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Alishan High Mountain Jin Xuan Oolong Summer 2022 | Eco-Cha Teas

Alishan High Mountain Jin Xuan Oolong Summer 2022 | Eco-Cha Teas

August 11, 2022

Our summer 2022 batch of Alishan High Mountain Jin Xuan Oolong is an exemplary representative of this category of Taiwan Tea! It is lightly oxidized, offering pronounced milky/buttery notes which the Jin Xuan cultivar is famous for. Given the weather patterns through the early spring growing season compared with the late spring growing season — the second flush offers a more classic Alishan Jin Xuan flavor profile.

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Worker harvesting Taiwan Red Jade Black Tea in the fields.

Red Jade Black Tea 2022 | Eco-Cha Teas

August 04, 2022

Red Jade, a.k.a. Taiwan Tea #18, is a hybrid large leaf cultivar that is unique to Taiwan. The indigenous wild tea tree that grows naturally in the mountain forests of Taiwan was cross-bred with the Assam strain from India. This initially occurred naturally when the Japanese introduced the Assam strain to the Sun Moon Lake area of Taiwan in the early 20th century. Chinese immigrants to this area had already been cultivating the indigenous tea strain, which eventually cross-pollinated with the new Assam strain.

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Shan Lin Xi Taiwan  High Mountain Oolong Tea Spring 2022 | Eco-Cha Teas

Shan Lin Xi Taiwan High Mountain Oolong Tea Spring 2022 | Eco-Cha Teas

May 05, 2022

Spring 2022 Taiwan high mountain tea harvest is slowly but steadily working its way up the mountain! Lower and mid-elevations were harvested by mid-April. Alishan High Mountain Oolong was mostly harvested by the last week in April, as Shan Lin Xi High Mountain Tea picking began.

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Ying Xiang Dong Pian Oolong Tea | Eco-Cha Tea Club

Ying Xiang Dong Pian Oolong Tea | Eco-Cha Tea Club

February 18, 2022

Batch 75 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is an Ying Xiang Dong Pian Oolong Tea from Yong Long Village in Lugu, Taiwan —at 700m elevation. Ying Xiang (迎香) means "Alluring Aroma", and is the name given to Tai Cha #20. This is a relatively recent hybrid tea cultivar introduced by Taiwan's Tea Research and Extension Station less than 10 years ago, and has slowly but surely gained popularity — especially at mid-elevation tea growing regions. 

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Taiwan High Mountain Oolong Teas winter 2021 brewed in cups

Taiwan High Mountain Tea Overview Winter 2021 | Eco-Cha Teas

November 12, 2021

We taste tested our three new batches of winter High Mountain Oolong Tea -- Shan Lin Xi, Alishan, and Li Shan. We can see the difference in the oxidation levels of the tea leaves in the coloration of the brewed tea. We can see a higher degree of oxidation in the Shan Lin Xi and less oxidation as we move to the Li Shan.

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Lishan High Mountain Oolong Tea Tasting Notes | Eco-Cha Tea Club

Lishan High Mountain Oolong Tea Tasting Notes | Eco-Cha Tea Club

September 12, 2021

The summer batch is noticeably less oxidized than the spring batch, and has maintained its fresh green character that Lishan tea is most renowned for. The leaves were sufficiently oxidized in order to remove the green grassy character that is inherently in the leaves. This is what distinguishes Oolong from Green Tea. Just a minimal amount of oxidation resulting from gently shuffling the leaves intermittently over long periods of wilting transforms the chemical compounds in the leaves, offering a more complex and substantial flavor profile. This batch of tea offers a buttery, savory aroma — especially upon moistening the leaves, but also throughout subsequent brews. The flavor profile is mildly sweet fresh cream, with herbal notes. The finish is clean, soft, yet lingering and subtly heady, with floral undertones.

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Li Shan High Mountain Oolong Tea | Eco-Cha Tea Club

Li Shan High Mountain Oolong Tea | Eco-Cha Tea Club

September 11, 2021

he climate in the Lishan region is strikingly different from other tea producing regions. At 2000m elevation, and a valley situated in a direction that allows the north-easterly wind patterns to offer drastic diurnal temperature variations — tea leaves produced here are of a different caliber. We are thrilled to be sharing a batch of tea from the area that really is most impressive in terms of its "high mountain" character!

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Shan Lin Xi High Mountain Oolong Summer Harvest

Shan Lin Xi High Mountain Oolong Summer Harvest

July 20, 2021

We brewed our spring batch of Shan Lin Xi High Mountain Oolong Tea alongside the freshly picked summer batch to observe the differences between these two consecutive harvests from the same source. These two batches exhibited the classic seasonal traits of spring and summer high mountain tea.

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Alishan High Mountain Oolong Summer Harvest (2021)

Alishan High Mountain Oolong Summer Harvest (2021)

July 01, 2021 2 Comments

Spring is classically the best quality stock of any given year. So it is no surprise at all that it is more flavorful than the summer crop. This is as it should be, given that it costs almost twice as much. So in the end, the value of summer tea wins vs. its cost. It is a prime quality High Mountain Tea from a source we have come to rely on almost solely for our Alishan High Mountain Oolong. And the price is hard to beat. So if you are looking for an everyday drinker that is really quite good quality, this batch is for you!

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Traditional Dong Ding Oolong Tea making

Spring 2021 Traditional Dong Ding Oolong Making

May 06, 2021 2 Comments

Our friend chose to only use one pot, or tumble heater, for the fixing stage. This would make it a slower and more relaxed tea making session, while allowing the leaves that were picked later in the day to oxidize more — resulting in a more uniformly cured batch of tea.

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Tea Farmers Receive Subsidies For Drought In Taiwan

Tea Farmers Receive Subsidies For Drought In Taiwan

April 15, 2021

The Chairman of Taiwan's Department of Agriculture made an appearance in our neighborhood (Zhushan) to conduct a field survey of the impact drought conditions have made on crops of spring tea. The Tea Research and Extension Station reported that yield is down 30-50% from average at lower elevations, and higher elevations are not much better.

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Alishan High Mountain tea country in central Taiwan at dawn

Alishan High Mountain Tea Winter Harvest

December 03, 2020

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.

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