Tea Adventures

My life with Mrs. Su is always spontaneous and just north of…

My life with Mrs. Su is always spontaneous and just north of wacky. Although a very accomplished tea grower and producer as well as expert in Charcoal Roasting, she has vegetable envy. Anytime anyone else in the village grows a bigger/prettier/more delicious, cabbage/squash/peas/bok choy, she gets super obsessed. So tonight, after exchanging news I already know (very little Tung Ting due to drought) she drags me out to check out, in the dark with a flash light, her neighbor’s kabocha patch, to compare the size of their leaves and pumpkins against hers. They are bigger than hers- ‘must be from fertilizers and pesticides!’. Whereas she refuses both, and carefully wraps each flower and squash. Her teas are exceptional, and her vegetables delicious- but those are just two small reasons why we love Mrs. Su.

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Tea Adventures

Four Seasons or Jin Shuan this season? Flower aroma or milky…

Four Seasons or Jin Shuan this season? Flower aroma or milky fragrance? Tea is scarce this spring due to drought, so quality is exceptional. But everyone’s got a long face. Production is 70% less than previous year. I assured them that we also have drought in California with just 1 year of water left. As for earthquakes, the tremors last week on the island have nothing on us in the Bay Area!
But the US is a country, they said. Taiwan is in indefinite limbo. It’s not recognized as a country by the international community, yet it is independent from China. Besides, Hong Kong is a great example of not going back to the fold. To have lived in freedom and then put in a cage, is much worst than being born and raised in captivity. So sadly, Taiwan, a warm, friendly island of great people, tea, and pineapples, remain with an uncertain future. Such a sad problem has to be glossed over. So the big news this week, the huge news, is that a chain of bubble tea cafés have tainted beverages!!

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Tea Adventures

Station master Wang of the Lugu Research Institute evaluates the…

Station master Wang of the Lugu Research Institute evaluates the Ruby Red I just got. He prefers a later summer crop which has more intensity. The unique Hinoki fragrance is an anomaly and not to be expected for the Ruby Red usually. Also, in about 6 months that fragrance will disappear and settle into a more mellow Red tea taste. Well, flower arrangements last a week and the seasons change in 3 months. We will celebrate the short duration regardless.
Stationmaster Wang is crazy busy today as a huge news storm involving some chain of cafés (Stornaway)were found to have DDT in the flowers and Ceylon and Assam used in their bubble tea drinks. Then, more digging ensued and found that many bubble tea cafés use tea that were tainted also. The press is all over it and the Stationmasters of all the research institutes in Taiwan are getting nonstop requests for information on pesticide levels in Taiwan teas. The problem is, according to Wang, there is only 13,000 tons of real Taiwan teas produced. The extra 30,000 tons of tea needed, and imported, are low quality cheap teas used for beverages for bubble tea, etc. They come from Vietnam and Thailand mostly, where pesticide control is tenuous. However, the tainted shops are finished. All the farms are clamoring to get their teas tested immediately as it is Spring harvest and they are worried about customer inquiries. The lab here is overloaded and can’t get the tests done fast enough. Taiwanese teas rarely have this problem- but the island is too small to fill the demand, particularly when it comes to cheap beverage teas. Low quality teas just don’t get produced here!

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Tea Adventures

The Red Tea varietals are harvested with the smaller, more…

The Red Tea varietals are harvested with the smaller, more tender, less fibrous, leaves of the large leaf varietals. The wilting is done with warm room temperature air through the trough, and lots of hand fluffing, which sets apart the Gongfu Red Tea tradition despite the modern technology. Above: the Ruby 21 vs the Ruby 18. Ruby 18 in the spring, in this drought ridden year, sports an extremely unique palate fragrance of Hinoki wood. It is intoxicating and unlike any tea in the world I have ever tasted. For tea aficionados, it is another notch in the belt…..

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Tea Adventures

Ruby Red 18, or Red Jade 18. Qiao Mu arbor type small tree, large…

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….

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