Monday, April 28, 2008
Posted by Miss Neddy at 10:12 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Categories: Tea Wulong Tea Related

Tie Kuan Yin is famous for its 官韵 (guān yùn); the phrase is a pun, as “官” in this case refers to a government official (such as a magistrate or governor), and is pronounced the same way as “观”, the middle word in Tie Kuan Yin. “Guān Yùn” superficially refers to the taste and scent of Tie Kuan Yin, which is very distinctive, but at a deeper level refers to the entire experience of drinking Tie Kuan Yin tea.

Tie Kuan Yin was, during Imperial China, commonly a tea consumed by the aristocracy and the upper classes. It was, and still is, regarded as a high grade tea, had for a long time been out of the reach of the masses. Nowadays Tie Kuan Yin is a very common tea, served in Chinese restaurants all over the world; but the most expensive tea in the world is still a Tie Kuan Yin (according to the Guinness Book of World Records).

The fashion for increasingly green and floral Tie Kuan Yin is one I heartily appreciate, as I love to have very green but strong wulongs. I frequently speak of teas having a floral fragrance, but I realise that this isn’t very helpful. The scents do not evoke any particular flower in particular, and recently a good example struck me.

Roses are usually bred to be beautiful or fragrant, but not both. A gardening enthusiast friend told me this was because it wasn’t yet possible to produce roses that excelled in both bloom and fragrance, and commercial growers preferred to concentrate on one or the other. Think back to the last bouquet of roses you received or gave (some of us may have to think a bit further back than others...); I remembered that the scent of roses was quite faint, and in some bouquets, non-existent. But there was a strong, sweet, clinging perfume that did not smell specifically of roses. I find a similar effect in lilies. Walk into a florist’s shop and that fragrance assails your nose.

That is the fragrance I encounter with the top grade Tie Kuan Yins from Taiwan. A good Tie Kuan Yin, as befitting its title as King of Teas, dominates all your senses as you experience the tea. From the moment I open the tin, through the preparation of the tea, until I pour it into my cup, that heady scent lingers, and it sweetens the tea as I drink it. And at the bottom of my cup, through the green-gold liquid, I can see the minuscule bits of leaves, brilliantly verdant, like flecks of jade. 

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