Ti Kuan Yin

[Pranter]

Anyone else tried this? I think it's my favorite Oolong. The greenish leaves surprised me (I thought the Oolongs were usually brown) but the tea has a wonderful flavor!


CP

[Victoria]

Hello and welcome! Well there are different levels of roasting and you probably haven't seen many lighter roasts. Yes, it is a favorite of mine, the greener the better.

By "this" do you mean Adagio's?

[brad4419]

Welcome to the forum Pranter!

Yes, ti kuan yin is a very tastey tea, I love the fresh aromas as well as the taste. Its so amazing how such large leaves can be rolled into those tiny little balls. Where did you get yours from?

[iannon]

oddly enough I was just sitting here pondering where to get my next batch. I really liked the "king" version I got from Fun Alliance. It has a very markedly Orchid aroma to it...very warming on these soon to be cold evenings

[Victoria]

oddly enough I was just sitting here pondering where to get my next batch. I really liked the "king" version I got from Fun Alliance. It has a very markedly Orchid aroma to it...very warming on these soon to be cold evenings

The Iron Goddess King version I got from New Century Tea Gallery was one of the best I ever had. It's easier to call to place an order than to use the website. http://www.newcenturyteagallery.com/pro ... tegoryId=2

[edkrueger]

oddly enough I was just sitting here pondering where to get my next batch. I really liked the "king" version I got from Fun Alliance. It has a very markedly Orchid aroma to it...very warming on these soon to be cold evenings

The Iron Goddess King version I got from New Century Tea Gallery was one of the best I ever had. It's easier to call to place an order than to use the website. http://www.newcenturyteagallery.com/pro ... tegoryId=2

I got some of that tea through the Oolong Pass, possibly from Victoria. It was one of the best, if not the best, "jade" processed TGY from China I've had. That said I much prefer the darker Taiwanese ones.

[iannon]

The Iron Goddess King version I got from New Century Tea Gallery was one of the best I ever had. It's easier to call to place an order than to use the website. http://www.newcenturyteagallery.com/pro ... tegoryId=2

hmm..I may have to try some! and they are in Seattle so quick shipping I would guess. How are their other greener oolongs? have you tried any others from the,? the website leaves a bit to be desired in the description category..

[iannon]

OK OK i went ahead and ordered some. along with a sample of their li shan..waiting waiting

[Victoria]

By phone?

[iannon]

By phone?

err.. i hate the phone

[Victoria]

Yeah me too, but I placed a website order and they never checked the site.
So I had to call anyway, and waited for a long time for nothing.
Just sayin'.

[iannon]

Yeah me too, but I placed a website order and they never checked the site.
So I had to call anyway, and waited for a long time for nothing.
Just sayin'.

umm good call! they hadn't even looked and its been 4 days or so

[JAS-eTea Guy]

I am relatively inexperienced with these teas but have found that in general, the teas that are labelled "Ti Kuan Yin" originate from Taiwan and the similar teas that originate from China are labelled "Ti Guan Yin." I have not been able to create an informed opinion about the differences between these two. However, in general, I find them all delightful. As someone else noted, they gernerally fall into the most lightly oxidized category of teas.

[debunix]

My traditional dark roast Ti Kuan Yin does not appear to be from Taiwan.

[wyardley]

I am relatively inexperienced with these teas but have found that in general, the teas that are labelled "Ti Kuan Yin" originate from Taiwan and the similar teas that originate from China are labelled "Ti Guan Yin." I have not been able to create an informed opinion about the differences between these two.

A few things, both about the name, and the tea itself.

I don't think you can generalize too far other than that products originating from / marketed to mainland China are somewhat more likely to use the standard Hanyu Pinyin for 铁观音 (鐵觀音 in traditional characters) -- Tiě Guān Yīn. This system is (officially speaking) now standard in Taiwan also, but most people didn't grow up with it. Also, this particular tea has been sold to the Western world since before standard systems for transliteration of Chinese characters existed, so there are all sorts of wacky spellings out there.

Products from the mainland which have been packaged / sold since before this system was standard, as well as products marketed to overseas Chinese (or the special case of Taiwan-grown TGY) are more likely to use either Wade-Giles or any of various alternative romanizations, which may or may not be part of any sort of standard system). In some cases, it will be romanized using some system (or phonetically) for another language, (e.g., Tit Koon Yam, Ti Koon Yum, etc. for Cantonese). Sometimes there will be spaces, sometimes not. Then you have people who try to translate the name into English, e.g., "Iron Buddha", "Iron Bodhisattva", "Iron Goddess of Mercy". All of these different transliterations and translations are potentially somewhat confusing to new tea lovers. But generally speaking, if a tea has a name that's somewhere along these lines, it's probably the same tea.

The characters (other than the differences between simplified and traditional characters) are the same, though. And the tea is (or should be) the same varietal, though there are some differences in both growing conditions and processing style between Anxi Tieguanyin and that grown in Taiwan. Both mainland China and Taiwan produce both greener (less oxidized / roasted) Tieguanyin and more "traditional" Tieguanyin. In addition, a lot of Chaozhou / Fujianese shops in HK purchase maocha from Anxi and surrounding areas (oxidized to their specifications) and roast it themselves. From what I can tell, the market for these teas in mainland China itself is fairly small, but there is still a market for it in HK, Taiwan and in overseas Chinese communities, especially areas with large numbers of people from HK, Guangdong or Fujian.

So, in short, if you see someone selling Tieguanyin (by any version of the name), there are a wide range of ways that tea could taste. Without knowing more about the place of origin, processing style, etc., or seeing photos of the brewed tea and spent leaves, it will be hard to draw too many conclusions about the tea. Even terms like "traditional" or "high-fire" or "roasted" can mean very different things to different people. Since sometime in the 90s (according to the recent Art of Tea article, anyway), the modern greener style has been more in demand, so overall, that's what you'll find more often than not. The demand for this tea is very high, and I think it's fair to say that a lot of what's on the market may not be what it is said to be.

Just an aside... when reading Chinese words that have been transliterated using Hanyu Pinyin (or Wade-Giles for that matter), keep in mind that they're not designed to be pronounceable by reading them phonetically as if they were in English. The systems are designed to use roman characters to express specific sounds, many of which don't have an equivalent in English or other European languages, as well as to indicate the tones. Tieguanyin is difficult to pronounce to a non native-speaker... I can speak / understand a small amount of Mandarin, and I still butcher it all the time. You can listen to some recordings of the Mandarin pronunciation at:
http://www.nciku.com/search/zh/detail/% ... F%B3/41886 if you're interested.