Info on traditional Tie Guan Yin?
Tonight I have been drinking the ‘traditional’ Tie Guan Yin from Sanne. And doing some reading. My review got so long because I kep adding and waffling, so I needed a thread output.
Things ive learnt – Apparently traditional TGY has a red-bordered leaf & stem which gets removed because the modern style moved towards pungent all-green liquor. Also it is heavily fermented.
My experience of the Sanne version was that it was a bit too roasted for my tastes, the flavour got masked too much for me. I decided I would like to try something a bit inbetween this and the green one that I’m used to, and other articles ive read seem to point towards a more oxidised version being nice.
Does anyone have any more info on this tea and which I should try? Hojotea seem to talk about this type of process, as well as MarshalN on his tea addict journal.
Ive noticed YS have quite a few ‘light roast’ ben chan & tie guan yin that might be what im looking for
Since you’re in the UK. You might want to look athttp://www.wanlingteahouse.com/section.php/4/3/tie-guan-yin-oolong-tea. Since they seem to have a decent variety and some with a few years age on them which may have allowed the charcoal notes to dissipate.
I read MarshalN’s post recently looking at the same thing. The Tie Guan Yin I tried was a little too green for my tastes, but I enjoyed it. The Finest Brew will probably get more in the Spring — I think you’d like theirs. I like it, and I’m not a big fan of light vegetal teas at all.
Its weird, the ones I have in my collection and the hundereds I can see online, lots have the torn leaf edges, indicating it had the discolouration. But I cant find any with it still intact.. And also Hojotea article contradicts itself a bit, mentioning that the red branch changes the taste (& looks un-elegant) but later says:
“When Tie Guan Yin leaf is plucked in May, no bud remains and the colour of stem turns from green to reddish brown. It is literally a branch. In order to produce the specific flavour of Tie Guan Yin, it is necessary to include the grown-up branch together with the leaves. These grown-up leaves are very rich in polyphenols, while upon fermentation, it produces typical Tie Guan Yin flavour. Besides, with higher content of polyphenol, tea contains more minerals. This is why Tie Guan Yin relatively gives stronger aftertaste than ordinary oolong tea.”
That’s really interesting. I’ve seen “red branch” oolong, but never anything called TGY with those characteristics. Of course, I’m not a massive oolong fan, so that might be why. :)
Ive just been informed by Scott YS that there is a style called ‘Red Heart’ which is exactly that, with more sweetness & roundness, but this comes at the cost of some fragrance as I understand.
Jk Tea shop claims to have traditionally processes tgyhttp://www.jkteashop.com/oolong-tea-an-xi-oolong-tea_c45.html. The only one that specifically mentions the bordered leaves is the hasiry crab one though which is not tgy. http://www.jkteashop.com/imperial-anxi-daping-mao-xie-oolong-tea-p-240.html. You may want to ask about the others though.
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