Hairy Crab, or “Mao Xie”, is the less famous, yet equally elegant sister of the legendary Iron Goddess oolongs from An Xi County in Fu Jian Province, China. The visual appearance of the leaves is a stunning, vivid green with some dark green and brown tones also present. The flavor is light, grassy and floral, and the tea will maintain its character even when steeped many times. Whereas the Iron Goddess possesses a slight tang that some find to be overly aggressive, Hairy Crab is very light and approachable. If you want to discover what Chinese ball-rolled oolongs are all about, this is the tea to start with!
This tea is very versatile and can be steeped with near-boiling water without turning bitter. Though you can start with the basic guideline of steeping about 5g of tea in 100ml of water, we encourage you to experiment with different amounts of leaf, water temperatures, and steeping times.
