Tie Guan Yin Grade II Modern Green Style

I’m so excited to try my first Life in Teacup tea!!! I bought a bunch of samples for a friend and one for myself. I was going to choose a puerh because I’ve never had that before. But after reading a review on here where someone described puerh as “fecal tasting,” I opted for this oolong instead.

The dry leaves smell scrumptious! I’ve been having a lot of weird oolong experiences lately with Formosa oolongs from Adagio. They’re missing that classic “oolong” vegetal taste, so I’ve started to question if that “classic oolong taste” is something else. Do I even know what oolong tastes like?

Well, this tea confirms that my instinct was correct. This has that classic oolong flavor and so much more! It’s silky smooth and buttery. The aftertaste is where the floral notes come out to play. It has a very interesting taste that I can’t quite describe. If someone made an edible wax candle out of vegetables, I think it would taste kind of like this tea. That probably sounds really gross, but it’s a good taste. Extremely unique.

The liquor is so pale that I can’t label it with a color. I’m sure it doesn’t help that I always drink my tea out of a lime green mug, haha. I actually really like that comparison someone made to a baby’s milky breath. That’s a very accurate description of this tea. I’m also getting grass, but not the same kind of grassiness of a sencha. It’s a completely different type of grass, like an autumn dry grass.

And did I mention what a cute little bag my sample came in? It’s a shiny gold & silver, vacuum-sealed bag with Chinese script all over it. Oh, how I wish I could read Chinese! I used the entire 5-7g sample to make this cup. I’m not sure I needed quite that much. The leaves may start out tiny, but they unfurled to fill my entire tea infuser! And it’s not a very small infuser either.

Wow, just so good. Buttery popcorn! That’s what that unique flavor is I couldn’t describe earlier. It just hit me on the second infusion. Buttery popcorn, mmmmm! One of my favorite foods. Just for that, I’m upping the rating.

1st infusion: 185 degrees for 2 minutes
2nd infusion: 185 degrees for 2.5 minutes
3rd infusion: 185 degrees for 3 minutes

Each infusion was exactly as tasty as the previous one. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a tea before that holds up to infusions this well. It’s simply amazing. It’s late now though, so I’ll continue testing the infusions tomorrow morning.

BTW: I’m enjoying this tea while watching my boyfriend play Dark Souls. Has anyone played that game? It’s insane! My boyfriend is an elite gamer, so he’s doing a fantastic job. But still, this is the hardest game I’ve ever seen in my entire life. He got cursed by some weird, giant-googly-eyed, curse-spitting, anorexic frog thing. And apparently there are only three ways to be healed. Two require speaking to NPCs in the game that he’s already killed. The final way is to find an item and give it to another NPC. But he can’t find the item anywhere! I tried searching online for about an hour and could never find the location. Now he has to try to beat the game with half his hit points, which is what the curse does to you. Oh, and it can stack too. Ridiculous! But entertaining to watch. :)

This is FAB!

Semi-Peppery Buttered Veggies aroma fill my cup and a sweet green with buttery-smooth end and after taste makes this tea! Lovely! I really like this!

Dear Tie Guan Yin from Life in Teacup,

You are a fine grade of tea,
Grade II in fact,
O fare Tea,
Green thumb in picking,
Green tongue in tasting,
Unfurl and steep,
Unfurl and steep,
I got like, 5 infusions
Whhoooooooooooo

Sincerely,
I want to sip you

I opened the free sample today, that I got from Life in Teacup, of my “An Xie Tie Guan Yin Oolong Traditional Charcoal Roast”. It came in a red vacuum-sealed bag, and had written in pin-yin on the side “Ou Nan Cha Ye” and “Hao Cha Hao Ren Sheng”.

Anyway, when I opened it, I was very surprised, because the color of the leaves was green, and not the brown roasted color I expected.
Not only that, but they smelled sweet and fruity, rather than roasted, smoky, etc. (more like a houjicha).

Going right along with that, after rinsing the leaves, I did the first steep…. AND it tasted very fruity, delicious, etc., but NOT roasted at all. It was delicious, but I assume this was actually the Grade II modern green (hence posting my note here). I still have more steepings left, but as of the 3rd steeping, this is awesome. It leaves a very nice taste in the mouth afterwards.

I also got a free sample of the Grade II modern green (at least, that’s what the package says), but I sure hope the charcoal roast is in there instead!

Gingko, is it possible that a sample could have been accidentally switched, or is it more likely that because of my inexperience with oolongs, this actually is the charcoal roast (though there are no hints of it having been roasted)?

Either way, this is delicious!

Thank you Rabs for this lovely sample! This is a really good oolong, it’s vegetal and sweet, very light floral taste to it as well and maybe a very slight buttery hint in there somewhere. Very clean and pure tasting and not bitter at all, very well done!

I had this at a friend’s house this weekend. It’s a nice Oolong. I’m not sure what the ‘Grade II’ is all about, but it’s good. It’s just a hair green tea tasting (almost too fresh), which I prefer a little more rustic taste. I’m not sure if I’d buy it myself, but I’d have another cup of someone else’s!

Enjoying a pot before class. Hoping it will help clear the fog in my head.

2010: A Tea Odyssey. This tea is full of stars! Its like drinking a garden bouquet. I am completely in this tea’s awe. If this grade II blows my mind I can only imagine the Euphoria of the higher grades.

Smells like a bouquet of fresh cut flowers, tastes like a lush and perfectly manicured garden, and the hui gan is a slice of white peach that does not end. The florals are cooling to the point of tasting icy.

My sister says that it tastes like what we want perfume to taste like.

You may have noticed (if you look in my cupboard that is), but I tend to gravitate toward flavored teas. Like, strongly flavored desserty teas. But I won the Valentine’s contest by Life in Teacup, which was very fortuitous indeed – it got me back to the roots of really good, basic tea.

This was the first of my samples that I broke open. Upon smelling it I immediately said “flowers!” at the same time that my boyfriend said “grass!”, so in other words, it’s a garden in a cup. After it was brewed the flowers stayed in the smell, but there was also something buttery behind it. Despite that buttery presence the tea was extremely light..the flowers were very present in the taste. It was like springtime on my palate, if that makes any sense.

It made a wonderfully calming ending to the day.