Simply called Honey Oolong, this is 80-90% oxidized, very high mountain stock from the other side at He Huan Shan, near Dayuling. Basically, using a late summer tea that won’t be used for premium oolong and made into Red Tea/Hong Cha. I won’t have any new crop to taste until then, but the High Mountain fragrance ripening into Red Tea is outstanding.
Ruby Red 18, or Red Jade 18. Qiao Mu arbor type small tree, large leaf. A hybrid of Mynamar arbor type (similar to Pu-erh) and aboriginal Taiwanese wild tea. The tender spring sprouts are uniquely yellowish in color. Here at Mr. Zhuang’s 800 meter Ruby Red farm, it is ideally situated: wind, cool temps, and the dreaded beetlenut trees are below the tea, so no possibility of run off fertilizers….
The tea gods have been kind indeed. In over a decade of tea travels, this year has the best weather, even in Taiwan. Not too hot or muggy, beautiful breezy day, a hint of typhoon but not quite. In Sun Moon Lake today.
At Wenshan, Taiwan. Late night wilting Baochong with Mr.Lee. A good year. Mango and gardenia fragrance fill the cool refrigeration room. Fluffing the tea every two hours and picking out the older leaves, drinking the new crop and the spring honey. At this rate I am going to become immortal.
At Wenshan, Taiwan. The 5 year aged Honey Jialong is beyond amazing- full of aged kumquat peel, honeysuckle, cooked honey, and an incredible finish. There isn’t much left, I will be getting the 2 year aged. There isn’t much production each year, but this year’s spring crop is amazing, so by the fall, Mr. Chen is confident it will have aged adequately. The difference between the young spring crop vs aged is now strikingly obvious. The young ones have a slight grass and more lemon. The aged have the cooked mandarin peel liqueur-like viscosity. There really isn’t another tea like this in the world. We are incredibly lucky!
Survived, out of China. On Xiamen flight, I managed an emergency exit seat which meant I just increased my survival rate by 50%! One less Chinese person who would randomly open the emergency gate ‘to get some air’. I am as claustrophobic as needing institutional care, but never have I entertained opening the emergency escape on mid flight. Other spectacular actions: opening overhead compartments on descent and leaving it open so bags can become trajectiles. Bringing a whole Jasmine tree on the flight and obstructing the walkway. These I witnessed. Ones I have heard: throwing hot cup of noodles on the flight attendant’s face. Assaulting flight attendant because this guy wanted a different seat than he got and refused to give it up, and got upset at flight attendant trying to get him to move . How about smoking inside the bathrooms and setting the plane on fire?
Well, I win some and lose some. My mosquito bites were fewer than 20 this time so far, so a few life threatening actions by fellow passengers should provide other forms of entertainment.