The tea gods are once again blessing me with undeserved grace. I arrive atop Phoenix Mountain, Wudong Peak at 1400 meters, in one of the best days of harvest, in one of the best years’ crops ever. Hot sun and cool breeze sway the brilliant green beak like leaf sprouts. The tea I am here for: Duck Poop Oolong,made by the best of the best, Mr. Wei.
Arrived into Shantou, the city of Phoenix Mountain, one of my favorite, and oldest, tea cultures in the world. Inhabited by centuries old arbor type camellia sinensis trees, these are some formidable teas.
Pictured here: Mid mountain 700 meter Ya Sai, or Duck Poop Phoenix Oolong. Only the locals drink this tea and not everyone can afford the peak mountain old trees. But where there is demand, there is a way- the ducks didn’t migrate, the branches of the original trees did, midway down the mountain for faster growth and more yield. Last year, we got the Duck Poop Phoenix from the 1400 meter high, original trees of course. It’s not the same without the ducks!
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.
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!
Superwoman Miss Lin met a woe this year. Seems like, many people are having an unsmooth year. Her tea production facility burned down 1 month ago and we arrived to see her making tea in her bonsai garden. Elegant, calm, and unruffled always, we had a fantastic dinner, some of her second place winner Taiwan Beauty tea, and marvel at her pluck- she is going to reconstruct her facility and add a classroom for tourists to try their hand at making tea themselves next year. That spirit is classic for the Hakka tribal people like her- about 100 years ago, when the bugs completely ravaged his crop, the undaunted Hakka tribesman made a fantastic, unique tea with the damaged leaves, turning it into one of the tea treasures on earth- the Taiwan Beauty oolong.