Category: Long-form Article

  • Three Chinese Yancha Brands, Supermarket Yancha, Feat. Sea Dyke, Wuyi Star, Huiyuan

    Three Chinese Yancha Brands, Supermarket Yancha, Feat. Sea Dyke, Wuyi Star, Huiyuan

    The Chinese tea industry is largely composed of big businesses, large factories and corporate brands. While this frequently results in inexpensive, mediocre tea for the casual tea consumer, some of these factories also dabble in higher-end commercially available tea. A few bigger brands can be purchased in North America, usually in a Chinese or Southeast…

  • Wuyi Special Regions Feat. Zhengyan, Lao Cong, Huiyuan, Niulan Keng, Tianxin Yan

    Wuyi Special Regions Feat. Zhengyan, Lao Cong, Huiyuan, Niulan Keng, Tianxin Yan

    Wuyishan (Wuyi Mountain) is located in Northwest Fujian and is a naturally beautiful area with a great deal of nature and wildlife. This includes an impressive amount of biodiversity, due to the area’s naturally warm climate and a nutrient rich environment. In 1999 the Chinese government designated part of the Wuyishan area as Wuyi World…

  • Wuyi Oolong Tea Vendors

    Wuyi Oolong Tea Vendors

    In line with the trends of the rest of the tea industry online, the amount of roasted oolongs and Yancha (Wuyi Oolongs) being sold online has grown significantly. With increased choices and wild price variations even within the same vendor and tea (1,2) shopping for Yancha is confusing and difficult. The online shoppers reliance on…

  • The Price of Yancha

    The Price of Yancha

    Good yancha is difficult to shop for. There are no distinctly yancha-specialized vendors and no obvious filters to quickly eliminate debris (eliminating non-specialized vendors works very well for Taiwanese oolongs + pu’erh). One other obstacle are forgeries designed to satiate the public’s demand for Da Hong Pao (usually Rou Gui + Shui Xian). This article…

  • Wuyi Oolong Compendium

    Wuyi Oolong Compendium

    Home to the original oolong tea and its fair share of tea legends, the Wuyi mountains house some of the world’s most sought after oolong teas . Although there are many types of tea grown in the Wuyi mountains (notably Lapsang Souchong/Jin Jun Mei), it is most famous for its oolong teas. Due to the…

  • Eco-Cha, Featured Vendor

    Eco-Cha, Featured Vendor

    The vendor profile for Eco-Cha is a part of our Taiwanese Tea Vendor Series, covering a number of Taiwanese-tea specialized vendors that sell to the west. Along with Origin Tea and Taiwan Tea Crafts, Eco-Cha is a newcomer to the growing population of western-facing Taiwanese tea vendors. The faces behind it are neither fresh nor…

  • All About (Taiwanese) Baozhong

    All About (Taiwanese) Baozhong

    Like Dong-Ding (and unlike high-mountain tea) Baozhong has a long, history in Taiwan. Baozhong (or Pouchong) literally means “wrapped kind” and refers to the way the tea was traditionally packaged in paper. Grown at a measly 400-800 meters elevation in Northern Taiwan, Baozhong is a low-elevation tea (typically from Wenshan or Pinglin). It is also…

  • GREEN!!! The Downward Trend of the Dark Taiwanese Oolong

    GREEN!!! The Downward Trend of the Dark Taiwanese Oolong

    The western world tends to view Asian tea culture as classical and rigidly traditional. While this can be true for certain geographical regions or rituals i.e. Japanese tea ceremony; much of this idea should be discarded for the ever-changing Chinese and Taiwanese tea. Since the first tea bushes were planted on Taiwan, Taiwanese tea has…

  • Teamasters, Featured Vendor

    Teamasters, Featured Vendor

    The vendor profile for Teamasters is a part of our Taiwanese Tea Vendor Series, covering a number of Taiwanese-tea specialized vendors that sell to the west. Based in Taiwan, a French ex-patriate Stephane Erler founded and runs Teamasters. Now one of the oldest online vendors and tea bloggers Teamasters was originally conceived as a tea…

  • Tea from Taiwan, Featured Vendor

    Tea from Taiwan, Featured Vendor

    The vendor profile for Tea from Taiwan is a part of our Taiwanese Tea Vendor Series, covering a number of Taiwanese-tea specialized vendors that sell to the west. Tea from Taiwan was one of the first vendors based in Taiwan that sold to the west. Founded by Ross MacIver in the early 2000s, Tea from Taiwan launched…