Batch 115 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is a High Mountain Oolong Spring Tea from Taiwan. Specifically from the area in Shan Lin Xi tea growing referred to as "Yang Wan", or Sheep's Curve, referring to a turn off the main road onto a farm road where we feel some of the best micro-climate, or terroir is in this region. The above photo is just a roadside snapshot we were inspired to stop and capture as we left the plot of tea from which this batch was produced.
Batch 99 of theEco-Cha Tea Clubis a Traditional Lugu Oolong Tea from Yonglong Village in the Lugu Township, Taiwan. The Fenghuang/Yonglong community is along a ridge that runs adjacent to Dong Ding Mountain. This community is home to the densest population of artisan Oolong Tea makers on the island, and is considered to be the heart of traditional Oolong Tea culture in Taiwan. Shown above are father and son from a family of tea farmers. This month's batch of tea was harvested from this plot along with another small plot that were initially planted on their family land decades ago.
Ying Xiang Small Leaf Black Tea was selected to share with the Eco-Cha Tea Club mainly because we feel it is an exemplary Small Leaf Black Tea from Taiwan. You can learn about the background of this tea in our sourcing blogpost. Ying Xiang is the name in Mandarin that was given to this cultivar which means "Alluring Fragrance". The leaves from this tea tree offer a distinctly aromatic brew that sets it apart from the other popular Taiwanese tea cultivars.
Batch 94 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is an Ying Xiang Small Leaf Black Tea from Lugu, Taiwan. Ying Xiang means "alluring fragrance", and it is the name given to this tea cultivar that was produced by Taiwan's Tea Research and Extension Station (TRES). It is also known as Tai Cha #20 — being the 20th cultivar to be promoted by the TRES. This cultivar is a cross between the most commonly grown tea strain on Taiwan — Qing Xin Oolong, and the second most commonly grown cultivar — Jin Xuan Tai Cha #12, also known as "milk oolong'.
Batch 92 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is an Award Winning Wenshan Baozhong Tea from spring 2023 harvest. We tasted and chose this batch right out of the drying oven, just as it was completely cured. The stems had not been removed yet, but its maker had already designated is as a potential competition entry. After destemming and tasting again, our source chose this for his spring competition entry, and it received an award in the New Taipei City Farmers' Association spring 2023 tea competition.
Batch 87 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is a Dong Ding Tie Guan Yin Oolong Tea. You can read about the source of this teaHERE. These leaves are from spring 2022 harvest in Lugu, Taiwan. They have undergone repeated roastings for more than 80 hours total over a few months. They were then allowed to "rest" for more than six months before we packaged them up to share with the tea club.
Batch 85 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is the 7th anniversary commemoration of Eco-Cha's cooperation with Mr. and Mrs. Lin. Seven years ago as of this winter's harvest, Mr. and Mrs. Lin produced their very first crop of certified organic tea from their newly established farm. In support of their endeavor, we ran a crowd funding campaign to procure the entire inaugural harvest. After reaching our initial goal, we ran a booster campaign to raise funds for the renovation of the cabin on their remote homesteaded farmland where Mr. Lin was born and raised.
Batch 84 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is a Red Jade #18 Black Tea from the historical Sun Moon Lake tea growing region of Taiwan. This cultivar, given the name Red Jade (紅玉) is registered as hybrid #18 by Taiwan's Tea Research and Extension Station. You can learn all about its background in our recentblogpost, but this Black Tea hybrid strain is unique to Taiwan, and was "born" in the 20th century. It has become quite popular over the last 20 years since it was first commercially introduced in the early 2000's.
Batch 83 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is an Alishan Small Leaf Type Black Tea made by our source of Alishan High Mountain Oolong and Alishan High Mountain Jin Xuan Oolong. They picked some of their Jin Xuan summer crop when it was still immature. These young tender leaves from the second flush (summer crop) are ideal for making Black Tea. Jin Xuan is the name of Taiwan's most popular hybrid small leaf type tea.
Batch 82 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is a Li Shan High Mountain Oolong Tea, second flush of 2022. The weather during the spring growing season that produced the first flush remained unusually cool, resulting in a slower growth cycle that produced a character of tea that was a mix of winter and spring qualities. The weather during the second flush growing period was a combination of spring and summer weather at high elevation. This produced leaves that acted like second flush, but also carried aromatic and flavor notes that are similar to a classic spring first flush.
The Eco-Cha Tea Club is mostly about finding an unusually distinct batch of tea that is not generally available on the market, we also make an effort to maintain variability in the monthly editions — with the goal of continually offering a different character of tea from month to month. Furthermore, we want to offer Taiwan's renowned specialty teas that are the best of their kind — in the world. Batch 82 is one of these representative Taiwan Oolong Teas: Li Shan High Mountain Oolong Tea.
Batch 81 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is a first for us! A very minimal spring yield of organically grown Wuyi cultivar was processed by our source of Tie Guan Yin Oolong in the way that he usually makes tea. He planted his own plot of the Wuyi cultivar about 20 years ago on his family heritage farm in Muzha, Taiwan — but it has not been available to us until this spring. We've procured his Fo Shou Oolong before, but not his Wuyi. So, as we approach the completion of our eighth year of the Tea Club, we are excited to share a batch of tea that we've just sourced for the first time ever!
