Tealyra - Imperial Ginseng Ren Shen - Oolong Loose Leaf Tea - Energy Boost - Healthy Drink - Naturally Processed - 220g (8-ounce)

I like the taste. Nice packaging.

I am a very picky drinker of green/white/oolong/yellow teas. I can testify that this is a good TGY.It is fresh and fragrant, when dry or when brewed. The expiry date is 7/26/17 which likely means it was packed on 7/26/15, i.e. last summer, and the taste and smell confirms it.The color of the dry leaves is bright green, which means it's not overly fermented (there are different kinds of TGY, some brown and fermented, some green and mild), and they expand to full size in water, as they are supposed to.The taste is mild, not strong.You would need about 1 full teaspoon per cup of this particular tea to get full flavor (for some TGYs you would put less).It is packed by tealyra.com (operated by Tealux, Inc.). It is probably a quality brand (I've had one other good tea from them).Note that this a review of this particular tea at this particular time (as tea has a limited shelf life and is usually packed fresh every year and it may or may not be the same flavor or quality).

Taste is good, price is good, and shipment is quick as well.

I combine this tea with tumeric tea and green tea, brewing all of them together as a tonic. It is my morning drink and it rather quickly energizes me and relives me of all body aches. As a 73-year old type II diabetic with neuropathy, speaking only for myself, this tonic is a great comfort for me. I also brew this tea alone without the other teas and it energizes me all by itself. Oolong tea has a distinct taste and it goes down easy. I love Oolong tea and the Tealyra brand for me is a high quality product.

Smooth

I bought this product because of the importance of consuming ginseng. At first I thought I was buying just ginseng, which would have made the highish price at more than $55 per pound. When I drank coffee I got very squeamish about paying Starbucks prices for their bags of beans, and that was probably $7 per pound.If the Ginseng does what I hope it will, it will be worth it, but $55 per pound? Dang that's a lot.

I was really disappointed with this tea. I was a huge fan of their other tea "Tealyra - Ginseng Oolong Premium - Best Taiwanese Oolong".When I open the bag, I was expecting the sweet lovely scent that I usually smell when I open the bag of the previous tea I bought. But this scent did not have the sweet floral scent as the previous tea. Not only that but there was this almost bad odor that I could not quite identify but almost smelled rotten.I checked the ingredients on the bag and there is a third ingredient listed that is not in the description of the product. Called "Chinese Xiang Cao." I have provided a picture of the bag listing this extra ingredient. The previous tea that I loved did not list this ingredientI decided to go ahead and try the tea in the hopes that it would be better once I made it.I am sensitive to the fishy scent that you get with some teas. I did not smell the fishy flavor at all with their other tea. But it was strong with this one. It diminishes after the drink cools though. After the drink cooled, the tea was tolerable. But I was hoping for more. Mostly, I missed the sweet floral fragrance present in the other tea.The other thing I noticed was that the leaves do not unfurl. I don't know if this means there is something wrong with it or not. I have provide a close-up picture of the leaf which never unfurled next to a new unheated granule.I tried to get a refund but it says no refunds are allowed. I was going to buy the other flavor again that I liked previously, but I feel afraid that maybe they changed something about the quality of their leaves and I won't be able to refund that either.

The product is average quality due to the tea being bitter at the finish. High quality tea will not have this quality.It is sweet as expected. I was hoping for a more roasted ginseng tea so my expectations were not met.If you like strong green tree with ginseng I recommend it but it was not my idea tea.