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We recently received this question from Eco-Cha Monthly Tea Club member Paul in Norway:

For the tea of the month you said "integrating traditional Tieguanyin oxidation methods with Dong Ding roasting skills." I was wondering if you could describe this process in more detail? 

We thought it worthwhile to share our response to this question with all of the Tea Club members as well as our readership in general for your reference.

Yesterday we traveled up to Taipei to present a selection of aged and charcoal roasted Oolong teas that we sourced for the occasion, hosted in an antique and art collector's home. We brewed leaves of eleven different batches of tea ranging from the most recent winter harvest to leaves harvested over forty years ago.

Eco-Cha was contacted by Penn State Tea Club on their visit to Taiwan over the New Year. The group of Tea Club travelers expressed their interest in visiting tea country in Central Taiwan. So we met at the Lugu Farmers' Association, where Lisa Lin and Andy hosted the new interactive "Lyrical Flowing Water, Dancing Cups of Tea" exhibit.

We were introduced to Mr. Su by our friend who has been his customer for over 30 years. He brought us to Mr. Su's home in Lugu on New Year's Day, five years ago — and introduced him as "Representative Su". This title was due to Mr. Su's position on the advisory board of the Lugu Farmers' Association at the time. But in retrospect, after the last five years of visiting Mr. Su regularly and hearing his stories while tasting his teas, we see a lot more in the name. We have come to know him as the pioneering elder craftsman of traditional Taiwanese Oolong tea that he is — a leading representative of a tradition.

It was a gorgeous day as we slowly made our way back home, stopping along the way and auspiciously meeting some tea people. The first was a local tea farmer who cultivated a plot of Qing Xin Oolong on a remote ridge at 1700m in the valley below Jade Mountain, Taiwan's highest peak. He inherited the tea garden his father planted 30 years ago, perhaps the first in the area. Mr. Wu was a soft-spoken, genuinely friendly guy who served us his winter crop of High Mountain Oolong. It was especially fragrant for a winter tea, and really nice.

The Lugu Farmers' Association standard of quality that they set for their competition is in a class of Oolong that draws our attention due to a synthesis of two general categories: Traditionally cured, heavily oxidized and heavily roasted Dong Ding Oolong combined with a new trend of sufficiently oxidized, lightly roasted High Mountain Oolong.  In the final analysis, it is a relatively light Dong Ding Oolong Tea, especially when put in perspective of the local tradition.

All of the above are really just the highlights of an event that represents a living tea culture in Taiwan. The broad spectrum of activities and exhibits, not to mention hundreds of vendors selling their own tea and other local specialties is truly an anomaly. There is nowhere else on the planet that represents tea as a traditional product of regional origin in such a comprehensive and extravagant way. For anyone interested in experiencing the pinnacle of a tea cultural event, the Nantou County Global Tea Expo is a must destination. 

Watermarked photos courtesy of 陳信綸

On October 10th, Double Ten Day — National Day of the Republic of China, as we began winding down the 6th annual Global Tea Expo, we had the opportunity to host some tea people from New York!

In concurrence with the Nantou Global Tea Expo, the National Craft Research And Development Institute hosted activities and exhibits related to Taiwan's tea culture. One of these was an amazing exhibit of modern bamboo structures designed for traditional tea parties.

I showed up at the tea factory for the first batch of winter tea harvest being supervised by some of the most skilled professionals I know. Both the manager of the farm and the manager of the processing are tea judges in the world's largest Oolong Tea competition, and they are both friends of mine. I haven't tasted the finished product, but I did take home a handful of semi-dried leaves from the factory that night and brewed it the next day, about 24 hours after the leaves were picked. It was really floral, balanced and fresh tasting. I'll see what I can do to get at least a small amount of this batch, as I personally already find it special.

Even within the local industry of Central Taiwan, we find enough variety to keep us intrigued for decades-on-end. And now that we are officially establishing a subscription program, we are compelled to go beyond our local stomping grounds in search of unique teas to share. We will be choosing small and otherwise unavailable batches of tea that will be divvied up into 75g shares and distributed to our club members on a monthly basis.

 Read the article about Eco-Cha in Immigration Bi-Monthly.