Batch 122 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is a Qi Lai Shan High Mountain Black Tea from Nantou County, Taiwan. Qi Lai Shan is the name of a mountain, and has become a designated tea growing area, just south of the Li Shan tea growing region. This plot of tea is at 1400m elevation in the same valley as Lushan Hotsprings. It is owned and managed by the indigenous farmers in the area, who just last year started cooperating with our source of Eco-Farmed Four Seasons Black Tea and Oolong Tea, as well as our Red Jade Black Tea.

Our friend from whom we sourced this tea is calling it a Hong Oolong, since it is a hybrid of Black Tea and Oolong Tea in terms of its processing methods. The hand-picked leaves were harvested in July 2025, and were processed like an Oolong in that they underwent solar withering and indoor withering. But they were not shuffled during or at the end of indoor withering, and they did not undergo tumble heating. No shuffling and no high temperature fixing are Black Tea making methods, along with extensive withering both before and after the leaves were rigorously rolled in the fashion of Black Tea — where the leaves are torn and their sap is exposed to the air, resulting in full oxidation. The fact they the leaves did not undergo tumble heating, also referred to as "kill green" (sha qing), or the cease oxidation step, as well as being rigorously rolled are the two reasons why we chose to put it in the Black Tea category instead of a Hong Oolong Tea.

From the tea maker's perspective, the first step of solar withering, along with the fact that the leaves were rolled (not just curled), as well as undergoing post-production roasting — makes it a hybrid that combines Oolong and Black Tea processing methods. In this sense, he is also right in calling it a Hong Oolong Tea.

Our friend has his own Black Tea factory in his home in Songboling, and has specialized in Black Tea making. He has been sourcing raw leaf material from a naturally farmed plot of Red Jade (aka Ruby Red, aka Tai Cha #18) in the Sun Moon Lake area and processing it at home for a decade now. So he readily accepted the offer from the High Mountain Tea farmers in Qi Lai Shan to purchase their summer and fall crops and process it as Hong Oolong/Black Tea. The farmers have the option to take their share in the finished product to offer to their customers. So they have a new version of their tea, and they are no longer struggling to find a market for their "in between" harvests if High Mountain Oolong Tea that just don't sell well, given the availability of this type of tea from high mountain tea farms everywhere on the island at low market prices. This sustainable aspect of how this tea got created was an added value to the quality product that we recognized upon our first sip!

The complex aromatic and flavor profiles that this tea offers represent the small leaf type Qing Xin Oolong strain that it is made from. It has a sweet, fruity, mildly smoky character with a clean, dry finish like an Oolong Tea does. It's a quality hybrid style tea from a high mountain tea farm in a relatively northern tea growing region on Taiwan - producing leaves with more substance as result of the climate. It's a character of tea that has only come into its own in the last 10-15 years or so in the high mountain tea producing areas of Taiwan.

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