Landed into Hong Kong, the essential hub to all of Asia. Still the best airport in the world. Octopus cards working: check. Hong Kong Cantonese slang spoken: check. Mandarin spoken to me by customs officer for the first time: sad. I must have stopped looking Hong Konger and crossed over to the lesser cool mainlander Chinese. That or I don’t sport the HK fashion: glasses, bad skin, Louis Vuitton bag. J/k. I love HK, still.
The High Mountain oolongs have not been harvested yet, but over the hill on the other side, the Lishan Oolongs were just made. Pear Mountain was so called because the Eastern most of the island used to be all for fruit production. About 50 years ago these alpine hills were given to the veterans, and since then, these extreme elevation hills became tea mountains, commanding the highest prices of any teas in Taiwan. We have a small batch for the harvest party- there isn’t much quantity yet. By the way, the Harvest Party will be on Nov 7…..please check our website for tickets: Teance.com
As often said, good teas come from high mountains. How high is high, and for that matter, how steep? Here in Taiwan, San Lin She, things are taken to extremes! At 2000 meters with 60 degree inclines,so steep that mere vertigo does not approach how scary it can make one feel, amidst blind white cloud, one might wonder, did I pay the right price for these teas? Just how much effort does this High Mountain oolong really take? Someone planted these on the 60 degree hills. Someone carried up equipment to prune and weed and fertilizer, at 2000 meters. A lot of 70 and 80 year olds harvested the leaves all by hand, in the blinding fog. And that’s all just raw leaves. Here, we were merely tourists.
What happens to a Teabuyer who has come down with a cold from hell, can’t smell nor taste anything, and then your second in command also comes down with a cold? What if you lost your voice and can’t negotiate? And dizzy from medication? with an eye infection? Will I be choosing the tea, blind, dumb, and palate-less? With just sheer instinct?
Well, Buddhists would say, everyday is a good day- somewhere, for someone.
Mrs. Su, the other superwoman of tea, was in good spirits today. All 3 sons are now in college, and my annual gifts of chocolate are yet still welcome, a ritual I have had since the youngest son was 8 years old. There is no harvest just yet, and she managed to find some previous year’s Royal Courtesan. A very small amount for some die hard customers. I can’t taste nor smell anything this time, having had a severe cold. But I trust her.
After consecutive 3-4 years of looking finally I found the seeds she wanted- to grow the village’s biggest cabbage, bigger than some other woman in the village who has been bragging about her cabbage. I know that other woman couldn’t compete on the tea. And I wanted Mrs Su to win. After all these years of her taking care of our Tung Ting and Charcoal Roasted Oolongs, it is a small favor to return!