Additional Information
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Starting at $ 4.32
Gui Fei oolong is a remarkably distinctive and unique Taiwanese tea in both flavour and stories to tell about! For the stories, read the Background Information found in the tabs below, but this Lot 1262 has a very particular one as well. We are releasing this fresh new late September 2023 production as a mao cha, which essentially means “unfinished” tea. In this case, we are referring to the state achieved after it leaves the tea factory as a properly dried fully-formed ball-rolled pellet but hasn’t gone through the important final refining stages which involves mellowing and baking the tea – which, by tradition, a proper Gui Fei would go through. Why would we release an “unfinished” tea you may ask? Simply because it is that good in its present state, having just come out of the factory! If there is pleasure to be had in the cup, and a tasting experience that would help curious taste buds better understand the processes involved in the making of a tea, why not! A defining tasting reference for Gui Fei can easily be summed up in one word: honey. Wild honey that is, with its mineral and pastoral complexity of wild flower sweetness with roasted nuts and woodsy overtones. Honey in the colour, Honey in the texture. Honey in the soothing, sweet comforting taste! In the case of this tea, there is a compelling freshness and fruitiness in the attack that flows nicely and lingers on like a good high mountain tea that is quite compelling. The honey character is there but not dominating the pastoral overtones of this fine picking of Qing Xin Oolong from the lower sections of the Shanlinxi range making it extra generous in layered complexity and expressiveness. This is a perfect transition tea for a transitional season like Autumn. It will appeal to floral high mountain tea drinkers and ones enjoying bolder, fruitier black teas alike. This is a wonderful tea for chilly afternoons or evenings.
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Gui Fei oolong is a remarkably distinctive and unique Taiwanese tea in both flavour and stories to tell about! One of these has to do with how it was first elaborated. It was introduced to the market quite recently, more specifically in the years that followed the disastrous Sept. 21 1999 earthquake that disrupted the lives of not only city dwellers, but tea farmers as well. In the famous Dong Ding area, tea producers neglected their plantations while they were busy rebuilding their homes and workshops. This left the tea gardens as open fields for the green leafhoppers to feast on the fragrant leaves. Their nibbling of the leaves causes the bushes to react to the invasive bug by increasing polyphenolic content in the leaves to mend themselves after the invasion. More polyphenols means also an increase in tannins and, down the road, after processing these leaves into tea: a rich, wild honey aroma and sweetness in the cup!
To further bring out this sweetness, the tea growers will oxidise the leaves to a higher level (around 40%). Our master finishers will then expertly roast the tea to further caramelise it making it one of the most smooth, soothing liquor one can experience in Taiwanese teas.
The other story has to do with the name given to this tea. In homage to Oriental Beauty (Dong Feng Mei Ren), the other “bug bitten” tea grown in the northern part of the island, growers in the Dong Ding area decided to name this tea in honour of a celebrated beauty in Chinese history. Yang Gui Fei was the beloved consort of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang dynasty. Indeed, a very a good name for such a beautiful tea!
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