News

Our spring 2022 batches of our Taiwan tea hybrid cultivars are now in store! All three of these teas are "Made in Taiwan", and have become popular tea types since they were introduced about 40 years ago. Jin Xuan Oolong is the most well known and most popular among tea lovers around the world.

With the arrival of our spring batch of Taiwan Dong Ding Oolong Tea, we were inspired to brew it alongside our Traditional Dong Ding Oolong as well as our current edition of the Eco-Cha Tea Club — which also happens to be a Traditional Dong Ding Oolong. All three teas were harvested this spring from the same community in Lugu, Taiwan.

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.

The traditional recipe for Taiwan Dong Ding Oolong Tea did not involve post production roasting at all. This is an evolution that began with tea merchants roasting past seasonal batches of Dong Ding Oolong, and offering a roasted version along with their newest seasonal batches of unroasted tea.

Our freshly picked spring 2022 crop of Jin Xuan Oolong tea has the classic buttery notes with underlying sweet vegetal and woody qualities. The flavor is buttery, nutty, and savory - balanced by the smooth astringent "original Oolong" qualities that offer a clean, fragrant finish.

Dong Ding Oolong Tea Country is the biggest hub of Taiwan tea culture. Soon after the KMT took control of Taiwan, the area on and around Dong Ding Mountain was determined to be the best location to develop tea cultivation.

Reservoir levels in northern and central Taiwan are all almost at full capacity now. This shows Taiwan has had sufficient rainfall, along with traditionally low temperatures through the winter, unlike last year when there was a drought. This all bodes very well for the upcoming spring tea harvest! 

Given the fact that Tie Guan Yin Oolong Tea entails the most extensive processing methods, offering a rich, bold, and complex character — we've found that letting a newly made batch settle for a few months allows it to achieve optimal results. So, we only just now offering our winter 2021 batch. And just for fun, we did a cupping together with our winter 2018 and our spring 2020 past batches

The calligraphy on red door paper was hand-brushed by our tea mentor in celebration of the Lunar New Year. They were sent on their way to our supporters who ordered them. Tony chose an abbreviated line of a poem by the famous poet Du Fu of the Tang Dynasty.

Above is a preview of the calligraphy our tea mentor, Tony Lin prepared for us this Lunar New Year. The first words of each of the three phrases comprise our brand name in Chinese: 一口茶 — which is a homonym for Eco-Cha! The Chinese meaning is simply "A Sip Of Tea".

Taiwan many kinds of tea but have you ever wondered what's the most popular? Well, we've compiled an overview of our top 5 best selling Taiwan Teas of 2021 to offer some perspective on the popular names in Taiwan Tea.

Eco-Cha is launching a new category of Taiwan Tea in our store! More often than not, our favorite teas are only available in small quantities. This means that they are likely to sell out occasionally, until we are able to procure the next batch. Each batch is noticeably different from each other, while being the same type of tea. So we decided to create a "Limited Edition" category designated to distinctive quality teas that are in limited supply.