Tie Guan Yin Grade II Modern Green Style

Thick lush water-filled spring fresh orchid petals. That is what this tea tastes and smells like. It’s unbelievable. I am absolutely buying this.

My god, it’s full of stars flowers!

When I ripped open the little sample foil packet, I couldn’t smell much of anything, but when I gave the leaves a rinse and set the pot back on the counter, I turned around going, “Wait, why does it smell like flowers in here? Is that coming from outside…but it’s not spring flowers…it’s more like orchids…wait just a moment!” And yes, it was the tea leaves.

So I poured myself a fifteen-second steep in my teeny-tiny pot and promptly burned my tongue trying to discover if it tasted like flowers. One glass of cold water and a cautious two-minute wait later, I can tell you this: it doesn’t taste like flowers. It tastes like candied flowers. It tastes like someone dipped orchid petals in sugar. It tastes like spun sugar in a field of orchids. I didn’t know tea could do this.

Fifteen-second steep number two: still full of flowers! It’s getting a little bit rounder, but this is still the sweetest airy-fairy-flowery tea I’ve ever tasted. I can’t believe there’s caffeine in this.

Twenty-second steep number three: the flowers may have come down to earth now, but this tea is still best described as “flowers flowers flowers flowers flowers flowers flowers!”

This is my first An Xi tea! The first cup – smooth, vegetal, very milky looking in the cup but light and sweet. The second cup – now the tea is very clear instead of milky, but has as much color as before. A good SLURP to aerate it gives me a new flavor – the tiniest nutty taste but lots of floral notes and a good roundness that carries the scent and taste well back in the palate and up. Probably won’t be able to review the remaining steeps right away, but wanted to get these in while I can! Steep time varied from 1 minute up. This oolong is very green! Thank you, JacquelineM!