What Is Anxi Oolong Tea?

Anxi Oolong Tea

Anxi, together with Chaozhou, the home of Phoenix Dan Cong, and Wuyishan City, the home of Wuyi rock tea, is one of the three major oolong producing regions of China. Like the other two regions, Anxi oolong has a long history, and Anxi has established its own style of tea making.

The oolong teas made in Anxi, Fujian Province, are called Anxi oolong. A wide variety of oolong teas are made there. They include Tie Guan Yin, which is well known, Rou Gui, whose flavor is reminiscent of cassia, and Se Zhong, which is a blend of several cultivars.

Huang Jin Gui is a tea with a very distinctive floral flavor, and in Anxi it is one of the most popular teas, alongside Tie Guan Yin.

The tea-growing areas of Anxi are at high altitude overall, and the whole region consists of red soil. The abundant iron in the soil contributes strongly to the richness of the aftertaste. For this reason, tea made in Anxi has a long lingering aftertaste.

Anxi is also the region that passed oolong tea making on to Taiwan. However, Taiwanese oolong production uses younger leaves than Anxi, and it has developed in its own way in Taiwan. Even among oolong teas, Taiwanese oolong has a green color close to green tea, a floral flavor and a soft mouthfeel.

Tie Guan Yin

The most famous oolong of Anxi is without doubt Tie Guan Yin. Tie Guan Yin is made from the cultivar of the same name. The Tie Guan Yin cultivar grows more slowly than other oolong cultivars, and when grown under the same conditions it is known for a deeper taste and a longer-lasting flavor. In addition, owing to the characteristics of the cultivar, it has an orchid-like flavor, and many people love it for this. For these reasons, Tie Guan Yin is more popular than other oolong cultivars and tends to command higher prices.

In tea markets in and outside China, there are many Tie Guan Yin-style oolongs that are called Tie Guan Yin but are made from other, cheaper cultivars.

Because of high demand, Tie Guan Yin is sometimes plucked not only in spring but also in summer and autumn, but high-quality Tie Guan Yin is made from the first spring flush. Some people claim that winter Tie Guan Yin is the best, but when you actually compare them, the difference is clear. Spring tea is plucked after the winter dormancy, so it is rich in components and has a soft taste and a long lingering aftertaste. Autumn-plucked tea has a strong flavor, but it comes with astringency and its taste is somewhat coarse.

The key factor in the quality of Tie Guan Yin is the altitude of the tea garden. The higher the altitude, the richer the flavor and taste, and the higher the price.

In Anxi, tea gardens spread from a few hundred meters up to around 1,500 meters above sea level, and the higher the altitude, the better the quality of the leaves. Tea grown at high altitude has a very long lingering aftertaste, a clear taste, a soft mouthfeel and a very strong flavor.

How Tie Guan Yin Is Made

Because Tie Guan Yin has a floral flavor, it is often thought to be a lightly fermented oolong, but in fact it is fermented quite thoroughly. Withering is the process of removing moisture slowly, either by blowing air over the leaves in a withering trough or by leaving the leaves spread thinly in the shade. As withering progresses, glycosidases (glycoside-hydrolyzing enzymes) act on glycosides, the precursors of aroma, releasing floral and fruity aroma compounds such as linalool and geraniol. So that the leaves can withstand deep fermentation, more fully grown, mature leaves are plucked than for Taiwanese tea and the like. Right after fermentation, the edges of Tie Guan Yin leaves turn brown while the centers stay green. This is because vigorous tossing ferments the edges of the leaves strongly. The edges, fermented until brown, give a fruity flavor, and the centers give a floral flavor. This is close to the state of Phoenix Dan Cong oolong. However, Tie Guan Yin producers, eager to draw out only the floral character, remove the browned edges. Because of this work, Tie Guan Yin leaves look ragged, as if eaten by insects. By letting fermentation progress and then removing the edges, they draw out a more refined floral flavor.

Most Anxi teas have a rolled, pellet-like shape, like Taiwanese oolong. The method of shaping oolong into pellets was originally developed in Anxi. When rolling the tea, the leaves are put in a bag, the bag is twisted tight, and the leaves are rolled while strong pressure is applied to the bag, which shapes the tea inside into pellets.

Qing Xiang and Roasted Tie Guan Yin

Anxi oolong, Tie Guan Yin included, is finished in various styles depending on how it is roasted: the Qing Xiang style, finished with almost no roasting to enhance the floral character, and light, medium and heavy roasts.

Tie Guan Yin is strongly associated with bottled tea drinks in Japan, so many people think of the toasty flavor typical of oolong. This is Tie Guan Yin of the roasted type. However, good Tie Guan Yin has a honey-like, fruity flavor even when it is roasted.

Qing Xiang Tie Guan Yin, on the other hand, is completely different from ordinary oolong in its flavor. As the name Qing Xiang (clear fragrance) suggests, it has a strong orchid-like flavor, and its flavor is pure, clear and sweet.

Medium fired (zhong bei huo) refers to tea finished with a medium degree of roasting. Qing Xiang Tie Guan Yin is also well known, but I think the style most widely enjoyed in China is the medium fired one. Medium Fired Tie Guan Yin has both an orchid-like floral flavor and a toasty note, and it is a tea that appeals to everyone.

Besides classic Tie Guan Yin, HOJO also offers the unusual Black Tie Guan Yin. This oolong, made by roasting Tie Guan Yin, has jet-black leaves and a toasty, caramel-like flavor. It is a rare oolong that also goes very well with milk.

Mu Zha Tie Guan Yin from Taiwan

Today, tea under the name Tie Guan Yin is made in two regions: Anxi in Fujian Province, China, and Mu Zha in Taiwan.

Mu Zha Tie Guan Yin in Taiwan was brought over from Anxi 300 years ago. For the 300 years since then, its makers have firmly kept the method of that time. Authentic Mu Zha Tie Guan Yin is made from the Tie Guan Yin cultivar: well-fermented leaves are roasted for a long time at a relatively low temperature, so the leaves are brown, and the tea has a vibrant dried-fruit flavor.

Se Zhong

Oolong tea making in Anxi, Fujian Province, is said to have been established in the mid-Qing dynasty (around the middle of the 18th century). At that time, tea gardens were mainly seed-grown, so each tea tree had different characteristics, and various local lineages were mixed in each village. Unlike Phoenix Dan Cong, Anxi did not have the custom of trading these separately, so on the market they were sold together as Se Zhong, meaning various kinds of tea. This name was in use before Tie Guan Yin was clearly selected and named in the early 19th century, and it is the historical name for Anxi oolong from before Tie Guan Yin.

Today, tea called Se Zhong in Anxi refers to oolong made by blending several cultivars. The main cultivars used for Se Zhong in Anxi are Ben Shan, Mao Xie, Mei Zhan, Huang Jin Gui and others. Se Zhong is very popular locally in Fujian and can be called the most common category of Anxi oolong. It is also relatively inexpensive, yet its quality is good for the price, which makes it excellent value.

Huang Jin Gui

What makes Huang Jin Gui a little unusual is that Huang Jin Gui is not the name of a cultivar. Huang Jin Gui is made from a cultivar called Huang Dan. In general, oolong made from Huang Dan is called Huang Jin Gui.

The Gui in Huang Jin Gui means osmanthus. The name comes from the distinctive golden color of the tea and its vibrant, sweet flavor reminiscent of osmanthus.

Anxi Rou Gui

Anxi Rou Gui is a tea made in Anxi County, Quanzhou, Fujian Province, China. The Rou Gui in Anxi Rou Gui is the name of the tea cultivar, and it got this name because of its characteristic cinnamon- or cassia-like flavor.

Compared with other cultivars (in Anxi, Mao Xie, Huang Jin Gui, Ben Shan and others), Rou Gui is slow to bud. In this respect it is similar in nature to Tie Guan Yin. Partly because of these cultivar characteristics, Rou Gui has a strong aftertaste and is a satisfying tea to drink.

Anxi Traditional Oolong

Anxi Traditional Oolong is made by blending three cultivars, Tie Guan Yin, Mao Xie and Ben Shan, grown in Daping, Anxi, at an altitude of about 1,000 m. It is called traditional because it is fermented thoroughly over a long time in the old way and finished in the Qing Xiang style, so that instead of the orchid-like flavor typical of recent Tie Guan Yin, it has a flavor like tropical fruit.

For the main oolong regions and their characteristics, see What Is Oolong Tea?

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