Tie Guan Yin is a well known and well-loved tea. It is often rolled into tightly packed ‘balls’ or pellets making it easy to transport and fun to brew. The tightly rolled balls will open up as you brew them while they release their delicious orchid-like fragrance and rich creamy flavours.
Vessels
Brewing Tie Guan Yin is very easy and it can be done in just about any vessel you choose. A gaiwan or a Yixing teapot is an ideal brewing vessel after all, and gongfu style brewing is the best way to get the most flavour out of oolong tea! A western teapot will also work or if you have to dash off with your travel mug for a busy day of work or a walk in the park.
Ratio
When brewing Tie Guan Yin in the gongfu style, we are shooting for 15:1, water to tea. A better and easier way to look at it is to take an intuitive approach, filling the vessel about 1/3 full of the dry leaves so that the vessel is full when the tea is fully expanded.
The water to leaf ratios that are used in the video are:
Gaiwan – 50 ml water : 4 g of leaf
Yixing Teapot – 120 ml of water : 6 g of leaf
Western Teapot – 850 ml of water : 5 g of leaf
Feel free to adjust these to your preferences, but don’t be afraid to try something new, especially if you have been using too little leaf. You may be amazed at the new flavours you experience! Most of all, don’t be afraid to make a mistake. If your tea ends up too strong you can always add a quick brew to dilute it and if it’s too weak you can steep it a little longer. I believe these types of “mistakes” are important for learning and will definitely help you with your next brew.
Water Temperature
We recommend boiling water for oolong brewing. However, this green style oolong is often suggested to brew in much lower water temperature because the high temperature will likely bring out the astringency or even bitterness in the leaves. Lower the water temperature is a compromise we (as tea drinkers) have to make to get the best possible sip of a certain tea. But if you ever wonder the quality of the tea you purchase, boiling water is a litmus test. Try it out and see how your oolong performs.
Brewing Time
The tightly rolled ball shape adds a little variation to the brewing time because the leaves need time to loosen up. For teapot brewing, it means, it takes a couple minutes longer than usual oolong brewing time. For gongfu cha brewing, the steeping time has an interesting curve, as shown below. You don’t need a stopwatch for exact brewing time. As long as you follow the curve, the brew will be fine.
3 Way to Brew Tie Guan Yin
The video demonstrates how to brew tie guan yin in a gaiwan, a Yixing teapot and a western teapot. If you brew your tie guan yin in a special vessel or you just have some gorgeous teaware you’d like to share with us, please don’t hesitate to leave us a picture on Instagram or comment down below! The same goes if you have any questions. We are here for you, don’t be shy!
To jump straight to a particular vessel type in the video, here’s an index:
Gaiwan: 0:28
Yixing Teapot: 3:13
Western Teapot: 5:01
I hope this video helps you get the most out of your tie guan yin tea and remember, you can learn to brew your tea without thermometers, fancy kettles or stopwatches by using the techniques covered in the video. Let your taste buds be your guide and practice intuitive brewing often and you’ll get the perfect sip every time!
How to Brew Tie Guan Yin in a Gaiwan
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You’ll need a gaiwan, a teacup and a sharing pot. A filter is a nice to have, but not mandatory.
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Warm up your teaware – add boiling water to the empty gaiwan, then transfer it to the sharing pot and finally to the teacup(s), just as if you were brewing tea. This not only gives your teaware a rinse, but also provokes the aroma of the Tie Guan Yin in the next step!
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Add your dry leaf to the warmed up gaiwan. Fill it until it’s about 1/3 full of tea. This is a better guage than an arbitrary weight measurment since the amount of leaf entirely depends on your gaiwan size. Place the lid on for a bit and smell the leaf. Ahhh. Divine!
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Give the tea a short rinse. Just pour boiling water on the leaf, and immediately empty. This encourages the tightly rolled balls of tea to loosen up.
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First Infusion – 30s: Add another round of boiling water to the gaiwan. Since the tea is still fairly tightly rolled, this infusion will be the longest.
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Second Infustion – 10s: Once the first infusion has been enjoyed, it’s time for the second infusion.
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Notice that even though the second infusion was quicker the liquor color remains consistent. Pay attention to liquor color more than the precise timing so that you’ll develop an intuition around brewing tea and be freed from timers and buzzers!
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Add about 5 seconds for each successive infusion (3rd, 4th, etc), always paying close attention to the liquor color and the resulting flavor of the tea
How to Brew Tie Guan Yin in a Yixing Clay Teapot
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You’ll need a yixing teapot, a teacup and a sharing pot.
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Warm up your teaware – add boiling water to the empty clay teapot, then transfer it to the sharing pot and finally to the teacup(s), just as if you were brewing tea. This not only gives your teaware a rinse, but also provokes the aroma of the Tie Guan Yin in the next step!
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Add your dry leaf to the warmed up teapot. Fill it until it’s about 1/3 full of tea. This is a better guage than an arbitrary weight measurment since the amount of leaf entirely depends on your teapot size. We want the teapot to be full of leaf once it expands.
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Give the tea a short rinse. Just pour boiling water on the leaf, and immediately empty. This encourages the tightly rolled balls of tea to loosen up a bit.
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First Infusion – 30s: Pour boiling water onto the rinsed leaves. Fill the teapot to the rim. It’s normal that a little spills out when we place the lid on. Pour some boiling water over the closed teapot to heat it up. Since the tea is still fairly tightly rolled, this infusion will be the longest.
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Second Infustion – 5s: Once the first infusion has been enjoyed, it’s time for the second infusion. Teapots typically empty slower than gaiwans, so we need to start pouring a little sooner.
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Notice that even though the second infusion was quicker the liquor color remains consistent. Pay attention to liquor color more than the precise timing so that you’ll develop an intuition around brewing tea and be freed from timers and buzzers!
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Add about 5 seconds for each successive infusion (3rd, 4th, etc), always paying close attention to the liquor color and the resulting flavor of the tea
How to Brew Tie Guan Yin in a Teapot or Travel Mug
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You’ll need a teapot, a teacups or a travel mug you can sip from once things cool down a little.
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Add your dry leaf to the teapot or travel mug. We use about 5g of tea per liter of water (about 1 tablespoon per quart).
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Add boiling water to the vessel.
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When the liquor color is a light golden yellow, you’ll know your tea is ready.
What do other people say?
Don’t take our word for it! Here are a couple blog posts from well know tea bloggers different types of our tie guan yin.
and
https://www.teaformeplease.com/zhen-tea-tie-guan-yin-classic
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Autumn Tieguanyin
$10.00 – $31.00 -
Tie Guan Yin Classic
$16.00 – $59.00
