This tea can be surprisingly captivating, the effect is like a long sauna session or a backpacking trip. We felt joyful tiredness, while our senses opened, our minds cleared and we just arrived in the present moment. We decided to choose this tea for our assortment at a tea tasting session this February, it was a big joy for us to taste this.
During one of our trips to China, we learned that the well-known green Tie Guan Yin gained its popularity only in the past few decades with the enhanced interest in unoxidized green teas. Traditionally, Tie Guan Yin is lightly baked so that the raw green taste smoothens a bit thus giving a tea a milder, more relaxed character. Our producer friend stores this tea long before the charcoal roasting, in this way the tea is aging and the tastes, and feelings enhanced. He also told us that the power of the old trees is really important to make this tea extraordinary.
According to the legend, once upon a time Guanyin, the Bodhisatva of Compassion appeared to a poor farmer, Wei from Anxi, and lead him to a secret treasure which he was to share with his neighbors: a small tea seedling. And so becomes the tea’s name Tie Guan Yin, that is the Iron Goddess of Mercy.
