Description

Tie Guan Yin is a classic Chinese oolong made with the Tie Guan Yin cultivar. It’s also often written as Ti Kwan Yin, Ti Kuan Yin, Tiet Kwun Yum, or Tit Kwun Yum and can be translated as Iron Buddha, Iron Goddess Oolong, Iron Goddess Of Mercy, and Tea of The Iron Bodhisattva. This tea is grown at altitudes between 300 and 1000 meters and offers four harvests per year.

In China, Tie Guan Yin Oolong tea is sometimes referred to as “love at first sight” because it charms both young and old with its soft and floral flavor. It is plucked high in the mountains of Shimen, where the climate provides the perfect terrain for this outstanding tea.

Oolong is a tea class that is situated between green and black tea. While green tea is theoretically 0% oxidized and black tea 100% oxidized, oolong lies somewhere in between. This Tie Guan Yin has a very light oxidation percentage, making it a perfect starter for new oolong drinkers.

This Tie Guan Yin is part of the AMBAR tea line by Steffi Vertriest.

Legend of Tie Guan Yin

The tea dates back to 1720, 1723, or 1730, and legend tells of a tea farmer Wei Yin who passed a neglected and dilapidated altar with an iron statue of the goddess Guan Yin, the goddess of compassion and mercy, on his way to his tea garden every day. Out of respect for the goddess, he laid fresh flowers at the altar, lit incense, and kept the shrine clean and tidy. A few months later, the statue appeared to him in a dream and told him that if he looked behind the altar the next morning, he would find a treasure. He found a tea shoot, which he planted in his garden and named after the goddess. The tea he brewed from the leaves was delightfully fragrant with notes of orchid and hyacinth. His plant became famous, he shared cuttings of it with his neighbors, and they too began making their own Tie Guan Yin tea.

The original mother plant still exists and can be viewed in Xiping in Anxi county (China), the birthplace of Tie Guan Yin.

Anxi Oolongs

Tie Guan Yin is an Anxi oolong, an oolong from the Anxi district in the Fujian province in southeastern China. Anxi county has been producing tea for over 1000 years. After drying, bruising, and tumbling, light oxidation, and roasting, they are rolled many times in cloth bags until each shoot is tightly rolled into a small clump. Anxi oolongs have a wide range of oxidation. Traditionally, they were roasted with charcoal and had a high oxidation. Since the 90s, thanks to Taiwanese influences, a new form of low-oxidation processing has become very popular. Thus, there are 2 kinds of Tie Guan Yin: a low oxidation Tie Guan Yin and a roasted Tie Guan Yin with high oxidation. Other famous Anxi oolongs are Bai Ya Qi Lan (White Sprout Rare Orchid), Huang Jin Gui (Golden Cassia Or Golden Osmanthus), Yong Chun Fo Shou (Buddha’s Hand), and Mao Xie (Hairy Crab).

Ingredients

Oolong tea from China