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This Tou Cha REALLY should be broken in half, LOL! It’s pretty large after it expands nearly filling my 170cc teapot right up to the brim. I’m surprised that this one hasn’t been reviewed here yet.
The tea is thick and smooth and due to the amount of tea has to be steeped for very short times after the rinse and first steeping. After the rinse I did 20s, 10s, 10s, 45s (mistake, had to pour off to pitcher and cut with hot water, still damn good), 10s, 10s, 15s. I’m pretty sure I can get another 5 – 8 steeps out of this tea at the very least.
The tea is wonderfully thick and smooth. No noticeable fermentation taste or smell and no bitterness unless seriously over steeped – see above :P. The flavor is full and round tasting of damp old leaves, plums and a lingering sweetness. I usually prefer sheng over shou, but this one is really quite good!

This is a younger pu’erh, but it’s a reliably good one. An easy go to sheng pu’erh and one that I will be using at an upcoming brown bag talk to introduce co-workers to sheng pu’erh and other teas.

So I was wondering what it would take to steep this tea to the point that it would be to astringent. Well, I got pulled into a meeting and forgot about my little pot steeping for a couple of hours, lol. That finally did, but surprisingly it wasn’t unbearably astringent. Just added a little extra water and ended up with more flavorful pu’erh with a little dryer finish I like. Of course, I am in now way advocating steeping your pu’erh tea for hours. :D

Dry leaves have a sort of turmeric, pepper and straw aroma.
Wet leaves smell very much of hay.

Rinsed.
1st (20 sec): Very light sweet taste, smooth mouthfeel and a soft finish. Not a lot of flavor in the first steeping, but that seems common with pu’erhs.

2nd (15 sec): Very smooth, full mouthfeel. There is a wonderful sweetness that blooms into the finish. I don’t know if I’d call it plum, but it’s really nice.

3rd (30 sec): Wanted to push the steep time to test astringency, but 30 sec is the minimum recommended by TeaSource. Really smooth tea. Sweetness is still there with a dry finish

4th (30-40 sec): Really good pu’erh

The tea aroma is an odd turmeric and straw aroma not over powering, but so hard to describe that may be off putting to some. Whether you like raw pu’erhs as I do or are new to raw pu’erhs this one is definitely worth a try especially given the low astringency when not over steeped.

The dry leaves smell wonderful! Sort of a plum/berry and green tea. The wet leaves smell of barley.

Steep 1 (5min):
Color: Light yellow/green.
Taste: A bit of honey like sweetness, fruit like back note (sort of apricot and apple), also the toasty barely-like note I like in oolongs (Da Hong Pao), but lighter. Crisp finish, though not dry.

Steep 2 (8min – distracted by work):
Color: Deep yellow/gold
Taste: Very forgiving to oversteeping. The fruit/honey note is now just a background note. Wonderfully toasty though. Very good TGY oolong

Steep 3 (5-6 min): Lighter toasty. Maybe one more steep in the leaves.

Steep 4 (6-7 min): Little bit of the sweetness back because the leaves are about done. Quite good.

Sitting on my desk anyway so I steeped a few more cups.

This tea has an absolutely wonderful aroma in the leaves (dry smells of spiced apple cider, wet of orange zest and vanilla) and in the tea itself. I’ve been experimenting with flavored black teas lately and this one was another pleasant surprise. The cinnamon is the most notable flavor, but it blends with the apple and orange in a way that doesn’t make it at all overpowering. Makes me think of Christmas pies when I drink it.

So the first Tie-Guan-Yin I ever had really impressed me. I ended up adding it to my regular stock of tea. This one is good, but also kind of underwhelming. It’s a very green/light oolong that has a slightly dry finish. It has a toasty note that reminds me a bit of Da Hong Pao, but other than that I don’t have much to say for this one. I will either finish it or share it with someone else that wants to try it.
Ah! So I forgot that this is a second grade TGY. I bought this as part of a tasting experiment so it will be interesting to see how this compares to TGY First-grade, Special grade and premium.