Mr. Chen had initially intended to make a more heavily oxidized, traditionally made Dong Ding Oolong style tea from this day of harvest. But due to the conditions on the day of harvest, the degree of oxidation in the leaves fell short of what is optimal for making Dong Ding Oolong. We tasted it on the day after it was processed, and appreciated the character of significantly oxidized leaves that offer a substantial composition and very balanced flavor profile which makes a pleasant and satisfying, yet less pronounced alternative to the standard character of a High Mountain Oolong. So we offered to buy the day's harvest in full, given it was only a small fraction of what is normally harvested and processed in one day.
Our source of Red Jade Black Tea (Tai Cha 18) is a success story in progress. And his most recent advancement in his operations has been to optimize the quality control of his Red Jade production. He is only using his prime summer produce for making his Red Jade Black Tea, and designating the early and late harvests for Ruby White Tea making. He has also begun to be more precise in timing of harvests, and picky (no pun intended!) about the selection of hand-picked leaves to reap only the proper degree of maturity in the new leaf growth.
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 hereto get your share.
Over the course of our chat, catching up on spring harvest, competition, and other tea related topics, we realized that this artisan of Traditional Tie Guan Yin Oolong is the single most patient and painstaking tea maker we know. The amount of time and serious labor he puts into making a very minimal amount of tea is just so far off the charts of any other type of tea production we've seen. Oh, and he won first place prize a year and half ago, amidst top 2% and top 10% prizes that he is awarded consistently in the Muzha Farmers' Association Traditional Tie Guan Yin Oolong Tea competition.
Andy recently visited a good friend and long-time Oolong tea supplier in Lugu. It so happened, the Lugu Farmers' Association's Dong Ding Oolong Competition was kicking off at the same time. This competition is the largest Oolong tea competition in the world and tea farmers far and wide bring their best teas for judging. Check out Andy's behind-the-scenes peek into how a good loose leaf oolong tea is crowned a winner in the world's largest Oolong tea competition.
This batch of tea was harvested in 2012 and only reached completion of its curing process in 2016. This artisan has taken tea making to another level. These processing and curing methods are unique in that they are an integration of traditional and modern tea making methods that produce a character of tea reminiscent of Muzha Tieguanyin from Northern Taiwan. It is not comparable however, given that the tea types used and the processing methods are quite different. It is simply the character and flavor notes that are experienced in brewing a pot of these tea leaves that bring a traditional Taiwanese Tieguanyin Oolong to mind.
Dana Ter, freelance writer and staff reporter for the Features section of the Taipei Times, recently approached Eco-Cha to be a subject of a piece she wrote on Taiwan's artisanal tea culture. We happily cooperated, and responded to her request to visit tea farms in the Taipei area by taking her to meet two tea farmers whom we've befriended in recent years. It turned out to be just what Dana was looking for — tea producers who represent the boutique artisan tea culture in Taiwan.
Now over 40 years running, this spring's Lugu Farmers' Association Dong Ding Oolong Tea Competition consisted of 6,441 entries. This pioneering tea competition was designed to maintain and promote a standard of high quality in the production of this traditional type of Oolong Tea.
We finally got the chance to explore a site that has piqued our curiosity for many years. A tiny village at the southern tip of Taiwan that has cultivated tea since the 1880's!
We spent several days over the last couple weeks filming in tea country (Lugu) and in Taichung City with the Buddhist-based Da Ai Television station. It will a while before the program is aired, but for now we can share some behind the scene shots. Here we are at Tony and Lisa Lin's tea table playing with tea design ideas.
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