Taiwanese Tie Guan Yin

While the last 20-30 years has seen many iterations of mainland China's Tie Guan Yin mutate into nuclear green floral teas destined merely to be gifted and not drank, we can look to Taiwanese Tie Guan Yin making (including roasting) and cultivars to represent a more heirloom take on this overly famous name. If you've appreciated aspects of Anxi County Tie Guan Yin, you'll find familiarity and likewise intrigue in this Taiwanese Tie Guan Yin. When some Fujianese tea producers like the Bai family moved to Taiwan to settle in the mountains between Taipei and Pinglin, they not only took with them production skills which formed the foundation of today's Taiwanese oolong industry, but also seminal oolong genetics in the cultivars they propagated. The Bai family moved from Anxi county 5 generations ago, settling outside of Pinglin and are now some of the island's top Baozhong producers. With the spirit of experimentation funneling into their competition grade Baozhong, their Tie Guan Yin production on the other hand is a decided homage to their earlier mainland roots, deliberately underlining traditional production methodology. before further oxidation (and eventual roasting) Senior Mr. Bai pulled some freshly processed TGY off the drying racks and brewed it up for us during our visit Alongside Baozhong and Dong Ding styles, 鐵觀音 tiě guān yīn varietal oolong arrived to island in the late 1800s and was seminal to Taiwan's tea culture. The cultivar was 紅心歪尾桃 hóng xīn wāi wěi táo "Red Heart Crooked Tail Peach" and is still used by the Bai family, resisting newer improved cultivars despite the heritage germplasm's lower yield, later harvest time, and temperamental nature in terms of demanding greater attention both horticulturally and in its making. After the tea is shaped and dried, painstaking attention to detail is demanded to properly roast this tea. The Bai family shared that they subject the tea to a series of low temperatures mini-roasts, with resting periods of up to a week in between each session. The roasts start out at 80°C for nearly a full day's time, and end at a higher temperature of 115° for just 6 hours. Even though the tea sees just 70-80 hours of actual fire time, it takes over six weeks to complete this step of advanced roasting, and is still considered just a medium level roast. The Bai family have some of the highest gardens in the Pinglin growing area