We just recently put our spring 2023 batch of Tie Guan Yin Oolong on the shelf. We purposely allowed it to rest for more than four months before packaging it up to put in the store. This allows the roast to settle and mellow, bringing forth a more complex and refined flavor profile. We are always impressed at how this tea brews a luminescent rich copper-toned brew — portraying the skill and finesse of how it was roasted several times for a total of about 50 hours.
We have become close friends, and this is a unique connection in our 25 years of involvement with tea producers in the local Taiwan tea industry. This farm is a rare resource, given its environment and micro-climate. The owners have faced many challenges and only in the last few years have developed their organic farming to a stable situation. Now, with some support and guidance, we believe they will soon be producing some of the best organic tea in Taiwan!
Taiwan produces some of the world’s best teas. Learning when, where and how to procure them only comes from many years of involvement in local tea industry and culture. Here we give you an inside look at what's entailed in bringing you some of the best of Taiwan's teas.
What is called "red tea" (紅茶 / 红茶) in Chinese is known as Black Tea in English. Taiwan has its own special Black Tea named Red Jade Black Tea due to its luminescent reddish-ochre brew. Also known as Taiwan Tea No. 18, Red Jade Black Tea is a hybrid of the Assam tea plant and the wild tea tree that grows naturally in the mountain forests of Taiwan.
We are happy to announce the arrival of this year's summer harvest of Shan Lin Xi High Mountain Oolong. Only since last year have we begun to offer the summer harvest from this source of high mountain tea, and we did so for a few specific reasons. First of all, it's considerably cheaper than spring and winter harvests, and while there is a noticeable difference in quality and character, it's still a fine high mountain tea. And for the price, it's a great deal!
Well, it has been a long season of winter tea shopping, and we are delighted to announce that we have procured all of our selections and they are up on the site.
The tea leaves have now been divvied up into all the shares that were claimed in our campaign and are on their way to Eco-Cha HQ to be paired up with other parts of the perk packages to be sent to our backers
Well, here we are at long last, drinking the brewed tea leaves that grew, were harvested, and processed since we visited the farm with the organic certification inspectors three months ago.
In our experience, organic tea has a distinct consistency of flavor. There is simply more constitution in the tea leaves. We brewed that pot of tea ten times, and it still had substance and character.