ti kuan yin oolong
Mar. 29th, 2009 21:07![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
piranhais some of the best tea i've ever had.
it comes from the mist-shrouded wuyi mountain region in china. just look at those images. *sigh*. so beautiful. and occasionaly amusing, like the one of the mountain that looks like a teapot (i suspect a photomanip).
ti kuan yin takes its name from the goddess kuan yin who is often depicted at buddhist temples. she's usually considered the goddess of mercy; i call her the transgender goddess because some of her origins point to a male boddhisattva. the legend of the tea says that an iron (ti in chinese) statue of the goddess stood in a rundown temple in a poor village in fujian province. the goddess appeared to a farmer in a dream and told him of a treasure in a cave behind the temple, which he must nurture and share with others. when he woke up he looked and found a small tea seedling, which he planted and nourished. the leaves from this plant produced a very fragrant and flavourful tea. the farmer dedicated the tea to the goddess kuan yin, shared cuttings with his neighbors, and henceforth the whole community prospered.
oolong is partly fermented, so it's really neither a black tea nor a green tea. ti kuan yin is delicately aromatic, with a rich golden colour, and a slightly sweet, fruity fragrance. i am now on infusion #4, and it's still decent tea (though i think i'll usually stop at 3 -- they all have subtly different flavours). it is a really versatile tea; with milk or without, with sweetener or without; goes well with any sort of meal, even strongly flavoured ones, but tastes just as good as the last cup of the evening to come down from the day.
not cheap, but well worth it.
it comes from the mist-shrouded wuyi mountain region in china. just look at those images. *sigh*. so beautiful. and occasionaly amusing, like the one of the mountain that looks like a teapot (i suspect a photomanip).
ti kuan yin takes its name from the goddess kuan yin who is often depicted at buddhist temples. she's usually considered the goddess of mercy; i call her the transgender goddess because some of her origins point to a male boddhisattva. the legend of the tea says that an iron (ti in chinese) statue of the goddess stood in a rundown temple in a poor village in fujian province. the goddess appeared to a farmer in a dream and told him of a treasure in a cave behind the temple, which he must nurture and share with others. when he woke up he looked and found a small tea seedling, which he planted and nourished. the leaves from this plant produced a very fragrant and flavourful tea. the farmer dedicated the tea to the goddess kuan yin, shared cuttings with his neighbors, and henceforth the whole community prospered.
oolong is partly fermented, so it's really neither a black tea nor a green tea. ti kuan yin is delicately aromatic, with a rich golden colour, and a slightly sweet, fruity fragrance. i am now on infusion #4, and it's still decent tea (though i think i'll usually stop at 3 -- they all have subtly different flavours). it is a really versatile tea; with milk or without, with sweetener or without; goes well with any sort of meal, even strongly flavoured ones, but tastes just as good as the last cup of the evening to come down from the day.
not cheap, but well worth it.
no subject
on 2009-03-30 06:08 (UTC)no subject
on 2009-03-30 12:33 (UTC)My other favourite Oolong is Shah Linsi, which might be worth trying if you have the chance.
lethal caffeine
on 2009-03-30 23:24 (UTC)ETA: a few tea sites give it as "medium caffeine". and it seems my rule of thumb about caffeine isn't wrong, though an individual tea can come in lower or higher -- in order of more to less caffeine: black, oolong, green, white, decaf. i should find some nice whites i like as much as i like oolongs.
i'll give shah linsi a try; thanks! ETA: or i would, if google could find it, but it can't (nor "sha linsi" or "sha lin si" or "shalin si"). it must be spelled differently.
oh, and i learned something from the rec.food.drink.tea FAQ:
On the other hand, it is possible to prepare ordinary tea so as to remove most (not all) of the caffeine from the finished product. Caffeine is very water-soluble, more so than many of the flavor components in tea. So a very brief infusion can remove much of the caffeine while preserving flavor.
Here's how to do it: boil enough water for twice as many cups as you intend to drink. Pour the normal amount of water over the leaves, then infuse for twenty to thirty seconds. Pour off the resulting brew and discard, retaining the leaves. Bring the water to a boil again and pour it over the same leaves, this time infusing for the normal three to five minutes. This infusion is the one to drink.
that sounds ideal for oolong, since the first infusion isn't the best anyway (IMO).