Pear Mountain_Oolong Tea
The second-highest of all high mountain teas in Taiwan. Lishan gets its name from the pear orchards that were once the main feature in this area. The terroir here is absolutely unique as far as tea farming goes. Tea bushes are exposed to a year-round pattern of strong morning sun, followed by mist-shrouded afternoons. Temperature differences between day and night can at times fluctuate by up to 20 degrees Celsius. Due to the elevation, winters can get bitterly cold, with snowfall not uncommon. During this time, everything here, including the tea plants, go into dormancy. All these stress factors combined make farming difficult, but they are also the exact reason why tea plants here develop such an impressive depth of flavour. Together with Dayuling, this part of Taiwan is the hardest to reach among all our sourcing areas, taking a full day from Taipei going up winding and foggy roads. However, the journey is majestic and it is well worth getting to the end destination where the nature is pristine, clean and nearly untouched by civilization. This oolong is particularly suitable for gongfu style brewing as it really opens up with multiple infusions.
$USD180 / 100g
Ali Mountain Oolong Tea
When people think of Taiwan high-mountain oolong, this is usually the first tea that comes to mind. Historically, however, camphor and cypress wood had been the main industry here. During the Japanese period, in order to further develop the area, a network of narrow-gauge railways was built high into the Alishan mountain range, which lasts to this day. On the back of this improved accessibility, initially fruit orchards and later on tea farms followed. Perennially blanketed in thick fog, tea bushes here grow slow with only two harvests annually. This slow growth is also the exact reason why the tea produced here is so special, as plants concentrate their flavour compounds into less leaf, thereby producing a more complex final product. Our Alishan is sourced from a 6th generation tea farming family that despite the advance of tourism into the area, has been able to resist the lure of modernity and instead take pride in their traditional and sustainable methods. This oolong is packed with floral notes, the nuances of which truly reveal themselves to the more seasoned tea drinker.