orguz wrote:Recently I wanted to buy TKY which I'll call nong xiang for convenience sake. The store's owner replied back when asked if he stocked this TKY by asking, in a critical fashion, if I am from Teochew/Chaozhou or native of this region in southern China.
It was implied nobody drinks this type of TKY, it is made from crappy leafs and unfit for serious tea drinkers unlike the Teochew people (quite untrue, they popularised Gong Fu brewing) I was surprised and dumbfounded.
The original post here also stated nong xiang TKY is made with lower quality tgy leafs etc. It seems traditional TKY is getting a bad rap. There surely must be high quality N.X TIE GUAN YIN for sale made by honest tea roasters. I drink this tea daily, I don't know why this version is regarded so terrible. Marketing comes to mind now, less processing means lower cost, so the qing xiang light floral type are released into consumer market faster and cheaper but not necessarily better.
I pretty much agree, it was Chao Zhou(趙州) people who took tea drinking seriously thus the gong fu brewing.
While it's true most of Fujian TGY comes with Qing Xiang, Nong Xiang TGY being bad with quality sounds somewhat unfit.
Example is Dong Ding and Mu Zha Tie Guan Yin from Taiwan.
It's only Mu Zha Tie Guan Yin that still perpetuate the traditional method today, while others losing traditional skills.
And reason Qing Xiang dominate the market is, cos people like it more.
