Tie Guan Yin Grade II Modern Green Style

Lynne-tea – is this what you sent me? It was in a little red package, so I’m not entirely sure.

Anyways, when I opened up the little vacuum-sealed package of this tea, I was surprised to see that the leaves looked somewhat crushed! I had been hoping to use my little glass teapot, but its strainer would let the leaf pieces through easily, so I had to use an infuser instead. I don’t know if this was a consequence of mailing or not, but oh well! Still smelled deliciously green/vegetal.

I haven’t had a TGY in a while for whatever reason, and I definitely have missed them, as I just sniffed this one and nearly swooned! Hahaha. Buttery/vegetal/delicious. The first sip unfortunately screams ‘under-infused’, so it’s a little weaker than it could have been. I was worried about oversteeping because of the broken leaf, but apparently that was unnecessary. The flavour is smooth, a bit buttery, and “green”, but not too strong on the latter element. It isn’t really particularly floral to me, although I could see someone saying it is. Just a tasty cup of tea. I do think I like Verdant’s more, but this one is quite tasty as well. Looking forward to more infusions tomorrow!

ETA: Second infusion, accidently for 4.5 minutes, is still quite tasty and pleasant. Less bitterness than the second infusion from my sticky rice tuocha, and a lovely oolong aftertaste. Almost a touch too “green” for me right now though, but still good.

Happy May Day/Beltane to all! This has been a beyond marvelous day for me: I tried this tea with my new gaiwan and am loving it, and most importantly Doulton’s Shakespeare box came!!!!! I’m just so overwhelmed with tea joy at the moment. But I do need to review this tea before I move onto the amazing box-o-Shakespeare (and it truly is amazing).

Speaking of amazing: this tea is beyond amazing. I’m so glad that I purchased my new kettle and first gaiwan just for this tea. It’s worth it. I’m on infusion #8 and it’s still going strong. I wait until there’s only about 1/4 of liquid left in the cup and then add more water, stir with the lid, and then commence sipping.

Steep 1-3 were all consistent and good. I didn’t feel “FLOWERS!” like other notes I’ve seen, but more like “Spring Meadow” right before the flowers get boisterous. Each subsequent infusion started to do the wonderful “oolong morph” that I highly prize, and on steep #7 it turned into the best sweet floral oolong that I’ve ever had. I’ve mentioned how some oolongs will feel like their sweet yumminess infuses into my tongue? Not only is this tea doing that, but I can feel it all the way to my stomach and that’s a new and unique sensation that I’m loving. So far this is my favorite oolong hands down. I thought that I’d never give a 100 to any tea, but here it is. I will lose my mind if I ever run out of this tea. TG

ETA: It finally started to fade on steep #10.

The rapturous tasting notes about this made me want to try it and, on the offchance I’d get lucky, I sifted through my last batch of Life in Teacup samples and voila! Lucky, lucky me. I am all for instant gratification. In this case it was so instant I placed my order right before writing this.

Let me add my own effusive praise to this lovely tea.

Yellow flecked, deep green, twisty, curvy leaves. Not the biggest I’ve seen in an oolong, not the smallest either. They really do have an amazing fragrance. I often have difficulty detecting floral notes even in teas that are scented. I think it was Shanti who said this smells like a garden and she’s absolutely right; it’s like sticking your nose into a gardenia. There may be other floral scents in there as well but I’m notoriously bad at placing floral scents. Lily of the valley maybe?

The brew is a light yellow with a tinge of green and smells like someone poured melted butter over the aforementioned flowers. The leaves unfurl to increase dramatically in size after multiple steeps.

And in honor of laurenpressley’s impending addition, let me tell you what the taste reminds me of.

There’s a little white flower called “baby’s breath,” which is often used as an accent in bouquets. It doesn’t have much of a scent on its own, so until I became a mother I thought the reference was to the milky white color of the flower. Because after all, babies drink milk.

Then my first son was born. And in those first few days of holding him and nursing him, I noticed an amazing thing. His breath smelled divine. Sweet, warm, milky, buttery. Pure. He took nothing into his body other than mother’s milk. There were no teeth yet, to collect what the mouthwash commercials refer to as “odor causing bacteria.” Just this sweet, lovely baby milky smell.

That’s what this tea tastes like. That, and flowers. What’s not to like?

This tea is magical. Really, truly, magical. I don’t know how else to describe it, but I love it.

I really didn’t know what to expect going into this. No tasting notes yet, no description, no steeping parameters even. it was just a free sample that I won by replying first to a thread. But, intrepid tea explorer that I am, I went in head first, and boy was I rewarded for my bravery.

I decided to start off with a 45 second steep. I used about a teaspoon and around 8 ounces each steep, and gradually increased the steep time as I went on, up to around 3 minutes by steep 6. I would have kept going as it was still strong and delicious, but I had to stop in order to get some sleep and pack, as I had a flight in the morning.

The first steep was like stepping into a garden at dawn; lush, dark greenness, a heavy mist in the air, and large white magnolia and gardenia flowers all around you. Steep 2 and onward were even more magical. Each cup was like gardenias, magnolias, and milk. There was the most delicious buttery component, like orchids and unsalted butter, and a hint of sweetness, like lactose or white bread, or maybe just from the flowers themselves. And something else, like the taste of “comfort”—the smell of warm skin, or your kitty’s fur, or your favorite fleece blanket—I don’t know how to put a name on it, but it was surely there.

The mouthfeel of the infusion was remarkable. Absolutely luscious…it was thick, and rich…just a “whole mouth experience.” Like something that you needed to bite into, but would give way easily to your teeth and tongue. Not that the tea was actually like gelatin or something, but it had an impression, if you will, of smooth thickness.

I wasn’t expecting to re-order anything from Life in Teacup when I first received my samples, but after trying this I know I’ll be placing another order soon.

This tea came packaged up with the Number 3 brew I enjoyed so much yesterday, thank to RABS and her incredible, creative, ingenious, wonderful Geek Tea Prize. In following the rules of the game, I have certainly consumed this tea within 24 hours but it may be longer for me to have posted this tasting note.

(Parenthetically: my mother in law is visiting and I’m feeling slightly deprived of computer time: I won’t have much access to the computer for the next week but I will be peeking in. We are going to take her on a road trip to meet up with another one of her sons. If you had told me a year ago that my biggest fears and trepidations about a roadtrip would not be car crashes or bed bugs, or a diet of fast food but rather no control over water temperatures for my teas, I may not have believed you). I hope that this deprivation will be good for my moral fibre.

This is a WONDERFUL tea. All of the tasting notes rave about this tea. I am now on infusion 4 or 5 and it’s going very strong. For those who do not like green tea, this might be one to sample. This tea never seems to get that bitterness that some greens have if they are not coddled. Perhaps because it is Chinese instead of Japanese? I am not sure.

As others have written, I can attest: this tea opens up to a floral/vegetal buttery aroma that is simply devastatingly wonderful. It seems to have a lighter touch than many greens in terms of going full-fledged vegetal—that is, I don’t have any sense that there is spinach or asparagus in my tea (are you listening to me, JacquelineM?). At the same time, perhaps paradoxically, I taste this tea as richer and deeper than many greens but more towards the floral side.

Like the An Xi Tie Guan Yin Charcoal Oolong of yesterday, this green counterpart is a miracle of tea growth. This plantation must be a spectacular place. This tea comes in a small package and yet contains within it a full canvas of artistic splendour.

I really have to agree with Morgana: newborn babes really smell exquisite. They have not accumulated bacteria. IF they sweat or burp or engage in other bodily functions there is a pureness to it. Stench is acquired with age! And this tea has that kind of brand-new purity and freshness and lightness. It tastes as if it has never been contaminated with man-made “stuff”. Other-worldly, I would say.

I really cannot thank Rabs enough for her kindness. Life in Teacup will hear from me, eager to place an order, when they return from holiday in August.

When it comes to Tie Guan Yin, I usually prefer charcoal roast and traditional style. But this one impressed me from the beginning. It is only a Grade 2, which well explains the standards of this tea factory. Later it turned out I fell in love with many of their products.

Modern green style Tie Guan Yin is featured with lighter oxidation, greener dry leaves and more prominent floral/vegetal fragrance. It is closer to green tea than most other oolong products. My observation is, people who love green tea accept modern green style Tie Guan Yin very well. Many people who love Japanese green tea seem to find something they like in modern green style Tie Guan Yin.

Personally, I like modern green style to certain degree, usually appreciate the fragrance, but sometimes feel like to escape when the grassy flavor dominates. I even like grassy flavor when it’s not very strong. But when it gets overwhelming, I can’t take it anymore.

Today, for the first time, I tried brewing this tea in a mug. I was a little worried about the grassy flavor. Normally I use gongfu method to brew this tea, with only 20-30 seconds for each infusion. I wasn’t sure if a lot of grassy flavor would be extracted if the tea were left in a mug for many minutes.

I used about 20-25 grains of dry tea leaves, brewed in a glass mug. I paid price for my laziness. There was some lukewarm water from last night, and I just used it. It turned out too cold for brewing tea, probably only 60C or 140F. The first infusion was merely water taste. But then, starting from the second infusion, the flavor came out nicely. The tea didn’t taste grassy at all, probably because it’s not as strong as in gongfu style. When brewed in mug, the tea tastes very much like a fragrant green tea, with some sugary, metallic flavor that seems typical oolong characteristics.

Overall the flavor is on the light side, but should be strong enough for people who like green tea. Next time, I should definitely use hotter water!

While drinking this tea, I finished the first DRAMA in my life! No, I am not a writer, but merely a lousy student of ENG 200. I’ve been writing craps all this time, choppy, dull pieces that I wish my classmates never know who wrote them. But anyway, I could never imagine writing a DRAMA! Although I’ve been writing junk every day in the past two months, now writing a big chunk, complete piece of structured junk seems worth celebration with a cup of tea! :-D

I have had this tea for a while and have been sharing it with friends.. mostly a friend from shanghai who really enjoys it.
The smell of the leaves remind me of sweet peas. I did a rinse of the leaves to open them up a touch before proceeding with a 3sec steep. The results you ask?
A very faint golden green liquor that smells of sweet peas and honeysuckle. Taste? Honeysuckle and sweet peas. With a mineral velvety edge. My taste buds keep yelling for more and I completely agree! This tea is scrumptious!
What does the second steep (6sec) taste like?
….my gosh it tastes like rock sugar and honeysuckle. There is a drying on my tongue, almost like honey has when it covers your tongue and kind of tingles in sweetness and thickness. The taste lingers in my mouth for a while too.. and when breathing through my mouth, its like my mouth is coated in something warm and thick. A sensation that lingers.

For the third terrific steep (of 10 seconds)… there is a lovely vegetal edge that is creeping into the tea ever so subtly. It tastes like a slow transition between sweet floral to vegetal butteriness. I will have to see what the future steepings bring to me.

This is a truly lovely tea. I hope anyone who likes TGY’s gets to try this one!

The second of my three samples from Life In Teacup. Oooh, the leaf here is VERY similar to Samovar’s Four Seasons – like, identical in scent and appearance. I’m using 2.5g, about 1/3 of the sample, in my little 4oz glass pot, which I think makes this a gongfu-light style steeping :P

The liqueur is quite pale, rather like a white tea. The scent is lighter than Four Seasons, but has similar notes: butter, gardenias (at least, I gather that’s the particular floral scent, from what others have said – I have trouble getting past “flowers”). The taste follows – buttery, floral, fresh. Like eating buttered bread in a garden.

This is lovely, rich, and not at all harsh. I’m pleased, though I’d like the flavor to be a little stronger, so I’ll make the next steeps longer.

One last thing: at $2.70/oz this is an absolute STEAL, assuming it lasts through several steeps. Compare to Four Seasons at $10/oz.

ETA: This is definitely better with hotter water – deeper color, richer and fuller flavor

Steep 1, 1 minute, 205˚F
Steep 2, 1 minute, 195˚F
Steep 3, 1:45, boiling
Steep 4, 1:45, boiling
Steep 5, 2:15, boiling
Steep 6, 2:15, boiling

Many, many, many thanks to Rabs for sending this one to me!!!!

First of all, could you believe I haven’t used my teeny tiny oolong pot from Samovar until TODAY?! It took me all this time to realize that it had that twirly piece of metal near the spout to catch the leaves (I kept on thinking “shoot! I can’t use it! I forgot my strainer!”). Anyhoo – long story short – not only do I love it for oolongs but I realized I think unfurling, floating, steeping tea leaves are BEAUTIFUL (it’s only those frightful blooming alien flowers that I find so disturbing).

Doubleanyhoo – I used about a half teaspoon of leaves in my wee pot, 175 degree water, and was all over the map with my steeping times. I did the first two at a minute – then I went up to three minutes for the next two, and now my fifth and sixth steeps are at 5 minutes. Despite my abuse, this tea is delicious. It started out very green, and morphed into a milky, meadowy, buttery delight. Still. At number six!

I can see why people are comparing it to Four Seasons – and I do think it’s similar – but I also think Four Seasons has a little more of that cinnamony nutmegy thing going on, which I didn’t get at all in this one. This one is much more a “fresh buttered greens” to me, where the Four Seasons is more of a “light buttery pastry” to me. Both are pretty darn phenomenal :) and I like them both very, very much!

I’ll edit this post later when I drink steeps 7+ this afternoon!

I also have to reiterate how much I LOVE this little oolong pot!!!!! It makes experiencing the multiple steeps so pleasurable since you are drinking four ounces of tea at a time. Why do I wait so long to try things!?!?!?

And your opinion – do you think a dragon ball is too big for this lil pot? Maybe a 30/45 second steep would work? Any opinions appreciated!

EDIT – I stopped at Lucky 13!!! I think the best steeps were from 3 to, like, 9 or 10!! Very buttery milky green heaven. Even my 13th steep had flavor and appeal. What a great tea day!

This tea is every flower.

I first brewed it and it was jasmine. Then it cooled and became the flowers and herbs from my one grandma’s garden. Then it cooled more and became all the flowers and bushes from my other grandma’s garden.

It is also a friendly tea – not bitter and astringency is light.

I do not consider myself a fan of flowery teas, but this is still one of the better oolongs I’ve had. It’s worth trying for anyone, but flower lovers have to have it. The little packages it came in are very convenient and cute.

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!

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!

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.

I’ve been drinking a lot of oolong lately. I brewed this one in a glass teapot I just got, to see if it changed the flavor from brewing it in my cast iron teapot (sadly I don’t own any yixing pots). It’s really hard to say, I’ll have to brew them side by side to get a real idea for the difference. It’s a bit more…..earthy and heavy than other oolongs I have, but quite tasty all the same.

There are many way one can describe this tea but why beat around the bush, YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!