Eco-Cha Tea Club

Batch 124 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is a Li Shan Late Winter High Mountain Tea. It was harvested on January 20, 2026 from a plot of tea at 2000m elevation in Heping District in Taichung, Taiwan. In the photo above, we are visiting the source of this tea with our mentor Tony Lin on February 21 to procure our share.

In all our years of sourcing tea in Taiwan, this is the first time we've seen leaves being plucked in the midst of a frost! Tea trees can withstand below freezing temperatures and snow during their dormant phase through the winter months without being harmed. Frost, however, is what tea farmers fear most during a typical growing season, because the tender new leaf buds can be frost bitten, causing them to shrivel and perish. 

Batch 123 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is a Dong Ding Oolong Tea from summer 2025 harvest in Phoenix Village — Lugu, Taiwan. With this edition, we share not only one of Taiwan's most famous names in tea, but also our source — and the personal connection we have with it. And on the occasion of Lunar New Year, we offer a complimentary tea that is a fundamental ingredient among traditional Oolong Tea making communities in Taiwan: Reap Rice Tea.

Batch 123 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is a Dong Ding Oolong Tea from Lugu, Taiwan. And since this month's edition coincides with the Lunar New Year 2026, we included a complimentary pack of tea that is from the same source. Locally, this type of tea is called "Reap Rice Tea", and we will talk more about that, and why we are sharing it below!

Batch 122 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is a Qi Lai Shan High Mountain Black Tea from northern Nantou County, Taiwan. For the full background story of this tea, check our sourcing blogpost. This batch of tea is a lovely melding of several aspects of Taiwan specialty tea. It is a high mountain tea from a lesser known region located just south of Li Shan. It is product of cooperative sustainable and innovative methods that just began last year. And it was made using hybrid techniques combining Black Tea and Oolong tea processing methods.

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.

Batch 121 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is a Lishan High Mountain Oolong Tea, harvested in early August. This second flush of Qing Xin Oolong strain grown at 2000m elevation represents the "gao leng", (which loosely translates as "alpine") style of tea from the northern borders of Taiwan's High Mountain Tea growing regions.

Batch 121 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is a Li Shan High Mountain Oolong Tea from fall 2025 harvest. The Eco-Cha Tea Club is mostly about finding unusually distinct batches of tea that are not generally available on the market, 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.  Li Shan High Mountain Oolong Tea is a prime example. 

Batch 120 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is an Aged Oolong Tea from Lugu, Taiwan. Learn more about the background story of this tea in our sourcing blog. We procured these tea leaves in the spring of 2013. Due to a combination of circumstances, these leaves were allowed to age for 12 years, and we decided to celebrate our 10th anniversary of the Eco-Cha Tea Club with this batch of Aged Oolong Tea.

Batch 120 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is an Aged Oolong Tea from Lugu, Taiwan. These tea leaves were harvested in spring 2013 from a newly planted plot of Ying Xiang (Tai Cha #20) hybrid cultivar. This plot of tea was planted two years prior, when this new cultivar was not yet available on the market. It had just been registered by the TRES and was offered to this pioneer tea farmer as a trial crop, so we were told some 12 years ago. We had tasted the inaugural harvest from the previous winter harvest and loved it, so we put our dibs in for some of the following spring harvest.

Batch 119 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is an Wuyi Tie Guan Yin Oolong Tea from Muzha, Taiwan. It was made in the traditional fashion by our ongoing source of Tie Guan Yin Oolong Tea. We can see in the photo above that the leaves were rolled like they were 40-50 years ago in Taiwan, before mass production and more extensive use of machines. This more loosely rolled leaf material is more conducive to roasting as well as post production oxidation.

Batch 119 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is an Wuyi Tie Guan Oolong from Muzha, Taiwan. It was made from the first flush of a small plot of the Wuyi cultivar, and processed in the traditional Muzha Tie Guan Yin fashion by our ongoing source of Tie Guan Yin Oolong Tea. This is the second opportunity we've had to procure his Tie Guan Yin Tea made from the Wuyi cultivar. This spring 2025 batch of Wuyi Tie Guan Yin Oolong Tea amounted to less than 20 kg of cured leaf. 

Batch 118 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is a First Pick Li Shan High Mountain Oolong Tea from spring 2025. The saplings of Qing Xin cultivar were planted in early spring 2023, and have grown quite well. Tea farmers and merchants in general concur in their acknowledgement that the initial harvest is special in its composition. The trees are sprouting forth new leaves with the vigor of youth and striving to survive.