Off to China for the new harvest, stay tuned for the daily posts!
Do You Know What’s In Your Tea?
* Teance Editor’s Note : While we mostly agree with FoodBabe’s take on tea, we can’t stand by her recommendation for choosing organic tea as a sure way to avoid harmful chemicals and to even have a good cup of tea. Organic teas are predominately grown in the valleys where much of the air pollution settles and are not typically high quality teas. We recommend traditionally grown high mountain tea from pristine areas. Knowing WHERE your tea comes from is the first step, trusting the person WHO is sourcing these teas is the next, and buying for WHAT the tea actually is; in teance’s case, whole leaf, seasonal (we list the season of harvest on every bag) and with absolutely nothing added, is the final most successful way to ensure you are enjoying an excellent and healthy cup of tea. Do You Really Know What’s in Your Tea?Reposted from FoodBabe The ancient Chinese…
A Hakka temple in one of the old Hakka neighborhoods. These are…
A Hakka temple in one of the old Hakka neighborhoods. These are nomadic settlers, moving about China and ending up in Taiwan, where they were not only responsible for some of the most outstanding culinary delights, but also, the founders of Taiwan Beauty. Today, the Hakka people live near the Shinjhu and Miaoli areas, producing some of the most amazing oolongs in the world.
Does this look like a hotel to you? it’s more like a pottery…
Does this look like a hotel to you? it’s more like a pottery barn! Called the Tung Ting Lodge, the one and only hotel on top of the mountain and in slight walking distance to the rolling tea hills and producers’ village. Mrs. Su, for example is exactly 5 minutes away. It’s convenient to stay at this rustically magnificient lodge when the tourists can go witness tea production at night. Except that there was, alas, no tea production this time due to the drought. Instead, we asked the owner to show us his pottery, and everything changed. Suddenly, we were not pesky tourists. We were appreciators of his craft, and that meant all the world to artisans like him in Taiwan, where money is not the point and appreciation the only thing that mattered. He gave us a tour of his collection; apparently exhibited in museums worldwide and students come far and near around the world to learn from him, he was actually a famous pottery master. To think that all these years, I brought tour groups here just to enjoy the view and be walking distance to the tea producers in the village must have been greatly insulting! Fortunately, my group this time were enthusiastic about glazes, and the difference between bean husk glazes and high fired celadon vs. ox blood. This tour is always unpredictable and culture is all around us!
The lodges The one and only hotel at top of Tung Ting Mountain is…
The lodges
The one and only hotel at top of Tung Ting Mountain is somewhere between a bed and breakfast, a pottery workshop, and a museum.
The fog rolled in and all the world was a white milky haze….
The fog rolled in and all the world was a white milky haze. Hiking up steep inclines of 70 degrees at times, we huffed and puffed to the top of the world: the world of tea that is, at 2000 meters. Paying homage to the High Mountain oolongs is crucial to anyone considering themselves tea enthusiasts, and climbing a hill that high and that steep allows one to fully understand what ‘High Mountain’ means.
San Lin She, Taiwan, is home to huge purple blue bamboo groves, ginkgo trees and fragrant flowers, and one of the world’s most sought after oolong teas, with an intense floral fragrance all its own unforgettable character.
The tour group struggled to the top before the view was completely obscured. Thankfully the rolling curves of tea bushes were magnificent and plentiful in view for the strenuous hike to be worthwhile!
We tasted a crop harvested 2 days ago, and it was rich and floral. The considerable drought means the taste will be more intense than other years. Each cup of High Mountin oolong is evocative of the energy of the mountain, and all the drama and tragedies of a global weather changes that the tea plants struggle to adapt to. We taste and remember each differing year- like meeting a new friend each time, some more to our liking than others, all came with their own story.