Anxi Tie Guan Yin(Ti Kuan Yin) brewing

[mrentea]

Oolong tea is a semi-oxidized tea, occupying the middle ground between green and black teas. Combining the best qualities of green tea and black tea, Oolong Tea is not only as clear and fragrant as GreenTea, but also as fresh and strong as Black Tea. If you drink Oolong tea, the natural aroma may linger in your mouth and make your throat comfortable.

Anxi Ti Kuan Yin is one of the most famous and typical one among all the Oolong tea. With the new Autumn tea, here I show you how Ti Kuan Yin looks step by step by brewing with Gaiwan teapot.

Preparation:

The best warter for making Ti Kuan Yin is well water which is very naturl to better taste the aroma.

Water should be brought to a boil and transferred to some kind of portable stove to keep it on the edge of boiling.

The teapot(Mostly for Ti Kuan Yin, Gaiwan is used) should be clean ready for making tea on the drip tray. The cups and aroma cylinders (the latter only if present) should be also placed face-up on the drip tray.

Here is high quality tea tea looks before brewing:

Brewings:

First round:

The first round of brewing begins with filling the Gaiwan full of near-boiling water. The Gaiwan is filled to the brim and excess foam and tea leaves are simply swept aside by the lid before placing it firmly on top. A little extra hot water poured over the top helps keep the temperature high. The tea is brewed for approximately one minute and then quickly transferred to the serving pot to mix it evenly, avoiding uneven flavour from cup to cup.

A narrow, metal filter can be used to catch fine particles that would spoil the flavour of the tea.

The tea leaf looks after 1st brewing:

[mrentea]

Subsequent brewsings:

A quality oolong tea is good for anywhere from 9 to 10 brewings with the best being traditionally the second and third. Each subsequent brewing follows basically the same steps: 35-60 seconds brewing and transfer to the serving pot. The aroma cylinders are not used in subsequent brews, however, and tea is served directly to the serving cups as they are emptied.

Here are from 2nd brewing to 6th brewing looks like in the teapot(Gaiwan).

Tea leaf looks like after 2nd brewing:

Tea leaf looks like after 3th brewing:

Tea leaf looks like after 4th brewing:

Tea leaf looks like after 5th brewing:

Tea leaf looks like after 6th brewing:

Edited October 15, 2005 by mrentea (log)

[mrentea]

The color appearance of soup is yellow,light yellow, fresh, rich and gaudy. Here are the sixes kinds of Ti Kuan Yin color looks like after above brewing.Flavor is pure and slightly thin, take the caramel fragrantly.

[mrentea]

After 9-10 times brewing, if you take the single tea leaf from the Gaiwan, it will return to what the tea leaf original looks like before producing. The leaf is plump and bright at the end, have gloss silk fabric, the sawtooth is relatively thick and blunt.