The basic knowledge of tie guan yin tea(1)
Tie guan yin tea belongs to oolong tea and is the representative of oolong tea, one of the ten famous teas in China. It is half-fermented tea that between green tea and black tea. There are six teas in China: green tea, black tea, oolong tea, white tea, yellow tea and dark tea while tie guan yin tea is one of them. As to the origin of tie guan yin, the state-compiled textbook “Manufacture of Tea” records the origin of oolong tea: during the 3rd year to 13th year of Yongzheng’s reign( the calendar year 1725 to 1735), the Anxi people of Fujian province created oolong tea, and it introduced into north of Fujian and later to Taiwan. Thanks to its excellent quality and unique aroma, tie guan yin tea spread successively to south and north Fujian, Guangdong and Taiwan the oolong tea producing areas. In 1970s, Japan had oolong boom that made oolong tea popular in the world. Some green tea producing areas had gradually introduced oolong tea manufacturing craft to change green tea into oolong tea. Among the current four oolong tea manufacturing locations of south and north Fujian, Guangdong and Taiwan, the Fujian tie guan yin tea has the longest history, largest output and best quality as well while it’s worldwide famous especially for Anxi tie guan yin tea and Wuyi Rock tea. Recently, the Huaan tie guan yin that produced in the national second largest tie guan yin tea production base locating just beside the Anxi tea mountain has been making a figure.
Tie guan yin tea is not only good at smelling and pure in taste but also a natural flavorful drinking while it is outstanding in health care function as well. The modern medicine studies show that besides the health function of the general tea, tie guan yin tea also has effects in anti-ageing, anti-cancer, anti-arteriosclerosis, anti-diabetes, losing weight and building body, anti-caries, clearing heat and sobering from drunk. Tie guan yin tea was introduced from Anxi of Fujian province to Muzha area for experimentally planting in the eighth year of the Republic of China. The tie guan yin tea planted there are divided into two species: red-heart tie guan yin and green-heart tie guan yin. The main manufacturing location is on Wen mountain while the trees there belong to horizontal-growing type with thick and stiff limbs, sloppy but thick leaves and low yield while the tea quality is high and the output time is earlier than that of green-heart oolong tea.
A. Manufacturing location
Anxi,as the home of the world-famous Tie Guan Yin tea,is not only the birthplace of the golden osmanthus tea but also the exporting base of the oolong tea in Fujian Province. Anxi has a long history of producing tea. Thanks to its unique natural conditions,the tea produced there has high quality and is famous worldwide. According to the book “Anxi County Journal”, the tea producing in Anxi began at the late Tang Dynasty, became popular in Ming and Qing Dynasty and flourished in contemporary era.It has a long history of more than one thousand years for producing tea in Anxi. Dating back to the ancient times, Anxi had a reputation of “Famous District of Dragon and Phoenix” and “Taiwanese tea Town”. In March of 1995, Anxi County, was named by the Ministry of Agriculture as “the Town of Chinese oolong tea (famous tea) ” In 2001, Anxi was identified as “producing base of the first batch of national pollution-free agricultural products (tea)”.At the same time,the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Foreign Trade identified it as “the exporting demonstration area of national horticultural products (tea) “.In 2002, Anxi was again identified by the Ministry of Agriculture as ” a famous base of southern subtropical crops (oolong tea).” In 2004, Tie Guan Yin produced in Anxi was included in the “protective products of original area” by the state.
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