Tieguanyin
Tieguanyin ( Chinese 鐵 觀音 / 铁 观音 , Pinyin tiě guānyīn , also Te Kwan Yin , Tie Guanyin , Tin Kuan Yin , Ti Kuan Yin and other spellings are common) describes a variety of the tea plant Camellia sinensis from the coastal province of Fujian in southeast China . The tea leaf obtained from this plant and the infusion drink made from it can also be meant.
Tieguanyin is also cultivated in Taiwan , but there the name is used, detached from the specific plant variety, for any tea that has been treated according to the very special manufacturing process .
Manufacture and commercial varieties
Tieguanyin tea is traditionally exclusively as oolong produced by the fermentation of very gently rolled by hand leaves by gently Darren is canceled in Röstpfannen. The completely dried, ready-to-brew leaves are traded in different quality levels. One of the easily recognizable, common characteristics of the leaves of all at least medium qualities of this type of tea is the clearly curved shape of the very dense, heavy and strikingly large leaves. A typical velvety black color differentiates the extraordinarily heavily roasted Tieguanyin from Taiwan from the fresh green variety from its original home in Anxi in Quanzhou . In the case of particularly carefully and professionally rolled and hardened leaf clusters, you can only see clearly brownish-black traces of fermentation and the roasting process from the protruding kinks and folds where oxidizable juice escaped and which touched the hot pan during the kiln. The structure of the surface of the most beautiful leaf qualities resembles a walnut kernel.
The tieguanyin is harvested four times a year, in every season. In contrast to many other types of tea, it is not the spring harvest, but the autumn harvest, which is one of the most sought-after due to its strongest aroma and taste. The actual place of cultivation of the tieguanyin in its original homeland and at the same time the tea capital of China, the district and the city of Anxi in Quanzhou , also plays an important role in the pricing. The tea from the villages of Xiping and Gande is the most popular. For the finest qualities from southern Fujian, which are also offered outside of China, international tea trading houses achieve retail prices of up to US $ 500 per kilogram (2006).
While the mainland Chinese strictly ensure that only grapes from Tieguanyin plants ( Camellia sinensis ) are used for the unique production process of Tieguanyin tea, the residents of Taiwan refer to tea from any tea plant as Tieguanyin if it is only rolled and semi-fermented leaf by leaf by hand and was typically kilned in the pan.
Preparation and flavor
The unusually mild and soft character of the tieguanyin only unfolds if a few simple rules are observed when preparing it. A high proportion of lime in the water leads to crumbly flocculations in the infusion, which, similar to fine leaf tea from Darjeeling, come to the fore as annoying roughness on the tongue and on the palate and spoil the enjoyment. Fresh, soft spring or well water is best. It is briefly boiled and then left to cool to around 80 to 90 degrees Celsius before it is poured over the tea leaves. Brewing Tieguanyin with boiling water results in an infusion that is too hard and seems to be missing some of the delicate components of this semi-fermented tea. However, the temperature must not be as low as is mandatory for green teas (approx. 60 degrees Celsius, as at higher temperatures the unfermented tannic acids and other bitter substances dissolve in a disproportionately high proportion and push the green drink out of its balance). A tieguanyin brewed too cool tastes watery, flat or bland.
The more space the leaves of the Tieguanyin find in the drawing vessel to be able to unroll while drawing, the finer and at the same time more complex their aroma unfolds . Here, too, you can only harvest balanced results if you take into account the large amount of space required by handcrafted Tieguanyin leaves during the pulling process.
Like almost every oolong, Tieguanyin can and should be infused several times . The custom of only pouring oolong and green tea once is described as bad in Chinese tea culture : As a result, the inexperienced missed deep insights into the development, maturation and ultimately the transformation of taste. Those who have the patience to give the tieguanyin enough time and space for the necessary post-fermentation in the jug will be rewarded with great enjoyment.
Correctly prepared tieguanyin has a highly recognizable aroma . A successful first infusion contains a slight excess of volatile acids and phenols, which are communicated as a strong, distinctive scent. The nose of the second infusion appears weakened, while the aroma in the mouth manifests itself as a full, almost physical taste and is still present minutes after swallowing.
Tieguanyin tea has a reputation for being an aphrodisiac . Suppliers of this tea mostly cautiously describe its taste as soft or even airy, but praise the intense and long-lasting aftertaste .
Tieguanyin should always be served in thin-walled porcelain bowls, the walls of which rise relatively flat.
With many qualities from Taiwan, the strong roasted character of the leaves is very much in the foreground, so that the specific taste stimuli for Tieguanyin are suppressed or completely masked.
Origin of name
The name of the tea is derived from Chinese 鐵 / 铁 , Pinyin tiě "iron", "iron" and Chinese 觀音 / 观音 , Pinyin guān yīn Guanyin , the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteshvara , who appears female in China .
Whether tin (a variant of Chinese 鐵 / 铁 , Pinyin tiě ) as the first term of one of the tea names refers to the color of the infusion or to the material of a statue of Guanyin can no longer be determined with certainty (lit .: Blofeld).
More interesting than the question of the origin of the part of the name 'Tie' (or 'Tin') is the completely indisputable assignment of this strikingly peculiar tea to the "goddess" Guanyin.
- According to a legend, Tieguanyin was given to people by the "goddess" (actually: Bodhisattva) Guanyin . Guanyin rewarded a poor farmer from Fujian Province for his voluntary caretaker services at her temple and especially at her iron statue inside. The "goddess" informed the man in his dream that she had a treasure ready for him behind the temple, which he should recover and share with his neighbors. The farmer only found a small tea bush there, dug it up and tended it in his tiny garden. He propagated the bush vegetatively and brought the offshoots to his neighbors. A mounted trader later recognized the marketing potential of the tea from these bushes, which was, of course, also produced in a very special way, and thus helped the whole village to prosperity on the basis of the tea trade with the gift of the Guanyin.
In the mystification of this tea, reference is made to the deity, who, in accordance with Buddhism's great readiness for adaptations, bears characteristic traits of the Christian Madonna Mary Mother of God . So far, the popular use of the name of the "goddess" as a synonym for the female sex has rarely been discussed in this context .
A trivial explanation for the connection between Guanyin and this tea can be found in the assignment of sacred animals to deities. Tieguanyin is one of the most sought-after oolongs with the usual quality attribute "black dragon" and the dragon is the animal of the "goddess" Guanyin. An advantage of this explanation is felt that there is no need to find a consensus on the delicate question of whether tieguanyin tastes like something that is popularly known as guanyin in Chinese .
literature
- John Blofeld: The Tao of drinking tea. About the Chinese art of preparing and enjoying tea . Otto Wilhelm Barth Verlag, Munich 1986. ISBN 3-502-67078-1
Individual evidence
- ↑ Tieguanyin - Past and Present Status: August 3, 2015
- ↑ a nice version of this legend can be found in Lit .: Blofeld
- ^ Wolfram Eberhard: Lexicon of Chinese symbols. The imagery of the Chinese . Diederichs, 2004. ISBN 3-89631-428-9
- ↑ Otto and Artur Kibat: Commentary on the complete German edition of the Jin Ping Mei , note 19, d