50g Jade Tie Guan Yin 清香鐵觀音

Jade Tie Guan Yin (清香鐵觀音, Qīng Xiāng Tiě Guān Yīn, "Clear Fragrance Iron Guan Yin") - One of the most famous oolong teas in China, Tiě Guān Yīn hails from the mountains of Anxi in Fujian. This tea is one of the most well-known and celebrated Chinese teas, and as such suffers from overproduction as tea companies try to capitalize on its renown. Grown from a robust cultivar of the same name known for its broad, deeply-serrated leaves, this tea was traditionally heavily oxidized and roasted with charcoal. More recently, the low-oxidation Qīng Xiāng 清香 ("Clear Fragrance") version of this rolled oolong has eclipsed the traditional style in popularity. This is not only due to its remarkably abundant floral fragrance when lightly oxidized, but also the fact that the low-oxidation process lends itself well to machine-processing. During West China Tea Company's first four years in business, we had a conspicuous gap in our inventory for not having this tea in stock. Try as we might, we had never located a version of this tea that we were happy with. After 5 determined days of searching through the tea markets of Anxi, we had tried dozens of Tiě Guān Yīn but nothing remotely drinkable. Discouraged and literally ill from trying so many chemical-laden teas, we went to the tiny hot spring town of Longmen, just south of Anxi county, to convalesce. Lo and behold, in a tiny hotel we were served the best low-oxidation Tiě Guān Yīn we had ever tried. When we asked the elderly innkeeper where she got it, she told us that she made it herself, in the hotel, with her husband. Sure enough, she showed us the tiny tea production operation they run out of their hotel - a whole wing of rooms dedicated to withering and drying, and tea-processing equipment in their first floor by the riverside. This emerald green rolled oolong has the rich perfume and balanced, satisfying mouthfeel that make Tiě Guān Yīn a classic.