Batch 100 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is a Light Roast High Mountain Oolong Tea from the Shan Lin Xi tea growing region, fall 2023 harvest. These tea leaves were sourced by our tea mentor Lisa Lin, from a mutual friend and former coworker of Tony Lin — who is retired from his 40 year career at the Lugu Farmers' Association.

Here we are with the son of Tony's coworker, who is now a professional tea maker and proud new manager of the family's newly built tea factory. He manages the farm and factory from which Lisa procured this batch of tea. Lisa initially bought one bulk bag of this crop of tea, and after roasting it, decided to procure the rest of the day's harvest — six bags in total! We have observed Lisa's procurement of tea for decades, and we know that she almost never procures such a large amount. But she was so satisfied with the results of her initial roasting (which is our batch) that she decided to buy 5 more bulk bags! She will proceed to roast these one by one as needed over the next couple over years perhaps.

Only when we asked Tony and Lisa if we could visit the farm where this tea was grown did we discover it was from the Zhang family. This young tea artisan's uncle makes our in store Shan Lin Xi High Mountain Oolong Tea. Tony told us that he has been wanting to go up the mountain to see the newly built factory and campground that was completed in the last several months. Lisa also expressed that she wanted to check it out. So we picked up Tony and Lisa after they dropped the grandkids at pre-school, and headed up from Lugu into Shan Lin Xi to meet the son of Tony's coworker, who is now the next generation of a well-known tea producing family in the local industry.

The last time we remember seeing this guy was when he was in elementary, or maybe junior high! He's now a father and making premium Oolong Tea in his family tradition. It's a milestone as well as a moment of truth to acknowledge this generational transition. But we are both proud and honored to be a part of this community — mostly thanks to meeting Tony and Lisa more than 30 years ago.

So the story behind batch 100 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is one of coming full circle, at least in a spiraling sense! There will be more spiraling to be traversed! We actually had a light roast high mountain tea in mind for the Tea Club, when we coincidentally were served Lisa's fresh-roasted batch. She only roasted this batch of tea once — for seven hours, starting at 80°C for the first two hours, then 100°C for five hours. She went by intuition and taste, with outstanding results. 

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