Premium Grade Tie Guan Yin

Tea type
Oolong Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Butter, Green Bell Peppers, Lilac, Corn Husk, Creamy, Grass, Smoke, Floral, Gardenias, Salt, Sweet, Vegetal, Smooth, Flowers, Cocoa, Hay
Sold in
Not available
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Jason
Average preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 1 min, 0 sec 6 g 6 oz / 175 ml

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21 Tasting Notes View all

From Mandala Tea

Simply put, this is a “must-try” tea! The finest TGY we have had in our store to date. Aromatic, flavorful with a mouthfeel that is buttery, full and sweet.

This is a "cha"mazing tea from the Fujian Province of China, very famous for their oolong production. A beautiful and delicious whole leaf rolled oolong with an emerald green brewed leaf and liquor! It is full of flavor and aroma, smooth but with a bittersweet aftertaste. We are very impressed with the quality of this tea and enjoy the history that it brings along with it.

Premium grade is a much higher grade of tea leaf from the same Tie Guan Yin tea plant. The leaves will be more whole and will have few imperfections. You will notice that the aroma is stronger and the taste is thicker and fuller. Higher grade tea is a simple way to bring something special to your everyday experience.

About Mandala Tea View company

Company description not available.

21 Tasting Notes

336 tasting notes

This is truly such a surprising tea. It smells like lilac. I have never had tea that smells quite like that. The taste delicate and yet flavorful and buttery. It is a must-try.

Garret

Inguna! I had tea with the son of the man who grows this tea for us on our April buying trip. This is a special tea. I will pass along your nice words to him. So happy you are enjoying it!

inguna

It is indeed special. It actually smells like lilac flowers and from all the varieties of
Tie Guan Yin I have tried I think this would be my favorite.

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97
37 tasting notes

Yet another great tea from Mandala.

It’s very sweet and floral with hints of butter and caramel.

Preparation
170 °F / 76 °C 0 min, 30 sec

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82
391 tasting notes

Lilacs, lilacs, lilacs. Butter and green peppers. Lovely.

One time when I was a kid, my dad cut a whole bunch of purple and white lilacs off the bushes in our backyard and put them in a big jumbled pile. He asked me to take them up the hill to my mom. I looked down and I’d somehow managed to pick up all the purples in one hand and all the whites in the other. It blew my little mind that this miracle had occurred.

Flavors: Butter, Green Bell Peppers, Lilac

ashmanra

What a lovely memory! Out lilacs are blooming now. I need to get out there and give them a big snoof!

beerandbeancurd

I took them for granted as a little — would love to have them around again!

gmathis

Lilacs already? J-e-a-l-o-u-s! That’s one thing from the farm I couldn’t preserve before we sold it … nowhere hospitable in our yard for cuttings to grow.

ashmanra

Gmathis: my butterfly rose is blooming and two of the turtles came out of hibernation a month earlier than usual!

derk

Everybody’s like “What do you miss about Ohio?” Oh you know, thunderstorms, green summer grass and lightning bugs, autumn and apple picking, a slower pace of life AND LILACS.

beerandbeancurd

Ugh, yasssssss! Who knew all grass wasn’t green and all balmy dusks didn’t blink? Not this kid.

Martin Bednář

Can I move to Ohio? It sounds like a place which I would to live in. Lilacs, autumn, apple picking and… THUNDERSTORMS. I love them.

beerandbeancurd

Yes, even with all the rain we’ve had in California, I haven’t heard a lick of thunder. :(

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88
3 tasting notes

Very pleasant and fragrant. It smells like Easter lilies. Infusions after the first start tasting more and more like cooked spinach, but the fragrance remains.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 1 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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85
1429 tasting notes

Ovetime, I’ve become skeptical when tea companies list oolongs as buttery; when I see “buttery” I expect a flavour and texture explosion evoking all the oily, salty-sweet richness of life. Butiki’s ambiguously named “Organic Sparrow Tongue” Oolong always delivered. Some batches of Shan Li Xi deliver (with jam like a delicious, fully loaded scone). This Tie Guan Yin delivers too and its glorious.

I’m internally squeeing right now. I want to yell and to curse all the other Tie Guan Yin oolongs I’ve had, which will now and forever be deemed insufficient. It’s like, after years of being indifferent to Chardonnays, stumbling upon a “butter bomb” Californian Chardonnay and realizing life could be beautiful (I’m sorry Chardonnay purists, I know this preference is wine sacrilege of the highest order). This is a Lilac butter bomb and it’s even better.

Anyways, I’m so grateful for this free sample. I would’ve never ordered this on my own because I thought I was done with Tie Guan Yin varieties. You did right, Mandala!

Now I’m off to play with the rest and see how it holds up to multiple steeps and sessions.

Steep Count: 3 + Rinse. Subsequent steeps taste of lilac cream.

(2017 harvest)

Flavors: Butter, Creamy, Floral, Gardenias, Salt, Sweet, Vegetal

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 0 min, 30 sec
Garret

I really loved reading this review. Thank you so much for taking the time to type this up. So glad I sent this sample to you. I think it’s a great one. Grateful, Garret

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83
72 tasting notes

I got this as a sample in my recent order and I am plesantly surprised. I’d tried a Tie Guan Yin from another company and didn’t care for it, but this one is very nice. It has the most pronounced flower smell of any oolong I’ve tried yet,and that comes through in the brewed tea, too, along with an earthy flavor. I haven’t noticed the creamy taste that others have mentioned, but it’s definitely a smooth tea. Looks like I’ll have to give Tie Guan Yins another try!

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 2 min, 15 sec

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70
4169 tasting notes

Thanks, JakeB! I wasn’t really paying attention to how this one was steeped, but it was my first and last of the leaves, so I thought I should make a tasting note for it anyway. Not too much flavor that I noticed, even though it is stored in a nice pouch… and I did wait a while to steep on the first steep. Steeped a teaspoon and a half of the leaves. Hints of peach, I suppose (and I’ve had some fantastic grocery store peaches lately. :D) The second steep isn’t very distinctive either, so I don’t think this is a very worthwhile tasting note.

Daylon R Thomas

Most of Mandala’s are better Gong Fu anyway.

tea-sipper

Yeah, I thought maybe Mandala’s teas should work better Gong Fu because they never seem to be very special when I brew them Western.

Garret

Sorry to hear your experience wasn’t so great with that one Western style. I brew this one up a lot and do gong fu and adore it. For Western style we sell to a lot of coffeehouses/tea shops/restaurants who use our Golden Turtle with very good results. Thanks for writing up your review!

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91
63 tasting notes

The leaves were a vibrant green. I brewed in the gaiwan, just under the boil with first two drinkable steeps at 40 secs. Beautiful flowery scent, I think lilac. A mild vegetal taste and buttery. Lovely. The liquor was a pale green. This was a sample included with my order. I’m glad, otherwise I wouldn’t have known about it. I nice surprise. Curious to see how the taste evolves over subsequent steeps.

Flavors: Butter, Floral, Vegetal

Preparation
5 g 6 OZ / 177 ML
Garret

It really is a very nice tea. This is one that I sit down and brew up 4 or 5 times a week, which is a lot considering all the other teas here in the shop that I can drink. So happy you enjoy it!

TheArchivist

Thanks Garret!

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94
21 tasting notes

Floral light tea, perfect for a spring morning or summer evening. Complex floral flavors with each sip.

Flavors: Floral, Flowers, Sweet

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 2 min, 30 sec 1 tsp 6 OZ / 177 ML

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80
139 tasting notes

i thought this tea was good. Thanks for the trade, curlygc!!! I acquired lots of oolong in the trade and TGY was one of them.

It tastes like cocoa butter and lilac. Yesterday, I loved it. This morning when I had my fifth steep (still strong) I didn’t like it as much, but I don’t blame the tea.

Overall, it’s a solid tea that is still strong on the 5th steep, so I look forward to the bit that I have left and how many steeps I can get.

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