This tea was given to me for free (as is the Chinese way :)) from a friend at Beijing’s Maliandao Tea Market. This is the #1 place in the world to go if you love tea! At nearly 1 mile long, maliandao boasts over 5,000 teashops selling every tea imaginable, tea ware, books, Lu Yu statues, and Yixing tea pots ranging from $15 to $125,000.
This tea was prepared in traditional gongfu cha manner using an yixing pot steeped for 15secs @ 200F and increasing about 5sec per steep. The tea is mildy floral and has subtle notes of smooth butter with great aromas (especially when using 闻香杯 or fragrant smelling cups). I found this particular tea to be a bit on the mild side and after steep #5 started loosing its flavor quite fast but nonetheless, tie guan yin is a solid go to oolong
I will visit Maliandao Tea district in Beijing in April…but only have 3-5 hours time. Any suggestions as to which of the 5,000+ merchants/stores cater to US customers (label teas in English, speak English, possibly even ship to US…)?