Tie Guan Yin oolong

Oolong Tie Guan Yin

What it is

The name means Iron Goddess of Mercy, and legend has it that a farmer in Anxi who kept a neglected temple of Guanyin swept was shown a single shoot in a rock crevice in a dream. The modern style is rolled into tight balls and barely oxidised, so a leaf sold as a dark tea a century ago now brews closer to a green.

In the kitchen

Infuse 6 g in 150 ml at 95 °C and reuse the ball five or six times — the orchid aroma peaks on the second and third infusions, not the first. To scent a cream, hold the leaves in it at 60 °C for 20 minutes and never let it boil.

Goes with

Cream Milk chocolate Peach Butter White chocolate Lychee

Same species

Assam tea Ceylon tea Da Hong Pao Darjeeling tea Earl Grey Genmaicha

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