma which follows through in flavor as well, for me. Thankful I didn't get the notes of walnut or collard greens. This was a lovely cup of tea with no additions of honey or sugar needed. It's so relaxing enjoyed in solitude.
A perfect tea for a Sunday morning!
Smooth, floral and oddly light? I don't know if it was because I didn't steep it very long [I didn't have my phone with me for the Adagio app's timer...oops.]
Todays tea was floral yet extra green in comparison to other green teas I've tried. I steeped this tea tor 2 minutes or a little over, but under 3 for sure.
I think this is the first unflavored oolong I've tried, but it just may be my new favorite unflavored tea overall! This tea was great for several steepings!
I took a cup of this steaming tea out on my deck today, barefoot so I can feel the coolness of the air while I wait for spring. As I looked around me and saw early signs of springs approaching, the taste of the tea opened my senses and brought me to spring right then and there. Slightly toasty and vegetal with a hint of the first freshly mowed grass of the spring.
I love many varieties of oolong and this is good quality tea, but I don't like the taste of this one.
As a general rule I'm not a fan of Oolong teas all by themselves, but this one was rather pleasant. Reminded me of warm buttery broth at holiday meals. A more savory tea flavor and less swamp flavored than the majority of oolong teas I've tried.
I love the light floral-ness to this tea! It's refreshing and calming at the same time. I will be adding this to my regular rotation. It's hot a hint of creaminess that isn't 'milky' per se but just rounds it out nicely.
This is a lovely oolong with floral and fruity notes. It's quite sweet naturally, reminiscent of honey. I did not detect any grassy or vegetal flavors. On the second steep, there is a mild peppery note that is also very pleasant.
Not going to lie, sometimes when it's a plain tea for the day, I sometimes put it aside and choose something from my stash. I like flavored tea! But I tried this, and it's lovely. Floral and almost syrupy but still light. I added two tiny drops of monk fruit sweetener.
I enjoyed watching the tightly rolled leaves open in my SimpliciTea this morning. The dry aroma was vegetal. The tea itself has a flavor like the water from cooked spinach. There is a pleasant slight peppery aftertaste. I like the Pepperdine’s, but I am not into my teas tasting like vegetable water. 190F 2.5 minutes
I think I'll call this tea 'Liquid Lawn'. Perhaps I oversteeped it, but it was perhaps the most grassy tasting green tea I've ever had. Even a bunch of sweetener couldn't mask that off-putting flavor. Down the drain it went.
As someone who thoroughly enjoys eating Collard greens I did not once say yum, this is just like supper, so I find the description to be misleading. Although I would say it was light with a bit of floral green flavor. Perhaps closer to 3 1\2 stars for me, but unfortunately there is no half star, so that makes this a 4 star tea.
Tastes like how fresh plant sprouts smell. Deep green flavor, it's a very calming tea.
Ti Kuan Yin had a sent like matcha green tea to me, upon opening the packet this morning! I love match green teas, so once I brewed up this tea, I found it easy to drink alone with no added sweeteners. Ti Kuan Yin tea made for a light and simple green tea for an easy weekend morning start. This tea also reminds me of the hot tea I'd get at my favorite asian restaurant back in the day!
I am not usually a fan of oolong, but this one was wonderful. I initially thought I hadn't received very much tea in my packet, but the tiny little crumpled balls of tea impressively expanded to fill up my tea strainer. A little goes a long way!
I brewed mine for 2 minutes at 190F as my tea kettle doesn't allow me to select 195F. I think perhaps the slightly lower temperature was in my favor, because I didn't get any of the leftover vegetable water flavor other people mentioned in the comments.
This tea had an amazing floral scent and a subtle leafy flavor. It was also significantly less astringent than other oolong teas I've sampled.
I’m not a fan for perfumey and floral teas, so, not a favourite of mine. If that is your thing, this cup is smooth and light but very floral.