News

Our Hong Oolong Tea comes from Meishan Township, Chiayi County, Taiwan. Meishan is the northeastern corner of the Alishan tea producing region, and in our perception, it generally offers the best Alishan Tea. So, even though Hong Oolong is not commonly made in this region, Eco-Cha (at long last!) has chosen this source for specific reasons.

We took this photo last spring when we slept out at this spot in order to catch the early morning harvest. It gives you a sense of the environment and the extent of farm development in this area of the Alishan High Mountain Tea producing region. It is one of the reasons we've chosen this farm as our source. This area was already developed as a rural farming community before the onset of modern tea production in Taiwan. The family farms were simply repurposed to grow tea when High Mountain Tea became popular. So, the development of tea production in this area has had less environmental impact than most other High Mountain Tea producing regions in Taiwan.

It brews a clear, bright, yellow/green tea with a balanced creamy savory aroma and a satisfying savory scone flavor profile, with subtle floral notes in the finish. It's character really comes forth after the brew has cooled to room temperature.

It was a beautiful morning, and although the sun was quite strong, it felt so good to be doing what we love most — riding into the hills to source quality Taiwanese Tea! We've ridden this rode at dozens of times over the last 20+ years, and it never gets old. Each time we take this trip, we see these mountains in a different light. As far as we recall, this is the first time we stopped at this awesome spot on this bridge!

This batch of Alishan High Mountain Jin Xuan Oolong summer 2020 harvest has a very pronounced buttery character. Starting with the leaves put into the pre-heated tea judging cup, they exuded a pronounced buttered toast/popcorn aroma. But the flavor profile is replete with an uncanny buttered popcorn note, it's almost unbelievable! How can tea leaves do this?! It's not only buttered popcorn either! There are distinct floral and vegetal notes that balance out the incredulous and delicious buttered popcorn flavor. OK, enough repetitive description! Click here to get your share.

 There are many remote mountain villages in the foothills of Alishan that are surrounded by tea gardens sprawling over their slopes. The other day we finally got to visit a farm that was referred to us by the proprietor of our favorite neighborhood restaurant a while ago. The home was comprised of four brothers who all grow tea in and around the village called Dragon's Eye.

 

 

Upon meeting Mr. Ye, the farmer, I knew my neighbor had a reliable supplier. His humble manner and simple, direct communication was recognized as what I value the most in the industry here. An independent farmer with decades of experience producing small batches of Oolong Tea in a secluded mountainous environment.

Here are some answers to questions about tea competitions in Taiwan. These regional competitions set a precedent of quality and value for all of the tea growing regions in Taiwan. The number of competitions alone is an impressive represenation of the specialty tea industry in Taiwan.

Lower elevation areas (Mingjian, Nantou) and southern areas (Meishan, Chiayi) have already been harvesting for the last 2-3 weeks.