Tieguanyin Anxi Monkey-Picked

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This wild-grown, traditional-style Tieguanyin is grown on the rugged slopes around Anxi, in southern Fujian Province. Townships surrounding Anxi City are the source of many of the finest semiball-rolled style oolongs.

We love this Tieguanyin because it is soft in style yet vividly floral and mouth-filling. The monkey-picked Tieguanyin that we have on offer right now is in the 40-50% oxidation range, less than the usual range of oxidation for traditional semiball-rolled oolongs.

These loosely-rolled balls are very uniform in size. The color of the leaf is a blend of medium greens, tinged with highlights of gold. The flavor of our current batch has an unusual toasty character that we find quite delicious. During repeated short steepings, the color of the infusion will vary as the flavor is slowly drawn out. Initially the liquor will be light and clear, and then it will darken with each infusion.

An un-glazed clay Yixing teapot is the perfect, traditional vessel for steeping semiball-rolled style oolong teas, particularly Tieguanyin. This style of teapot allows the leaf to quickly expand to fill the teapot and limit the amount of water introduced, thus encouraging the many steepings that will highlight the subtle changes that occur from infusion to infusion.

Oolongs referred to as monkey-picked’ conjour up many legends regarding the potential definition and history of the term. In the case of this Tieguanyin, ‘monkey-picked’ refers to the fact that the leaf for this tea has been plucked from tea bushes that grow in remote areas that are difficult to reach.