Category: High-Mountain Oolong

  • Lishan Cui Luan Origin Tea Taiwanese High-Mountain Oolong [Episode 37]

    James & Denny finish their 4-episode series on Origin Tea. In episode 37 they drink a slightly more oxidized and roasted oolong than the popular nuclear-green style with Origin Tea’s Lishan Cui Luan. This and the DYL 102K really help to showcase some of the more interesting Origin Tea offerings.

  • Da Yu Ling 102K Origin Tea Taiwanese High-Mountain Oolong [Episode 36]

    James & Denny continue their 4-episode series on Origin Tea. In episode 36, they move slightly down the mountain from the 104K highway marker to 102K. This is a different tea than Origin Tea’s very green 104K or Fu Shou Shan and a good example of the diversity that Origin Tea has to offer.

  • 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 newcomers to selling tea. Formed by a pair of foreign expatriates with strong-ties to Taiwan and three Taiwanese natives, this is an experienced group with deep ties to tea, especially in central Taiwan. With the name Eco-Cha, their most obvious difference between other Taiwanese based vendors is their ecological/green focus. Interestingly this name carries a totally different but fitting second meaning in Chinese, A Sip of TeaEco-cha.com itself is littered with an impressive amount of information on the flavor, garden, harvest, elevation, and detailed notes on the origins of their teas. This forthcoming approach is a key aspect for a new venture with core values of sustainability and transparency. (more…)

  • Da Yu Ling 104K Origin Tea Taiwanese High-Mountain Oolong [Episode 35]

    James & Denny continue their 4-episode series on Origin Tea. In episode 35, they review a Da Yu Ling 104K, from one of the highest-elevation farms in all of Taiwan. This is an extremely premium offering and like the Fu Shou Shan, this tea is minimally processed in a nuclear-green style. In this episode they also use a very unique (and powerful) method of brewing gaoshan (covered in more depth here).

  • Fu Shou Shan Origin Tea Taiwanese High-Mountain Oolong [Episode 34]

    James & Denny begin a 4-episode series on Origin Tea. In episode 34, they review a Fu Shou Shan oolong, a special government tea plantation perched at one of the peaks on Lishan mountain. This tea is minimally processed in a nuclear-green style.

  • Shan Li Xi Hung Shui 2011 Teamasters Taiwanese High-Mountain Oolong [Episode 32]

    In episode 32, James & Denny review a unique 2011 Hung Shui oolong cultivated from the Shan Li Xi growing region. Acquired via Teamasters, this tea is a new experience for both Denny and James.

  • 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 been extremely dynamic with dramatic changes in style. Some of this has included clever experimentation (Gui Fei Mei Ren) but most if not all can be viewed through the lense of economics and history. (more…)

  • Shan Li Xi Teamasters Taiwanese High-Mountain Oolong [Episode 30]

    James & Denny review a high-mountain tea from the Shan Li Xi growing region in Taiwan. Acquired via Teamasters, this tea is characteristic of Taiwanese high-mountain oolongs low-oxidation and very fresh.

  • 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 blog in 2004. Stephane has been steadily consistent throughout the years in creating new content (his output now totals over 1,500 blog posts!). The Teamasters blog has been immensely helpful in my own personal tea education as well as the creation of this site! Now Stephane in addition to his day-job as a western-facing vendor is regularly invited to events around the globe to speak about tea topics and Taiwanese oolongs. (more…)

  • 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 their current website in 2005 and has continued to be a reliable and consistent source of Taiwanese oolongs to an English-speaking audience (as well as an information source!). Tea from Taiwan currently features 17 different Taiwanese teas (originally seven), with 12 of their offerings falling into high-elevation territory (>1000 meters elevation). Looking back at older versions of their web store, Ross has consistently promoted transparency in the form of harvest date and elevation for their teas (when I inquired about Tea from Taiwan’s cultivars and elevations, Ross was prompt and forthcoming in his reply). This is a wonderful thing for tea vendors to provide and has improved considerably in recent years. It’s also very commonly overlooked by newcomers to the online tea world or people simply looking for the “best deals” in the intimidating world of premium tea purchasing. (more…)