Imperial "AAA" Tie Guan Yin of Anxi Oolong Tea of Fujian

I brewed this tea gong fu style as I do for most.
The steamed leaves have a very creamy aroma that becomes more starchy when washed. Both the steamed leaves and the washed leaves have a strong vegetal aroma akin to perhaps a snap pea.
The liquor itself is light and starchy – with similar vegetal notes as its aroma. Reminds me of potatoes. With later steeps the tea takes on a more mineral like flavour. Great tea – very delicate for a Tieguanyin.

Am running a little tea demo course and ordered teas from YS due to a very limited budget and bc I didn’t want to gamble with Verdant again lol. Anyway, have 6 teas, which I ran through today with a friend (more beginner to tea) over the course of 4 hours, and so these are quick impressions and transcribed from notes, and are somewhat haphazardly done.

August 2021. 2.2g, 60 mL gaiwan (actuality is less practical volume), 212f brita filtered water.

Dry: umami, green, seaweed, tree leaves
Did a couple steeps together combined before pouring. Wet leaves smell coalesced with the taste in the most bizarre taste that I’ve ever gotten from a TGY. Outside of the brothy aspect and vegetal sweetness to the tea, slight umami aftertaste, not much sweetness to that. The lasting impression was the smell, something uncannily reminiscent of the spring pollinated and summer blooming flowers (weeds? they’ve got little light purple blossoms, grow in clumps, and have been around forever and seem always surrounded by all sorts of bees and wasps and other scary bugs that can sting) behind my parents’ business combined with cut grass. This may sound nice, but to taste it in tea was bizarre, unpleasant, and unsettling. Borderline nauseating for the friend who apparently suffers from allergies lol. Poor way to cap off the session.

0.50c/g. Neither of us finished our cup, and yet will retain memories of this one for all the wrong reasons. Pass.

Again, wish I could post pictures, but our leaves were shockingly green, like kale or spinach, but even greener, nothing pale green like the ones in the picture on YS US site.

I snagged 25g of the autumn 2021 version of this tea, and am writing from November 2021. The leaves are a dark and vibrant green, more vibrant even than a Taiwan high mountain oolong; they’re not the biggest, and are a bit roughly cut, but they expand substantially, and 5g quickly filled my 150mL gaiwan to the brim. This tea has a full body and pleasant fruit sourness- green apple or grape. I’d highly recommend it if you can get it fresh, but it seems like something that would suffer from age.