• Nahaufnahme der gerollten Ti Kuan Yin Teeblätter.
Nahaufnahme der gerollten Ti Kuan Yin Teeblätter.
Ti Kuan Yin – Gereifter Oolong Tee
Teerarität mit 11 jährigem Reifeprozess

Aged Tieguanyin
2006 Muzha Tieguanyin

Stunning Aged Tieguanyin
We are so excited to share this beautiful aged tieguanyin with you. It is from an organic farm in Muzha, Taiwan, and was harvested in 2006, so it is already more than ten years old. It was traditionally processed, with heavy oxidation and roast, making it a wonderful and delicious brew right now and also a great candidate for aging. The liquor is bright, sweet and slightly sour, with a bold Qi, complex aromas and is more patient than what you are used to in an oolong (it is “iron goddess of mercy,” after all).

Drinking aged tieguanyin is one of Wu De’s favorite past times. Whenever there is a pause in the Center’s busy schedule and he can drink some tea in his “Ruddy-Faced, Scraggly-Haired Hermit’s Hut” (that is really the name of his house), he very often chooses an aged tieguanyin. Tieguanyin is rich, complex, bold and delicious with strong Qi and it is patient, lasting many steepings—the perfect companion for a ruddy-faced man studying or meditating!

Puerh requires humidity to grow and age well, so many places around the world aren’t suitable for aging puerh. Oolong doesn’t ferment, though, it only oxidizes over time, which means it does not require humidity. In fact, oolong ages better in a dry, sealed environment! Also, oolong changes faster than puerh, growing beautiful in ten years, exquisite in twenty and absolutely stunning in thirty years. It is more difficult nowadays to find an oolong worth aging, though, as lightly-oxidized, greener oolong is the mainstay. Such tea can age, but the high moisture content in the leaves means it will have to dry out first, and therefore take a long time to reach a nice stage, also passing through a long, awkward and undrinkable phase. Traditionally-processed oolong, on the other hand, is drinkable at any age, including just a few months after it is processed, and only gets better with time. This tea can be quite joyously drunk now or aged and drunk even more happily in some years!

We had the tea wrapped in the traditional paper style of yesteryear and created our own stamp to mark the bamboo paper. Through some stunning generosity and good fortune we were able to attain this tea at a very affordable price (less than this year’s Muzha tieguanyin!).