Batch 101 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is an early spring Bi Luo Chun Green Tea that is actually the very first batch of the year that was produced from our ongoing source in the Sanxia District of New Taipei, Taiwan.
Batch 101 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is an early spring Bi Luo Chun Green Tea that was harvested on February 25, 2024. The video clip below shows Bi Luo Chun Tea leaves after tumble heating and being gently rolled. Here they are resting and cooling off, before going through the conveyer belt dryer.
Batch 100 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is a Light Roast High Mountain Oolong Tea from the Shan Lin Xi high mountain tea growing region, fall 2023 harvest. It was a good harvest overall in the Shan Lin Xi region, and this batch really spoke to our tea mentor Lisa Lin, who ended up buying the whole day's harvest!
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.
Batch 99 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is a Traditional Lugu Oolong Tea made from a winter 2023 harvest of Qing Xin Oolong leaf material grown at 700m elevation in Yonglong Village of Lugu Township, Taiwan. The slightly mature winter flush was processed more traditionally in that it underwent ample solar withering in the initial stage and extensive tumbling at the end of the withering process in order to induce a more thorough degree of oxidation. The leaves also underwent sufficient primary rolling after being tumble heated to cease the oxidation process.
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.
Batch 98 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is a Black Tea made from a new cultivar by the name of Qi Yun #23. It's Chinese name is derived from the place name of its origin in Qi Men, An Hui Province, China. The second word "yun" refers to its distinctive aftertaste. And it is in the finish that this brew stands apart. It has a pronounced orange citrus note that is akin to bergamot. So the leaves of the Qi Yun strain brew a naturally bergamot-like character of tea!
Batch 98 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is a Qi Yun #23 Black Tea. It is a new strain of tea on the scene that was introduced by Taiwan's Tea Research and Extension Station (TRES) about five years ago. The cultivation of this new strain dates back to 1938, when a Japanese professor brought tea seeds from Qi Men in An Hui Province, China to cultivate in Taiwan. This research was continued by the TRES, which finally produced this new cultivar in the last decade.
Batch 97 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is an award-winning Tie Guan Yin Oolong Tea from Taiwan. It received 3rd Place Category Prize (top 18%) in the spring 2023 Muzha Farmers' Association tea competition. We were fortunate enough to procure the remainder of this batch of tea, and we purposely allowed it to rest and mellow until now to share it with the tea club.
Kicking off our ninth year of the Eco-Cha Tea Club with batch 97 — an award winning Tie Guan Yin Oolong Tea from Muzha, Taiwan. Shown above is our friend who made this tea, and from whom we source our in-store Tie Guan Yin Oolong. On the wall behind him are the numerous awards he's received in recent years — including Champion Award at the top.
Batch 96 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is a High Mountain Concubine Oolong Tea from the Shan Lin Xi Tea growing region, harvested in fall 2022. This batch of tea was procured by our mentor Lisa Lin, who sources our High Mountain Concubine Oolong Tea and roasts it to her liking before offering it to us. Lisa has been a tea maker, a professional tea judge, a teacher of tea art, and has been buying and selling very small amounts of select teas in Lugu since before we met her in 1993.
Batch 96 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is a High Mountain Concubine Oolong Tea from the Shan Lin Xi High Mountain Tea growing region shown above. Our mentor Lisa Lin procured this batch of bug bitten tea from her friend in Lugu, Taiwan following last fall 2022 harvest. She roasted it three times over several months time. We tasted it a few months ago in Lisa's home and immediately asked if we could procure enough to share with our tea club, and she happily obliged. It's an exemplary batch of Concubine Oolong Tea!
