Liu Family 5 Year Aged Tieguanyin Cakes

Grown 2001, Packaged 2016. For years, we have enjoyed tasting the difference between loose leaf sheng pu’er maocha, and the pu’er cakes pressed from the same material – why not Tieguanyin? We expected a dark, sweet, elderberry-forward roasted flavor with lotus undertones, having tried the Liu Family’s aged Tieguanyin loose over the past few years, but they surprised us with a finished tea that has so much more! Beyond the traditional notes of the base tea, this cake has developed a pine-like cooling quality and forest texture all its own. Each steeping, this cooling sweet finish becomes deeper and more pronounced. This experiment yields very hopeful results for future cake-aging of Tieguanyin!