Oolong Organic: Ti Quan Yin (Iron Goddess of Mercy)

Description

Ti Kuan Yin is a slow roasted oolong which is a tightly rolled leafed tea that is a deep iron color. It hails from the Fujian Province in China. Ti Kuan Yin is steeped to a clear amber color and tastes of tender woody notes, slightly toasty, with peachy pit overtones and a long mildy sweet finish. Is of medium oxidation and caffeination. 

The Story of Quan Yin (Kuan Yin): This oolong is also know as Iron Goddess of Mercy after the story of the buddist Goddess of Compassion, who’s statue was discovered by a poor farmer name Wei. The statue, GuanYin, was partially covered but her eyes looked like they were looking into Wei’s soul. Her shrine was overgrown by vegetation so Wei promised that he and his family would restore the shrine to its original glory. It took almost a year the Wei to restore the shrine but once done, the farmer and his wife both had the same dream. Which was finding seedlings from a magical rare tea plant growing at the base of the statue. That morning, the farmer went to the shrine and found the same seedlings as in his dreams. The farmer picked a few leaves from the plants growing around the shrine and brought them home to his family. Together, they brewed the fresh leaves in boiled spring water and passed around a bowl to taste Guanyin’s grace. The tea lifted them up and brought them a feeling of hope and renewed vigor. The water was thick and rich like drinking cream, the aroma like all the wildflowers of Anxi spring, and a sweet aftertaste that lingered all day.

They recognized this gift from Guanyin as a chance to raise up the whole village.
As the tea plants grew throughout spring, they eventually flowered and made seeds. He gathered up all the seeds from the tea plants and cast them across the mountainside. Legend has it that new fully-formed tea plants sprouted from the ground the instant the seeds touched the rocky Anxi soil. This land so challenging for crops was the perfect cradle for a new kind of tea – one sweeter and more aromatic anything anyone had seen before. Soon, villagers in Anxi county were allowed to send a small tea harvest instead of food as their annual tax; saving their village from destitude. Guanyin’s gift truly brought happiness and comfort to Anxi. When officials came to collect the tea, they asked the farmers what to call it. Ti Guan Yin is still what it is called.