About This Tea

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.