In episode 50, Denny and James start a short series on Aged Oolongs with Camellia Sinensis‘ 1989 Hualien. A great introduction to aged oolongs, especially dry and clean tasting ones.
Category: Low-Elevation Oolong
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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 Tea. Eco-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…)
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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 not rolled, an important distinction from the majority of Taiwanese oolongs. Even though it is marketed and consumed to the western market as a Taiwanese tea, Baozhong is originally a mainland tea and is still produced in Fujian, China. The history of Baozhong is very similar to Tieguanyin and Fo Shou; All three are originally from China and were brought over to Taiwan in the late 19th century. Each of these teas has evolved and changed separately in Taiwan and are now very different from their Chinese cousins. (more…)
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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…)
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Oriental Beauty Teamasters Taiwanese Oolong [Episode 31]
James & Denny review another tea from Teamasters, a premium and immaculate Oriental Beauty. With a wonderful silky texture and characteristic sweet, honey notes this is a very nice tea.
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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…)
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Origin Tea, Featured Vendor
The vendor profile for Origin Tea is a part of our Taiwanese Tea Vendor Series, covering a number of Taiwanese-tea specialized vendors that sell to the west. Much to my dismay, Origin Tea has since closed.
Origin Tea’s ‘About Section’ states their purpose clearly:
At Origin Tea we have one goal: To make high quality teas available worldwide at reasonable prices..
An easy statement to make, but a far more difficult one to backup (especially given Origin’s premium high-mountain specialty). Based in Taiwan, Origin Tea is owned and run by Tony. Origin Tea opened up shop in late 2012, using Taiwan’s 2012 Winter Harvest as their initial selection. (more…)
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The King of the 80s: Dong Ding
The year is 1980. Ronald Reagan was elected president, The Empire Strikes Back had just been released, and Dong Ding was at the top of the Taiwanese tea world. Before Da Yu Ling, before Lishan, before Shan Li Xi (all relatively new entities in tea), and even before Alishan, there was Dong Ding. Perched at an elevation above nearly all other tea-growing region in Taiwan, Dong Ding was literally at the top of the Taiwanese tea world. Feng Huang, a township within the traditional Dong Ding tea-growing region, housed one of the highest-elevation plantation in Taiwan (~1000 meters), that marked the modern-day equivalent of 105k Da Yu Ling. This very, very premium tea was processed with the utmost care by top Taiwanese tea farmers and roasters. (more…)
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The Price of Low-Elevation Taiwanese Tea
What is the average price of Jin Xuan? What about Oriental Beauty? Should I be buying in bulk?? Taiwan offers an eclectic and flavorful lineup of oolongs that goes far beyond their wonderful but pricy high-mountain collection. Though the western world remains a distant minority in Taiwanese oolong consumption, in recent years the amount of western-facing vendors has quietly and quickly multiplied. This can likely be attributed to increasing demand, the ever-increasing size of the internet and Taiwan’s close political and economic connections with the west. With a suddenly large pool of online vendors sourcing or shipping from Taiwan, western consumers have an opportunity to make decisions and choices not previously available. Now…let’s go shopping!