At what point in one’s tea drinking life, when one says, enough, this tea is far too ridiculously good and I can not live this down ever again? For today, I grew afraid that after drinking the 2nd place Taiwan Beauty winner, I might have to quit drinking tea, for fear that nothing will ever compare again. Once ridiculed as ‘pong fong cha’, or bullshit tea, this oolong invented in 1929 by a Hakka…
Taiwan Beauty
Wild Ginger Flowers
A time capsule
Here in Wenshan, Mr. Lee, our Baochong farmer, keeps bees and collects the tea seeds to crush for oil. The bees will harvest the pollen from the tea flowers and they will be particularly sweet this year. The tea flowers were plentiful and one can suck on the pollen, like honeysuckle. Mr. Chen makes his Jia Long Oolong, and his wife deep fries some super delicious tea leaf tempura and makes a wild…
Paradise to some of us: Mr. Chen’s Jia Long garden
Jia Long, the good dragon tea
Mr. Chen calls his invention ‘Jia Long’, or the good dragon tea. It was made GABA tea style, oxidized without oxygen. Exactly how it’s made is unknown, as he is hoping to obtain a patent some day. In any case, after knowing him for 3 years, he has finally decided to let us visit his farm.
It’s about quality, he said, not quantity. He barely fertilizes his bushes , intentionally letting them…