The higher grades of TieGuanYin have been out for a little while now,
so I'd thought I'd check in with a quick rundown of what I've seen at
market.

The spring tea crop produced much less tea than last year due to the
complete lack of rain during the late winter/spring months. I've been
able to sample the low, stock grades up into the higher grades, and
nearly all of the teas have a watery flavor. The characteristic
astringency of most Spring TGY is also much more apparent than previous
years' crops. I'm not sure if they tried to fry the tea differently
this year to try and compensate for the lack of quality or what, but it
just doesn't hold-up in my book comparatively. It also seems that most
of the farms are only producing "qing xiang" or lightly cooked TGY now,
and are not making the heavier cooked versions of the teas. This is
indeed unfortunate because there is such a huge variety of different
flavors that can become available from this very special wulong.

Anyway, I'll go back to the market again this weekend to discuss some
information that I found about about some TGY classifications. He
argued rather strongly that many people are selling "fake" TGY. He
meant that there are some different varieties of TGY, that vary greatly
in price and quality, that are being marketed as something that they
are not. This is how business goes down at the tea market as a whole,
so it will be interesting to get more info on this.

Anyway, I'll let ya'll know.

Mydnight wrote:
> The higher grades of TieGuanYin have been out for a little while now,
> so I'd thought I'd check in with a quick rundown of what I've seen at
> market.
>
> The spring tea crop produced much less tea than last year due to the
> complete lack of rain during the late winter/spring months. I've been
> able to sample the low, stock grades up into the higher grades, and
> nearly all of the teas have a watery flavor. The characteristic
> astringency of most Spring TGY is also much more apparent than previous
> years' crops. I'm not sure if they tried to fry the tea differently
> this year to try and compensate for the lack of quality or what, but it
> just doesn't hold-up in my book comparatively. It also seems that most
> of the farms are only producing "qing xiang" or lightly cooked TGY now,
> and are not making the heavier cooked versions of the teas. This is
> indeed unfortunate because there is such a huge variety of different
> flavors that can become available from this very special wulong.

Thanks Mydnight, very informative. Did the lack of rain affect
northern Fujian as well? Also, I've heard that producers have recently
been moving to more "green" TGYs in general, so I was wondering if you
thought that in this case it's a technique to make the best of a bad
year or part of a broader trend?

"Alex" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>
> Mydnight wrote:
> > The higher grades of TieGuanYin have been out for a little while now,
> > so I'd thought I'd check in with a quick rundown of what I've seen at
> > market.
> >
> > The spring tea crop produced much less tea than last year due to the
> > complete lack of rain during the late winter/spring months. I've been
> > able to sample the low, stock grades up into the higher grades, and
> > nearly all of the teas have a watery flavor. The characteristic
> > astringency of most Spring TGY is also much more apparent than previous
> > years' crops. I'm not sure if they tried to fry the tea differently
> > this year to try and compensate for the lack of quality or what, but it
> > just doesn't hold-up in my book comparatively. It also seems that most
> > of the farms are only producing "qing xiang" or lightly cooked TGY now,
> > and are not making the heavier cooked versions of the teas. This is
> > indeed unfortunate because there is such a huge variety of different
> > flavors that can become available from this very special wulong.
>
> Thanks Mydnight, very informative. Did the lack of rain affect
> northern Fujian as well? Also, I've heard that producers have recently
> been moving to more "green" TGYs in general, so I was wondering if you
> thought that in this case it's a technique to make the best of a bad
> year or part of a broader trend?

Conditions in Darjeeling were, apparently, very similar, with a
corresponding negative impact on quality. I'd still like to get a few FF
Darjeelings, but I've been waiting for the later invoices in hopes that the
rain was just late, not absent.

Dean

Are we doomed to another bad year of spring TGYs? Last year's spring
crop was not exactly good -- lack of an aftertaste and just in general
sub-par.

I'll probably be trying some when I head back to Hong Kong soon, but
...... sigh

MarshalN wrote:
> Are we doomed to another bad year of spring TGYs? Last year's spring
> crop was not exactly good -- lack of an aftertaste and just in general
> sub-par.
>
> I'll probably be trying some when I head back to Hong Kong soon, but
> ..... sigh

[Seb]

Wait a little bit, the best quality Tie Guan Yin hits only the market
after the 1st week of June

SEb