Tie Guan Yin Oolong tea AKA Iron Goddess. Stock standard Oolong or something more interesting?

Walk into your nearest Asian grocery store, it doesn't really matter where you are, go to the tea section and you're likely to find two options. Jasmine tea and Tieguanyin. So Tieguanyin is an oolong tea that originates from Anxi County in southern Fujian in China. It's probably the most well-known, most widely available and arguably the most average type of oolong tea that's out there. Now when I say average, I mean that typically, at least to me anyway, the name Tieguanyin, it's a name that I associate with average stock standard oolong tea. So it's not a tea that I normally would get excited about and yet here we are. Tieguanyin is the theme for issue two of the Tea Discovery Club. Now our aim with this box is to take what's often considered a stock standard, average, run-of-the-mill style of oolong and shed new light on it to show just how great and interesting this particular style of tea can be. So back in the day Tieguanyin was and in some cases still is quite a revered style of tea. High-grade versions of this tea can in some cases fetch upwards of US$3,000 per kilo and are quite hard to find. And like most teas, there are a number of myths and legends surrounding its origins. So one such legend takes place in Anxi County in Fujian. A farmer on his daily walk to tend to his tea field passes by an old dilapidated temple that houses a bronze statue of Guanyin, the goddess of mercy. So lamenting on the poor state of the temple, he took it upon himself to sweep the temple floor every day, keeping the place looking tidy and offering incense to Guanyin every day on his way to his tea field. So one evening Guanyin appeared to the farmer in a dream, telling him of a cave behind the temple that housed a hidden treasure inside. And so on the next day, on his walk to his tea field and on his daily stop by the temple, the farmer ventured further into the temple to the back where he did indeed find a hidden cave. Venturing in, the farmer discovers a tea shoot growing inside the cave. He took the shoot, took it back to his tea field where he planted it, tended to it until it grew into a fully fledged tea bush of which the finest tea in the land was made. And his neighbors would come over and ask for cuttings from the tree so that they too could cultivate and produce this amazing tea. And our farmer friend, well, he happily obliged and soon the region flourished because of this amazing new tea. And with this newfound prosperity, the dilapidated temple was fully restored and this tea, well, it was dubbed Ti Guanyin or Iron Guanyin or Iron Goddess, named after the bronze statue of Guanyin that was found in this temple in Anxi in Fujian. So when talking about Ti Guanyin nowadays, there are three main types, three faces of Guanyin, if you will. There's the green, traditional and aged, with a version of each type included in issue two of the Tea Discovery Club. So green, as the name suggests, it's a greener, less oxidized version of the tea, pretty much like the green goddess Oolong that I've been drinking in this video up until now. As for this tea, it's aromatic, it's floral, slightly grassy, like it has some of those like kind of greener notes that you expect to find in a green tea, but that's not the predominant flavor. Like it's still, it's definitely those sort of light floral notes is definitely what's coming through first and it's kind of combining and mixing with some of those like, so as I was saying, those greener notes as well. It's sweet, sweet in flavor and yeah, that sort of light lingering floral aftertaste. It's not bitter. It's less bitter than what you expect, you know, to find in a green tea. So I guess that's the sort of Oolong side of this. There's a little bit of a light, light roasted note, but that's once again, not the main, not the main flavor that you're getting here. Yeah, it's kind of a combination of like sort of floral and light, slightly grassy. It's a great example of a green Ti Guanyin. So traditional Ti Guanyin, it's a more heavily oxidized style of Oolong tea and it typically has a heavier bait as well. Now you can see with the leaves here, the color, the difference in color compared to the Green Goddess, the previous Ti Guanyin that we just had, the smell of the leaves, the smell of the leaves is quite different as well. Like it's more, like it's definitely got a more roasted note. Like that's, that's the first thing that's apparent, but also it's, it's less of that green grassy floral aroma like in the previous Ti Guanyin. This one has a slightly more fruity kind of character to it. And also like a light spiciness to it. And when I say light, like spice, I mean like a sweet spice, something like a light cinnamon or a light nutmeg kind of aroma. It's, it's really quite interesting, like completely different from the green style Ti Guanyin, like those sort of light floral grassy notes. This one doesn't, doesn't really have that. It's completely different from that. So it's made from the Hongxin Waiwei Tao cultivar, a pure non-hybrid cultivar that was said to be the original cultivar traditionally used to make Ti Guanyin oolong tea. You could say that it's the same kind of leaf that was blessed by Guanyin in the cave, behind the temple, all those, you know, many centuries ago. So many cultivars used to make Ti Guanyin nowadays. They're, they're hybrid cultivars in that cuttings from the pure Ti Guanyin cultivar, you know, sort of get made and then grafted onto other similar style, similar tree stocks, such as Huangdan or Ben Shan. And during the height of Ti Guanyin's popularity, most teas that was, that was grown in the region was the Ti Guanyin, even though technically it may not have been that, this sort of pure, you know, sort of non-hybrid cultivar. But this one, this tea here that we've called True Goddess, this is said to be an example of that pure non-hybrid Ti Guanyin cultivar. But how important of a factor is it to have the tea, you know, be made from a pure non-hybrid cultivar? I mean, that's debatable. In the end, as long as the tea tastes great, that's all that really matters, right? Yeah, that's pretty different from the green Ti Guanyin that we just tried. Like there's definitely something interesting going on with this tea here. It actually, it actually, to me, it actually tastes a little bit, almost like a really light rock tea, funnily enough. Which, I mean, it's kind of surprising because it's from southern Fujian, like this tea is from southern Fujian, the Ti Guanyin, but it's not really that surprising either because both teas are from Fujian. It has a little bit of that sort of mineral characteristic to it, but not obviously, not as much as a rock tea. And also, it's got a, it's definitely got that sort of toasted grain kind of flavor. Also has an, I think like a, yeah, like a refreshing sort of light fruitiness, something like, once again, you know, I've used this to describe the Buddhist palm in the last issue of the Tea Discovery Club, but you know, like a That sort of light, refreshing fruitiness that was in that oolong, it's kind of present in this one here as well. And also that sort of light spice note, that sweet spicy note, whether it's kind of like a light cinnamon or a light nutmeg kind of flavor, that is also in it. That's also what I'm tasting as well with this. And the tasting notes and the initial flavors that you get, that's really just a small element of what makes it a great tea. I think the aftertaste, which is something that I've harped on about in pretty much every, every video on this channel, I think that's a more telling sign about whether the tea that you're drinking, like whether that's a great tea or not. For example, when I drink this tea, I take a sip. And so yeah, I'm getting all the flavors, I'm getting all those flavors that I was talking about, getting that aftertaste, but long after I've taken that sip, if I just sit here with that tea, like my senses are kind of, they're getting filled with, with like the subtle aromas of the tea. Whether you call that aftertaste or hui gan or whatever it is, your kind of senses get filled up with the, with the subtle aromas that, that, that's inherent within these teas. Like this is something that you get from Truly Great Teas and it's something that I'm getting from this tea here. The third type is aged ti guanyin. Any ti guanyin that's been properly stored for more than five years, that's considered aged. I mean, who knew that aged ti guanyin was a thing? I mean, I think this is kind of a case of old tea that, you know, hasn't been sold and kind of left in storage for years. And then when they kind of dig that out again, discover that the flavors have kind of morphed into something completely different. I mean, I don't believe it's common practice for people to kind of store and age ti guanyin like how a lot of people store and age Puerh teas nowadays. And you know, I don't hear of, you know, producers or vendors saying that, you know, you take this ti guanyin and age it for a few years, it's going to turn into something magical. I mean, I might be wrong. Anyone that's had any experience or thoughts that says otherwise, please share it in the comments below. So here I've got two different aged ti guanyins. Both started off life as a green ti guanyin. Now the first one is from 2008 and it's been in dry storage for most of that time. And the second one is from 2000 and it spent part of its life in cold storage. That is, it's been stored in a fridge pretty much for about 14 years in order to try and maintain some of its initial kind of aromatic qualities. The one from 2000 also is an award winning tea that won the title of Guanyin King in 2000. And that's a title that's given to the winner and the best tea that was entered into the Anxi Chao Wang Sai competition, which translates pretty much to the Anxi King of Tea competition. Anyway, let's brew these two up and try the two and compare them. So firstly, in general, aged ti guanyin tastes quite different from the green and traditional styles. Both of these teas have this kind of like, I kind of want to say it's like a roasted pineapple kind of flavour to it. It's really quite, it's really quite intriguing, like it's interesting. It's something that I haven't had, like something that I haven't tasted in a tea before. Yeah, so this one, the 2008 ti guanyin, it's overall, overall it's a little bit more subtle. It has that, it definitely has that sort of roasted pineapple note that I was just talking about, along with this like kind of, it's a very smooth, it's like a sweet smooth kind of finish. The texture of this tea is very smooth, it's quite thick as well. It doesn't really resemble like what a typical ti guanyin tastes like at all, like those floral notes, that sort of floral grassy notes, like those aren't really present anymore, despite this tea having started life, you know, started out life as a green oolong. Plus, this is also a tea that I think really benefits from being brewed, being steeped for a little bit longer than usual. So typically, like when I'm brewing teas gong fu style, like I would steep the teas for maybe about five to ten seconds per infusion and it's perfectly fine. But I think in this case, for this particular tea, it needs a little bit, it takes a little bit longer, it needs a little bit of a longer steep in order to sort of really push like the flavors out and to get a real sense for what this tea is about. So I think, you know, it needs at least, I'd say about 20 seconds or so, maybe even up to about 30 seconds, which I think we've hit at about now. This is definitely a tea that rewards patience and attention, like it's not a tea that's going to straight away kind of punch you in the face with flavor. It's something, it's quite subtle, but if you sit with it, and especially with these longer steeps, like sit with it for a bit, you get something really interesting, like you get a really interesting kind of aroma coming back at you. You know, I guess that, you know, sort of aftertaste is sort of, that sweet aftertaste is slowly kind of returning, but it's something that you need to pay attention to, like you can't be distracted with it, you know, other things that are going on. But if you do take the time and patience to pay attention to it, you do get rewarded with something that is, that is quite intriguing. Now, this one from the year 2000, this is something else. I think this one definitely benefited from being in cold storage for, you know, for a period, you know, for a portion of its time. Like, like with the 2008 Tie Guan Yin, like it does have those like kind of roasted pineapple and kind of, there's also like, you know, light kind of spice notes with the tea, like in the 2008 one and this one as well. But this one seems to actually, it seems to have retained a little bit, like not completely, but it seems to have retained a little bit of the initial kind of green floral aroma, which is kind of surprising given the, given the age of this tea. But like of the two, I do think this one here, the two, like they're both great teas and they both have something interesting to offer. But of the two, I definitely prefer, like I definitely find this one from 2000 to be the more interesting and rewarding tea. But I mean, the leaves used to make both these teas are of a pretty high grade, like they're both high grade Tie Guan Yin, but I guess only one has been crowned, you know, Guan Yin King. Yeah, but like the 2008 Tie Guan Yin, it still also benefits from a longer steep. On top of that pineapple, there's also like a kind of almost peach-like flavor as well. Like there's a lot going on with this tea, like it's quite complex. This particular one, even with the longer steep, doesn't really get that bitter at all, whereas compared to the 2008 Tie Guan Yin, that now has kind of turned a little bit more into, like the flavors seem a little bit almost darker, more baked. I don't know whether this tea was perhaps a little bit more baked early on, or maybe it's a result of the storage. But both aged Tie Guan Yins, very interesting, and definitely teas that you need to kind of pay attention to, and these are teas that definitely reward patience. So it's a little tricky for me to try and be completely objective when it comes to Tie Guan Yin, because as I mentioned earlier, versions of this tea, like it's so widely available that I've really come to consider it like an example of like kind of stock standard average oolong tea. So I walked into this issue of the Tea Discovery Club, you know, when we're setting it up, like with a little bit of a negative bias, but still decided to kind of go ahead with it, because I wanted to see if there are indeed Tie Guan Yins out there that can change my mind. And well, I think it did. These teas are a far cry from the stuff that you might, you know, try at restaurant, like a typical sort of Yam Cha restaurant, or the stuff that you find in the supermarket, you know, kind of generic oolong bottled iced tea, you know, that's synonymous with the name, you know, so Tie Guan Yin. You know, especially with the, you know, the traditional and the aged versions of the tea in this pack, like those, those teas have definitely kind of, I guess, opened my eyes to what Tie Guan Yin actually is, is supposed to be or what this type of tea sort of can be. And it's not a category that should be, you know, kind of outright dismissed. Anyway, that's the end of our video today. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please hit that like button and subscribe to our channel if you haven't already. Members of the TDC, have you had a chance to try these teas out? What did you think? Did you, like me, have any sort of preconceived notions when it came to, when it comes to Tie Guan Yin? And did any of these teas change any of those opinions? And to all you other tea lovers out there, what are your thoughts on Tie Guan Yin? Like, is it your sort of average, run-of-the-mill, stock standard oolong tea with nothing special to offer? Or is Tie Guan Yin a gift from the heavens that's blessed by the goddess of mercy? Let me know in the comments below and we'll see you guys in the next video. Bye!