Batch 128 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is an Award-Winning Wenshan Baozhong Spring Tea 2026 harvest in Pinglin, Taiwan. It was entered into the Pinglin Farmers' Association spring competition and achieved "Excellence Award" which means that it ranked within the top 55% of 1825 entries overall. Not super impressive as awards go, but we didn't choose this tea for how it was graded by competition standards. In fact, we chose it before it was even entered. The photo above shows only a fraction of the awards that our ongoing source of this tea has won in the local competitions over the years. The photo in the lower center is his father with the first elected president of Taiwan Lee Deng Hui in the 1990's. Check the tasting notes blogpost and tasting video for the full review.

We decided on this day's harvest to share with the tea club because its maker assessed it as competition grade tea. Meaning that the overall profile of this batch of tea was within range of the quality standard set by the competition. How a given batch of tea is graded is a combination of accurate quality assessment and luck. For reference, Mr. Wang who made this tea, won three 3rd Place Category Awards in the neighboring Shi Ding Farmers' Association spring 2026 competition. And last spring, he achieved 6th Place and also top 2% awards. We like to share competition grade tea with the tea club to represent the local industry standards, and give our members an opportunity to taste competition grade teas without having to purchase the same tea leaves packaged in official competition packaging, which is not only expensive, but not easily attainable outside Taiwan.

Wenshan Baozhong Tea is distinguished by it processing methods of making a lightly oxidized tea in a way that preserves its fresh qualities that set it apart from Taiwan's more well known High Mountain Oolongs. The primary distinguishing factor in its processing is that the leaves are dried in a strip curled shape rather than a tightly rolled semi-spherical shape. The delicately shuffled leaves are only minimally rolled after they are cured in tumble heaters to cease oxidation. They are then left to rest until the following day when they are completely dried. Maintaining the structure in the leaves preserves noticeably more pronounced fresh qualities than rolled Oolong Tea leaves.

We most appreciate Wenshan Baozhong Tea for its distinctive character. It's offers a fresh floral/herbal profile that sets it apart from any other lightly oxidized, unroasted tea we've tried. We also acknowledge its historical significance. Baozhong Tea was among the first teas to be exported from Taiwan to the West in the 19th century. Finally, we respect its relatively sustainable production methods that have developed in recent decades. The tea farms in the Taipei area are small family-run establishments that have been in existence for generations. They stand in contrast to the larger commercial farms to the south that developed in recent decades. Due to the disappearance of local labor force, almost all of this tea is machine harvested. This allows for timely harvesting in a much more cost effective way. This, in combination with professional destemming and sorting facilities preserves the quality at a lower cost. 

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