This was the Wechat message Tea Drunk owner Shunan Teng received from her Tie Guan Yin farmer in An Xi. To understand this we must know a little about Tie Guan Yin's history.
For those that don't know Tie Guan Yin is a rolled wu long from An Xi, Fujian. Wu Long by definition are teas that go through a shaking step. When the leaf is shaken it activates the enzymes found within the leaf which start a metabolism process. The leaves are then laid to rest and water is allowed to travel out of the leaf. (water leaves the leaf through the stem). These two process are repeated until the tea master, constantly inspecting the tea, thinks the tea is done and it is heated to stop any enzymic activity. The result is a very floral and aromatic tea.
In the late 80's Tie Guan Yin was immensely popular, much like Pu Er is today. When a tea becomes popular the farmers from that region try to bank on the popularity as much as possible, often resulting in over cultivation. The best teas come from areas where the tea grows among other plants, thus keeping the soil balanced and rich. When teas like Tie Gun Yin in the 80's or Pu Ers today, become popular farmers rip up all other plants so they can plant more tea. While this may produce a high yield in the short term, in the long term it strip the soil of its nutrients and ruins what ever made the terroir so great in the first place. And this is what happened to Tie Guan Yin.
(An Xi tea field, from Tea Drunk)
Another good thing to know about Tie Guan Yin is that it refers to a cultivar and a making technique. It is the Tie Guan cultivar in the Tie Guan Yin making style. It use to be that An Xi produced other cultivars besides Tie Guan Yin. You use to be able to find An Xi Qi Lan in the Tie Guan Yin making style, but all other cultivars were ripped up to to plant Tie Guan Yin and now they are harder to find.
In reason years there has been a movement among the farmers to bring Tie Guan Yin back. They are growing the teas from seeds and not samplings, and giving the plants space instead of putting them right next to each other. This along with more focus on making techniques is an attempt to restore the true flavor of Tie Guan Yin.
So last Autumn, when Shunan got the message "I got a bit of the old flavor back" we knew it was going to be good, and it was. When this batch was fresh, it was light light but deep vegetalness, with a blueberry essence. I can't say it had the flavor of blue berry, just the essence, like the fragrance of a passing beautiful lady. This plus the floral, mouth tightening metallic finish, quickly made this tea one of my favorites. For roasted Tie Guan Yin look at Tie Guan Yin Traditional, for light look at Light.
