Let me answer this, Betty.
This is a great question. Information of tea in retail has been mostly kept mystic most of the time. This is bad. It is always better to buy a harvest critical tea such as green style Tieguanyin from a retail or brand who is honest and open with information. However, there are not that many. I began a movement of doing that 12 years ago and many retailers in the West are now beginning to follow.
Now the answer: it is quite difficult for even some professional tea buyers to tell whether a tieguanyin is spring, summer or fall. Particularly those who are not familiar with the particulars in taste characters of tieguanyin. It is therefore quite unreasonable to ask a consumer like you to tell whether a tieguanyin is a spring harvest or not. That is why you should always ask before you buy. If you live in an area where teashops conduct tastings, do more of that and ask what you are tasting. After some practices, you will begin to understand the tastes of harvests from different seasons, in addition to different grade quality, different sub-regions, different production styles and even different cultivars.
That of course, bases largely also on whether the teashops you go to are really disclosing correct information.
For now, for the bag of tieguanyin you have got, I’d say for safety, always rinse the tealeaves before infusion, and always make it not so strong. That’s the best I can do to advise. On the other hand, I am working hard to motivate the trade to improve their practice for all consumers like you.
