Good bye Taiwan! Heading to Japan today with the tour group. The hospitality and warmth of the people in Taiwan were appreciated by all. My good brother Alfonso says, after all the good food there, ’ I feel cheated after all these years in the U.S.!’ A bit of real food was such a revelation.
We had 11 teas yesterday! Said my tour group. And today, we arrived into Mr. Wu’s High Mountain farm as they are processing today’s harvest. We would taste each of the hourly milestones as the teas were roasting. Less experienced tasters get lost amongst the multiple steepings of different days and lots. One has to maintain palate memory throughout to be accurate. The job of a tea curator is harder than it looks, but then, when quality is consistently high, such as these High Mountain Oolongs, your choice would be just icing on the cake.
Great teas grow on foggy high mountains of constant moisture, cool air, and steep slopes. Asian tea aficionados understand it- so they line up for the daily lots. It is hard to compete against local buyers who ascend the mountain daily to taste the batches, or worse- the preorders from the Chinese mainlanders who have the purchasing power to buy every, single, drop of the great Taiwan teas. Our tour group, in particular our store manager who came on this trip, gets a taste of just how competitive the situation is and what some of the manuvering had to take place. Little, or big mountains, are moved sometimes.
A small batch of the first winter High Mountain Light Roast was purchased/wrestled from another buyer. How specifically, are the trade secrets I can no longer share on this blog! Not that others can do it even if the information was divulged.
In any case folks, that excellent small batch of High Mountain Light Roast– made today (10/20)- is available for pre-order at the shop and online. We didn’t make it to Dayuling (2500 meters elevation) this trip but I will be getting my preset quota, and not a drop more. So folks, preorder away. That’s the only way to get some of these teas now. When you are dealing with buyers as formidable as the ones from mainland ‘clean-sweep-with-corruption-money’ China, you are looking at being marginalized as tea aficionados very quickly.
But then again, ignorant teabag consumption is bliss?
Yes the hills are nearly 80 degrees and falling and rolling down would not be good, as nothing will break your fall till you hit bottom, some 1500 meters down. In the blinding fog, how do those 80 year old tea pickers manage?
We made it up above the clouds! At close to 2000 meters on top of San Lin She, home of the high mountain oolong, the intense fog drenches the leaves and nourishes the new leaf buds, getting ready for the winter harvest. The hike was a good hour long 70 degree incline. Along the way, monkeys were eating leaves, bees picking flowers, and toads were leaping out of our way. A little tea adventure.
