TIE GUAN YIN

DESCRIPTION

Tie Guan Yin is grown on the rugged slopes around Anxi, southern Fujian province of China. This tea can be found in countless grades and prices but our Tie Guan Yin is the ultimate example of what this tea should be – exquisite floral aroma, unique flavour that lingers in the mouth long after the tea is sipped coupled with a bright jade infusion.  In short, drinking Teafields’ Tie Guan Yin, will completely satisfy and exalt your senses and leave you with complete conviction that you have tasted the world’s finest example of this legendary tea.

The process behind the picking and production of this tea is extremely pains-taking and is only taken on by highly skilled and experienced masters.  First, the tea is picked at over 1000m entirely by hand.  It is then allowed to wither in gentle sunlight to weaken the leaves’ cell walls and aid the dry process.  Then the leaf is taken inside and withered on bamboo racks.  Every hour or so it is tossed by skilled hands to massage the moisture from the centre of the leaf out to the edges smoothly – this ensures that your tea is not bitter.  Next, the tea is turned in a large bamboo drum to gently break the edges of the leaf to encourage oxidation.  When the tea master asserts that the perfect level of oxidation has occurred, the tea is fired in a spinning drum at 350 degrees to arrest any further oxidation.  The tea then goes through a pressing and drying process.  The tea is rolled in a muslin cloth very tightly and then it is fired.  Rolling shapes the leaf and exposes moisture so that the firing will fully dry the leaf.  The rolling and firing is repeated twenty-five times before final baking, that can make or break the tea, is carefully performed by the tea master in small batches.  After all this effort, we are left with a tea that demonstrates the coming together of the finest raw leaf, and the most skilled craftsmanship.

This tea should be prepared with near-boiling water, steeped in a traditional Chinese covered cup (Gaiwan) or in a fist-sized Yixing teapot.  One of its unique qualities is that it will give seven wonderful infusions.