Can you identify this (Chinese?) tea?

February 11, 2021 7:28 AM

Can you help me identify this tea from the packaging? Small, single serving tea in foil pouch, almost no english script.

I was looking through my tea collection trying to see if I had anything suitable to give to my son's teachers at Mandarin nursery school, and I came across these seemingly single serving tea pouches. They're about the length of my index finger.

https://imgur.com/a/GZW0kyD

All I can make out is that it says "CHINA TEA" on the front in english. I'm afraid I don't even know what language or script this is.

I would appreciate any information about this - what it says, what sort of tea it is, and even if you think it would be appropriate as a very small gift. Apologies in advance for the picture quality; the pouches are bumpy and holographic.

I have 10 of them and there are 10 teachers at the school so I'm sort of loathe to open one to try but I will if necessary. It might be too late to give for lunar new year but I'd still like to know. (In case you are curious, my husband and I don't speak Mandarin but it's the best nursery in the area, we love it, and my toddler is very happily teaching us as we go along. He's not advanced enough for this though, ha.)

Thanks for help with my tea mystery and happy lunar new year.

posted by Concordia to Writing & Language (8 answers total)

Looks like it's a type of Oolong tea called "Tie Guan Ying"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tieguanyin
posted by astapasta24 at 7:31 AM on February 11, 2021 [2 favorites]

Looks like it's from Taiwan, which is famous for its tea, esp. Tieguanyin, and since it uses traditional script in the instructions. A better pic of the bottom left corner of the back might help.
posted by dum spiro spero at 8:32 AM on February 11, 2021 [1 favorite]

Concur, it is 鐵觀音, or iron Buddha tea as it's sometimes called.
posted by kschang at 10:03 AM on February 11, 2021 [1 favorite]

Looks like it's from Taiwan, which is famous for its tea, esp. Tieguanyin, and since it uses traditional script in the instructions.

I agree it's Tieguanyin but also want to point out it is definitely simplified script, not traditional script, so I'm quite doubtful it's a Taiwanese product.

For example -- the name 铁观音 on the front would be 鐵觀音 in traditional, the first sentence of the instructions 茶具以开水温之后 would be 茶具以開水溫之後, etc. The only traditional script is what I think says 國色 (国色 in simplified) in the big stylized calligraphy characters on the front.
posted by andrewesque at 10:12 AM on February 11, 2021 [3 favorites]

Best answer: All the characters other than the two largest ones on the front are simplified, and I think it must be from Mainland China; nearly all Taiwanese tea I've seen very clearly centers its Taiwanese identity and uses traditional characters. The more stylized characters on the front, 國色天香, are in traditional form (perhaps for artistic flair), and form an idiom about beauty. Guanyin, for whom tieguanyin tea is named, has an interesting cultural role in Chinese Buddhism.

I wouldn't give a single bag of this as a gift alone to so many people, especially since it seems to have come from a larger set/box that probably looked a bit nicer - but perhaps it might be a good idea to ask the teachers if they like that variety? There are a ton of ways to age it and diffferent types can have quite different flavors.
posted by mdonley at 10:21 AM on February 11, 2021 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Thank you so much, all this information has been very helpful!

I’ll take this as may or may not be Taiwanese, but definitely Tieguanyin, which is useful knowledge. If I give as a gift to anyone it will be alongside other things.

I appreciate all these answers and am impressed with your knowledge.
posted by Concordia at 11:29 AM on February 11, 2021

I used to live in Mainland China where tie guan ying is popular and that looks like packaging from mainland china, not Taiwan, especially because of the simplified characters which are generally not used in Taiwan. It also just looks like packages of tea that I'd see in the mainland, style-wise.
posted by bearette at 4:54 PM on February 11, 2021

It's a good standard tea, greenish/light-roast oolong, would be a nice addition to the gift basket. Seems to be loose leaf, not sure if many people would have the teaware for it, unless you know most of them are tea afficionados and know grandpa-style glass brewing or have their own filter. For convenience maybe toss in some inexpensive empty tea bags? Daiso would have them. Or mesh strainers. But don't worry about it if it's too much trouble for you to procure those. I'm sure they'll figure it out. Just the tea is fine. It's a lovely gesture.

My son is in a Mandarin kindergarten. We are Nanyang (Southeast Asian) Chinese, not Mainland, so customs might differ, but I think it should be okay to give the gifts a little after the first date of the Lunar New Year. Technically the season lasts for fifteen days anyway. Personalized teacher gifts aren't really done here, rather one gives the items to the principal or head teacher, and it's up to the staff to divvy up the goodies among themselves. We're going to pick up a ready-made hamper from the supermarket (usually has a variety of biscuits and chocolates) and gift it to the school when classes resume next week, and a maybe a box of ponkans.
posted by pimli at 4:55 AM on February 12, 2021