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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…
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Hehuanshan Taiwanese High-Mountain Oolong [Episode 19]
James & Denny complete a short mini-series on a couple high-mountain teas from Floating Leaves Spring 2013 selection with an offbeat indie high-mountain selection Hehuanshan. Elevation-wise the tea was harvested well-above the high-mountain cutoff at 2,000 meters. For complimentary reading on Taiwanese Oolongs check out the Taiwanese Oolong Compendium, the Price of High-Mountain tea, and…
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Alishan Taiwanese High-Mountain Oolong [Episode 18]
James & Denny start a short mini-series on a couple high-mountain teas from Floating Leaves Spring 2013 selection. This episode covers a classic favorite, the Alishan high-mountain oolong. For complimentary reading on Taiwanese Oolongs check out the Taiwanese Oolong Compendium, the Price of High-Mountain tea, and the Taiwanese Tea Vendor Guide.
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Taiwanese Oolong (& Black) Cultivars & TRES
The words cultivar and varietal are often used interchangeably (and incorrectly) around in the tea community. On this particular topic there is a ton of directly conflicting information and incorrect statements even amongst reputable sources. Knowing cultivars may seem ultra-technical and seem like impractical knowledge but it can be very useful (most importantly helping out…
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Taiwanese Tea Vendor Guide
There are a number of vendors in the western world that offer Taiwanese Oolongs. Prices vary dramatically vendor to vendor and tea to tea (cheap, expensive) and there are even Taiwanese tea forgeries (i.e. grown in China/Thailand, harvested in a Taiwanese style and marketed as Formosa/Gaoshan Oolong). Navigating the online vendor landscape can be a…
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The Price of High-Mountain Tea
Buying tea and shopping for deals can be confusing. The landscape of vendors is intimidating and oftentimes a simple purchase at the cheapest price can be a mistake. Complicating matters, there are no consistent quantity standards and varying shipping policies only add to the already-considerable confusion. This article will attempt to illuminate many of these…
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Oriental Beauty Oolong [Episode 12]
In episode 12, James & Denny engage in a longer-form podcast while drinking Floating Leaves‘ Oriental Beauty covering topics like how they drink tea, learning about tea, brewing parameters, etc.
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Taiwanese Oolong Compendium
Taiwan has been described by Marshaln as “The Tea Shop Island” and is truly a tea lover’s heaven. Like Japan and unlike China, the standards for authentic Taiwanese tea are quite high. This doesn’t necessarily mean that all tea marketed on the internet as Taiwanese tea is extremely high quality (or even grown in Taiwan!),…
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Baozhong Oolong [Episode 4]
James & Denny continue on their series of Oolong teas with Episode 4, a delicious, curled Taiwanese Oolong from Floating Leaves: Competition Baozhong Oolong.