This afternoon I’m using the Spring 2017 release of this tea. It is a midly roasted version that looks like a slightly duller version of the bright green competition grade tie guan yins. The dry leaves smell like tea. Imagine that. :-) By that, I mean the dry leaves just smell pure. I don’t pick up on anything other that pure tea smell except just the slightest roasted note. I decided to prepare this Anxi style in a small red 70 ml Jianshui clay pot placed on a tea boat bowl. The dry leaves were placed in the pot and just off boiling water was poured over and around the pot. The leaves now gave off a slightly more vegetal scent. After a fast rinse, the first three steeps were kept under 10 seconds, shaking the pot to unfurl the leaves between each steep. We have gardenias around our property, and unfortunately they are no longer blooming to do a direct one on one comparison, but I happened to smell a gardenia blossom just a week ago, and this tie guan yin scent is very close to gardenia. Gardenia can be one of those heady sweet scents that are hard to take for a long period of time, but the tie guan yin gardenia is more delicate. It does not offend in any way. The first few infusions were buttery, green, sweet. This is really delicious. Liquor is pale yellow. Infusions are now incredibly sweet. It’s as if sugar has been secretly added to the cup. Pushing the tea toward the front of my mouth, I detected what tasted like a lightly toasted marshmallow. It was fleeting, but it was there. With this tea session, I’m paying more attention to the timing, and I’m pouring around the edges and not directly into the center of the leaves. I like the results, because I got zero bitterness and zero vegetal taste in this session. I would recommend this tie guan yin, and here is a link to the instructions I used for brewing this Anxi style. Check out his other articles, as well:
https://www.kyarazen.com/anxi-brewing-method-tea/
Flavors: Butter, Gardenias, Green, Marshmallow, Roasted, Sugar, Sweet
