I really love a traditional style roasted tie guan yin. Perfectly balanced, the wet leaf, as well as the liquor smells and tastes of sugar roasted kettle popcorn, rye bread, candy apple hookah shisha.

Nice Green Tie guan yin - hits all the right notes of vegetal, gardenia, and decent body for the price

Nice Green Tie guan yin - hits all the right notes of vegetal, gardenia, and decent body for the price

One of the very best roasted TGY's you will find. This is definitely a floral TGY that retains caramel-like sweetness but does not have any burnt notes to it. This tea has a beautiful orchid/gardenia blossom note to it that sits underneath the warm and toasty flavor profile you would expect from a roasted oolong. It's really hard to roast the tea leaves in such a way where you push the sugars to the surface of the leaf WITHOUT burning them. Burning, or even caramelizing them, tends to change the flavor profile of the tea, which is not necessarily a bad thing... in the case of a roasted tea it is desirable, but it's just really hard to get a roasted TGY to retain that distinct floral quality that makes it such a special cultivar. This is good stuff, the leaves hold a curled shape even after being pushed for a very long time with boiling water. Everything about this tea indicates good processing and excellent attention to detail, down to the aroma left behind in the cup as it dries after the session. I can still detect some faint floral sweetness.

One of the very best roasted TGY's you will find. This is definitely a floral TGY that retains caramel-like sweetness but does not have any burnt notes to it. This tea has a beautiful orchid/gardenia blossom note to it that sits underneath the warm and toasty flavor profile you would expect from a roasted oolong. It's really hard to roast the tea leaves in such a way where you push the sugars to the surface of the leaf WITHOUT burning them. Burning, or even caramelizing them, tends to change the flavor profile of the tea, which is not necessarily a bad thing... in the case of a roasted tea it is desirable, but it's just really hard to get a roasted TGY to retain that distinct floral quality that makes it such a special cultivar. This is good stuff, the leaves hold a curled shape even after being pushed for a very long time with boiling water. Everything about this tea indicates good processing and excellent attention to detail, down to the aroma left behind in the cup as it dries after the session. I can still detect some faint floral sweetness.