Minnan Oolongs

15g Old Style Zhangping Shui Xian (1 cake)

16g Hong Xin Tie Guan Yin (2 brews)

7g Yongchun Foshou (1 brew)

We have put this set together as a convenient way to experience three good examples of Minnan oolongs. Min is an old name for Fujian, while Nan means South. Minnan oolongs differ from Northern Fujian oolongs in tea-making style, shape, and use of varietal. We have deliberately chosen three older style and charcoal roasted examples of these oolongs so you can compare with the modern qingxiang styles easily accessible on the market today.

The Old Style Zhangping Shui Xian is pressed into a 15g cake, larger than the modern 8g cakes. The larger cakes hail from a time when Gongfu brewing was not the primary way to brew tea in Zhangping. Instead, one 15g cake would be brewed in a large teapot. Not many producers make this style anymore, but luckily we found one Intangible Cultural Heritage master who still does. Given the size of this cake, you may wish to break it into two pieces, or brew it the old fashioned way by using a larger brewing vessel. In the below picture the old style Zhangping Shui Xian is on the left, with a modern qingxiang Zhangping Shui Xian on the right.

Neighbouring Zhangping is Anxi, the famous origin of Tie Guan Yin. Tie Guan Yin is complicated enough that an entire sample set could be devoted to it alone.  We have kept with the theme of older styles and selected a heavily charcoal roasted tea made from the original Hong Xin (Red Heart) varietal pictured below. This tea is a stark contrast from the greener unroasted Tie Guan Yin commonly found on the market today. 

To represent Yongchun Foshou we have also opted for a heavily oxidised and roasted tea. Although Yongchun Foshou can be made into other shapes, we have selected a strip shaped one so that this set contains three different shapes of oolong, representing the variety of oolong shapes one can find in Southern Fujian. From the unique pressed cake shape of Zhangping Shui Xian, to the iconic ball-rolled Tie Guan Yin in the below picture, and the classic strip shape of Yongchun Foshou.

Total Net Weight: 38g