Aside from being eaten, can maoxie be made into tea? Actually, the maoxie referred to here isn't the type of large crab that you eat, but rather a tea made from fresh leaves of a variety called “Maoxie.”
The fresh leaves of this tea plant variety are small, with a large head and a sharp point, the most distinctive feature being the deep, dense, and sharp serrations on the edges of the tea leaves. The surface of the leaves is covered with dense white downy hair. If you carefully observe those serrations, you will find that they differ from other tea leaves in that they hook inward, resembling the edge of a crab shell, hence the name “Maoxie.” It is ranked alongside Tieguanyin, Benshan, and Huangjingui as one of the four famous teas of Anxi.
Maoxie tea originated in Daqiulun, Fumei Village, Daping Township, Anxi County, Fujian Province. It is characterized by high yield, superior quality, strong resistance to adverse conditions and diseases, and is suitable for extensive management. It is one of the main varieties used to make Oolong tea, belonging to the category of high-grade varietal Oolong tea.
The “Tea Tree Variety Catalogue” compiled by the Tea Research Institute of the Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences records the origin of Maoxie as follows: “According to Zhang Jiaxie of Pingzhou Village: ‘In the 33rd year of the Qing Guangxu era (1907), I went out to buy cloth and passed by Gao Xiang's house in Dafumei Village. He said there was a kind of tea that grew very quickly and could be harvested two years after planting. So I brought back more than 100 plants and planted them in my own tea garden.' Due to its high yield and good quality, Maoxie then spread around Pingzhou.”
The production process of Maoxie tea is similar to that of the fresh aroma type “Tieguanyin,” involving picking fresh leaves of one bud with one, two, or three leaves, followed by sunning, shaking, stir-frying, wrapping, rolling, and drying. The finished tea has a tightly twisted shape, a brownish-green color, and is lighter in texture than Tieguanyin, yet still fresh and moist. Its inner quality is characterized by a clear and high fragrance, slightly sweet with a hint of jasmine flower aroma.
After brewing, the liquor is greenish-yellow or golden yellow, richly fragrant, smooth in the mouth, and full-bodied. Although the quality of Maoxie tea does not match that of Tieguanyin, its production costs are lower and yields are high. As a result, during the period when Tieguanyin became popular nationwide, some unscrupulous merchants often passed off Maoxie and similar teas as Tieguanyin to make huge profits. For newcomers to the tea world, it is difficult to distinguish between Maoxie and Tieguanyin based solely on their dry appearance.
To determine whether the tea you have purchased is Maoxie or Tieguanyin, you can differentiate them by observing the leaf base. One method is to identify them through the characteristic serrations on the edges of the Maoxie leaves, and the other is by observing the direction in which the leaves curl.
The leaf base of Maoxie curls inward, towards the leaf surface, whereas Tieguanyin curls outward, towards the leaf back, with smoother veins. Some people believe that Minnan varietal teas are inferior to Tieguanyin. In fact, as a high-grade varietal tea, if properly made, the quality of Maoxie tea is not inferior to ordinary Tieguanyin, and it has the advantages of high yield and moderate price.