Eco-Cha Tea Club

Well, now that we've spent some time getting to know this tea beyond the initial impression it had on us, along with its specs that qualified it as unique batch worthy of sharing with our tea club members, we can offer a closer look into our experience of brewing and enjoying this tea.

Well, the holidays seemed to fly past, with our first two monthly batches of tea we shared with you, and here we are preparing to pack up and ship our third installment of the Eco-Cha Tea Club. As we've described in our Tea Club guidelines, we search for teas that are unique and not offered on the general market (or even in our own store) due to their limited edition, rare batch factor. This month's batch is exciting because it embodies all the main aspects of what Eco-Cha strives to represent. It was cultivated on a residential farm, it's a small harvest, it was processed using traditional methods, and it was naturally cultivated. All this adds up to sustainable practice in preserving the local specialty tea industry by providing tea lovers with what you want — quality, interesting tea. Once again, we feel both privileged and proud to be able to do so. 

Sitting down at the tea table with a fresh clean slate of an open mind, we brewed a Gongfu pot of Dong Ding Tieguanyin Oolong. We focused on noting the character, flavors and aromatic essences that we experienced in brewing the leaves of this unique batch of tea. The character of a tea can first be experienced in the aroma that wafts from the initial steeping. It offered a ripe-fruit, hearty, sweet aroma.

Dong Ding Tieguanyin Oolong — Never Heard Of It? Neither have we. That's why it's the first choice of the recent winter's harvest for January's Eco-Cha Tea Club. We've given it the name Dong Ding Tieguanyin Oolong simply because it is the first crop of Tieguanyin tea trees being cultivated and crafted in the heart of Dong Ding Oolong Country. Planted less than five years ago, and harvested in the last two, this is a batch of tea that we are genuinely thrilled about. Not only because of its uniqueness, but primarily because of how it tastes.

The lasting impression from this brew was a finely balanced, substantial character with a vibrant, heady aftertaste and a subtle warming effect that left me feeling clear and relaxed. I felt like I just had a truly rewarding pot of tea.

We are super-psyched to be initiating the Eco-Cha Tea Club! Considering what type of tea best qualifies as our premier batch was no easy matter here in Taiwan. We made the choice based both on our roots in the tea industry and what we think exemplifies Taiwanese traditional specialty tea.