Did you ever try a tea and it doesn’t taste like the description? So you aren’t sure if you’re crazy?
No?
FINE.
This tea, 1995 Aged Tieguanyin, is supposed to taste like cream, caramel, marigold, and cherry. I am getting spicy (!) and nectar. So I guess the nectar/slightly flowery taste could be the marigold and the caramel? But there’s definitely a little bit of a hot zing in here.
The flowery nature is definitely in there. According to this tea’s (very frou-frou) description, “Master Zhang’s terraced fields on the cloud-enveloped peaks of Anxi are overgrown with wildflowers, and fed by naturally sweet and clear mountain spring water.”
I see the combination of the flowers, the spice, and the aging as a movie in which a woman gets kidnapped by a salty old pirate (hot). He tries to woo her with flowers (flowery) on his creaky boat (aged). She comes to realize that her old life, with its cross-stitching and frills, was stuffy. She comes out as gay and spends the rest of her life being platonic best friends with the pirate and mastering the sea. The credits roll on her climbing up into the rigging to do some sort of, you know, adjusting the sails thing or whatever. At sunset.
This tea wasn’t what I thought it would be. But if weren’t for the tea, we wouldn’t have that nice pirate story, now would we? Sometimes you have to take an unexpected adventure.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Verdant Tea
Description
This 1995 aged Tieguanyin varietal harvest already has over twenty years of aging. Master Zhang’s terraced fields are overgrown with wildflowers, and fed by naturally sweet and clear mountain spring water. The natural complexity of his tea makes it a perfect candidate for careful aging, which involves yearly re-roasting and sealed storage. The result is a classic rich dark profile that brings out the rich fruity creamy notes in Tieguanyin.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
