Aged Ti Kuan Yin (Red Foil)

I believe the year on this tea is 2001, and I was told it was a high temperature roast, and it was reroasted every two to three years. While I would not say the leaves look black like a Classic/Traditional/Charcoal roast, they are far from green, more of an olive tending towards the brownish side.

But the dry leaf aroma is actually quite welcoming lots of dried fruits, and a sweeter candied smell I assume coming from the roast. But upon rising the leaves the aroma of the roast becomes much more pronounced.

This tea came from Kung Fu Tea Arts on ebay.

The aroma is most interesting, a combination of the dry leaves and the leaves after the rinse, but all the while smelling very sweet.

The flavor is mild, but delicate, and sweet like a good fruit should be sweet, not like candy bar or sugar sweet. And with longer infusions the color has a hint of a ruby tinge to it, though the leaves now look basically black.

The aroma of the second infusion is much different a bit of a sour almost rubarb note came out, but the flavor is still delicate and tantalizing.

It changes ever so slightly over the next few infusions getting slightly more sour, and slightly less sweet, but still always interesting an never really over powering.

I do want to say that this tea is characteristic of aged tea in that its not giving up all that easily, I think the better parts of it are behind it, but its still got more to give after the 6th or 7th infusion. I did not count but I want to say this tea was the first tea I've had in a long time that lasted this many infusions that was not a puerh.