Origin: Nantou, Taiwan
Cultivar: Cui Yu 翠玉“Jade”
Harvest: October 2021
Elevation: 500m
Good things take time and patience. Traditionally roasted and deeply baked oolong of this type must be stored and rested after production for the flavor to fully develop before we release it for sale.
This premium roast Iron Goddess of Mercy (Tieguanyin) is crafted from the Cui Yu, “Jade,” tea bush cultivar. The handpicked tea leaves were harvested from an ecologically managed old-growth garden in Nantou, Taiwan that we have been working with for more than 2 decades.
This tea goes through an artisan process of medium oxidation, ball-roll shaping and moderate roasting to create the base tea. Then after some weeks of resting, an old school baking regimen is applied, and this takes several more weeks to complete the tea.
This final baking brings out a sort of “caramelized” sweetness and creamy aroma due to the Maillard reaction—the same transformation that occurs in baking bread, roasting sweet potatoes, or roasting coffee. Oolong tea artisans produce baked teas that range from blonde light roasts to medium and deeper roasts. This tea is deeply baked in the Nong Xiang style.
Add 9g to a Gaiwan or Gongfu teapot (per 150ml).
Use 212°F boiling water.
Briefly rinse the tea and discard rinse.
Proceed to infuse 1
st brew for 45 seconds.
Infuse 2
nd and 3
rd brew for 30 seconds.
Repeat several times at 30 - 45 seconds, brewing until the flavor and aroma of the tea dissipates. As the tealeaves expand and unfurl, the brewing time may increase to coax out more aroma and flavor. This tea can be brewed several times in one session.
