Every day I’ve been waiting for the mailman and finally…
My precious package from a source in China finally arrived! My package of Shui Jing Gui. Now on to the the best part of getting a new tea that I have never had before, the sampling!
Shui Jing Gui Oolong tea, literally translates to “Golden Water Turtle” and comes from the Wu Yi Shan region, in the Guangdong Province China. It is very characteristic of other Wuyi Oolong teas. It produces a bright green color when steeped and is much greener than most other Wuyi Oolong teas. Shui Jin Gui is on the spicy side and comes with a rich and intersting folklore.
According to Chinese Legends…
The Shui Jin Gui tea-plant is a transmigration of a turtle god. Despite achieving godhood after a thousand years of meditation, the turtle god soon felt discontented as his hard effort as the Heaven’s Tea Gardener often went unnoticed. One morning, he awoke to the noise of tea farmers celebrating their harvest of first flush tea leaves happily. Upon seeing this, the turtle god realised that he would be better appreciated as a tea plant and thus he gave up his immortality to become the Shui Jin Gui tea plant.
Wu Yi is the origin of a variety of high quality teas…
Many teas have grown for a very long time in the Wu Yi region and this region is believed to be the origin of both black and oolong teas. They are called Rock/Cliff Teas, or Yan Cha. These teas own their name to the natural haven that the tea plants thrive in. The tea trees grow in shallow soil atop rocks with a high mineral content. Nestled in and around the cliffs of a nature preserve, rock oolongs enjoy a very unique terroir consisting of mineral rich soil, limestone cliffs, bamboo forests and many rivers. Water flowing down the mountains to these tea trees brings many minerals, as before mentioned and gives the teas an amazing and unique flavor. These teas are rare and highly sought after. Highly prized, hard to get and fairly costly, the yields of Shui Jin Gui are really limited because it is harvested only once a year.
These teas…
Have the highest amount of polyphenols which are natural antioxidants that are found in tea. Many signs of aging such as dark spots, wrinkled skin, roughness and related blemishes; some people have reported a decrease of these symptoms with the regular drinking of these teas, such as Shui Jin Gui. Typically, a cup of authentic Wu Yi tea has between 20 and 40 mg of polyphenols. This is more than most vegetables that are considered high in antioxidants.
The ABC's of Tea 