Monday, June 30, 2008
Posted by Miss Neddy at 10:36 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Categories: Tea Wulong

While meeting up with some friends a few evenings ago, we stumbled upon a small stall where an earnest, pleasant-looking man was showing off his tea. He had tiny little packs of tea leaves, just the nice size for one person, using a gaiwan, clay teapot or tongxin bei, being about 7gm in weight. The packs were beautifully made, in several lovely colours, each colour being a differently priced tea.

I tried the second-most expensive tea, a very green Tie Kuanyin, which surprised me, because it was from China. China Tie Kuanyin tends to be more robust, more heavily fermented and roasted, and has less of a floral scent. But the flowery fragrance fairly burst from the gaiwan he was using when he lifted the lid. The tea did not taste as strong as the Taiwanese Tie Kuanyin I get from the teahouse, but the scent could easily rival it. It was very reminiscent of the fragrance one gets from lilies and certain orchids, both strong and sweet, slightly musky and just tickles the nose that little bit.

He explained that the leaves could easily be used twenty times over, which was quite impressive. The leaves were very green, almost jade-like in their mottling. I bought a couple of small packs for my friends and one pack of the most expensive Kuanyin to try it out myself. The bushes were cultivated at about 1000 feet above sea-level, which explains the thick green leaves and light but sweet taste.

I will certainly be popping in on him again soon, to learn more about his tea.

Next entry: More Science
Previous entry: EGCG