Nowadays, fortunately we are no longer in a position of consumption only out of necessity. Experiencing the artistry of cuisine, appreciating the hand crafted nuances, connecting with the artisan whose passion and lifelong work is in that cheese, or chocolate, or in our case, tea. Tea, a 5000 year living culture, is experiencing a renaissance, one where you can experience the most traditional techniques (like Wuyi oolongs), the oldest living trees (like the Pu-erh made from 250 or 1500 year old trees), to the newest varietals (like the Ruby Red), or the most unusual innovations (like the Honey Jialong) alike. It is a great time to be alive enjoying tea, and if mere thirst quenching is not the only purpose you are after, then experience the connoisseur teas that we seek out far and wide. Some are available to purchase on a limited basis, but many can only be experienced…
Know Your Tea: Zhengshan Xiaozong
Finally – the real thing. Zhengshan Xiaozong in its native place of production, now a nature preserve in the middle of Wuyi Mountain. In the middle of that preserve is a village called Tong Mu, surrounded by semi-wild bushes, waving tall bamboo,and rare species of butterflies for which UNESCO has declared the area a sancutary. The original tradition was to use huge logs of wood downstairs to heat up a giant room with vents upstairs to dry the tea leaves, one of the many ways to finish a tea. The proper way is to manage the smoke in a way that does not leave smokiness on the leaves, but allow the smoke to draw out the cooked plum and cherry notes of a rich dark black tea, or Hongcha, particular to the varietals in this region. Somehow, as the legend goes, long ago, one of the producers attempted to use pine logs and pine needles to…
Know Your Tea: Ruby Red 18
The Taiwanese lead the way with innovating and improving on thousands of years of tradition. Their skillset lies in understanding what can be elicited from each varietal and species to create an interesting new tea, not to keep making tea by machine and by rote. The producer of Ruby Red 18 is one of the youngest, and a first generation, tea maker at Sun Moon Lake, the middle of Taiwan. At the young age of 26, Mr. Chuang has already won consecutive awards in competitions. His farm is comprised solely of new varietals grown at mountain peaks: Ruby 18, 19, 21, and other oolongs. The Rubies were cultivated successfully back around the late 1990s by a research institute, to be experimentally made into Hongcha, or what the West calls black teas. Most commercially made black teas wish to emulate Hongcha, the original fully oxidized teas that take great skill and handmaking to produce. Unfortunately, most black teas become bitter from…
Know Your Tea: Hongcha in Taiwan
The little island of Taiwan continues to lead the way with innovative techniques in production. Part of the region’s advantage is found in it’s environment- Taiwan boasts some of the most extreme differences in elevation, terrain, weather and temperature changes throughout the days and year. This range of terroir differences allows varietals to adapt and flourish, and the local artisans to bend them to their will- often with production techniques artisans from other countries can not duplicate. For example, Taiwan Beauty, one of the most unique teas in the world, result not only from the local Leaf Hoppers (cicadas) to symbiotically manifest, it also takes the extreme natural heat and humidity of the region to oxidize, and a people hardy enough to endure the heat in its making. Incidentally, another fantastic new tea has just emerged from this region.Miss Lin, the award winning producer of Taiwan Beauty, has just invented another new technique to produce Hongcha, or fully oxidized black…
Winter teas!
The winter harvest is all over the map this year as various regions are hit by rain/typhoon/rapid cold. It is uncertain what we will be getting, but our current small batch of High Mountain Light is one of the most fragrant and rich batches in memory. At least we have that…..’ Burnt Sugar Red’ from our Miaoli Taiwan Beauty far arriving next week!
Winter Tea Harvest 2015, Oct 30: purchase your tickets online now…
Winter Tea Harvest 2015, Oct 30: purchase your tickets online now and let’s enjoy my rare tea finds together: http://www.teance.com/collections/events