HOT ! Organic Iron Goddess of Mercy / Tieguanyin

About This is a lightly oxidized oolong with notes of flowers, poached leafy greens, and a buttery finish. While there are varying levels of oxidization available for this tea, from very green (flowery flavour) to highly oxidized (ideally charcoal fired, and much warmer in energy), this particular batch is of a modern style, and therefore more lightly oxidized. 

Origin & History

Did you know? Tieguanyin, also known as Iron Goddess of Mercy, is named after the bodhisattva Guanyin — the goddess of compassion in Chinese Buddhism. Legend says a poor farmer found a neglected temple of Guanyin and cleaned it daily out of devotion. One night, Guanyin appeared in his dream and led him to a treasure — a single tea shoot. He cultivated it… and the world got Tieguanyin. 🌱

Tie Guanyin (Iron Guanyin, or Buddhist Goddess of Mercy | 鐵觀音) is one of the most popular oolong teas in China. This famous style of oolong tea is originally from Anxi, in Southern Fujian Province, and is one of the most treasured teas in Guangdong (previously known as Canton).While Anxi is known as the birthplace of Iron Goddess, we had long been unsuccessful in finding an organic garden that we would be proud to source tea from. Since the area is quite famous, too many farms practice an intensive kind of agriculture that is not considered sustainable. 

Through some good friends in Huang Shan, we learned of an organic tea garden in San Mi, around 250km inland from Anxi. The garden is located on mountainous land at 500m (~1500ft) above sea level, well away from large industrial populations. This garden farms some very tasty organic tea!