Light Tieguanyin

Anxi Tieguanyin, often called the Iron Goddess of Mercy Oolong, have flooded the western market over the past few decades.  The catalyst for this explosion in popularity and export is likely due to new processing methods that further reduce the labor, homogenize the end result, and in a largely fail-safe way can produce huge amounts of fragrant green oolong.

However, due to this overproduction, across Anxi, the quality of the soil, tea bushes, and resultant oolong has steadily declined.  As a result, we have taken a long time to source and carry what we believe to be a high-quality counterpoint to the standard Anxi Tieguanyin on the market.

This Qingxiang, or light fragrance, Tieguanyin is not a child of the modern production boom, but rather, a call back to the traditional processing methods employed before the neon-green oolongs had their blowup.  Master Zhang makes a green Tieguanyin unlike any we have ever had before.

The leaves themselves are a modest dark green, loosely rolled to an in-between state of balled and strip style oolong.  When placed into a warmed gaiwan, we are not assaulted by the high perfume notes we previously associated with green Tieguanyin, but rather something distinctly more vegetal, alive, and buttery. 

This tea saw a very light charcoal roasting to finish its drying phase and indeed condition it for aging.  The yaoqing and withering of this tea was extended in the traditional way to create a tea that is a full step away from being truly green.

The spicy vegetal nature of this tea comes out when the leaves are first infused with hot water, revealing layers of cinnamon, sage, and other herbs.  The brew is a clear, green-gold, and the tea soup is surprisingly thick on the tongue.  Coating the mouth like oil tinged with the edges of bitterness that tickles to the sides of the tongue and back of the throat.  The floral bouquet expected in this green Tieguanyin exists solely in the tea soup itself.