Dong Ding Oolong Tea
If there is one tea that sums up what Taiwanese tea is all about, then this one is it. Its history goes back to 1855 when a local officer brought back tea seedlings from a trip to the Wuyi Mountains, Fujian province, China. Since then, his home town of Lugu and the surrounding villages have become a center of tea production in Taiwan, boasting the highest concentration of tea artisans across the whole island. The tea here is grown at an altitude of up to 800m and although just short of being officially considered high-mountain tea, it nevertheless manages to display nearly all of the same delicate floral notes. During processing, it is allowed to oxidise into the mid-range, bringing out fruity and woody notes. It is then finished off with a nice roast, developing sweet and smokey notes. To top it all off, the fertile red soils in the area are full of minerals, which get absorbed into the tea plant and leaf material and are responsible for providing a delightful, lingering finish. The end result is an incredibly well-balanced and full-bodied oolong. This one might just be our personal favourite in the shop! Sometimes also spelled as Tung Ting.
$USD 90/100g
Guan Yin Oolong Tea
A legendary tea. It traces its roots to Anxi County, Fujian province, China and is named after the Goddess of Mercy, which is said to have gifted this tea to a poor farmer for tirelessly maintaining one of her crumbling temples. As a reward, she bestowed the farmer with a vision showing the way to a remote cave, at the end of which he would find a tea sapling. He was then told to grow and nurture this sapling into tea bushes and share their prosperity with all his neighbours as a sign of mercy and compassion. The iron part in the name comes from its bold flavours and robust colour. Modern-day Chinese versions of this tea tend to be processed quite green. However, our Taiwanese version stays true to its traditional form, heavily oxidised and roasted, bringing out warming wood and spice notes. A time-consuming and laborious tea to produce that involves numerous stages of tossing, rolling and roasting, at times taking up to 60 hours. This tea takes well to high temperatures and offers an impressive number of infusions. Its strong character makes it a great one to try for coffee lovers as well. Otherwise known as Ti Kuan Yin, Iron Buddha or TGY.
$USD 95 /100g
Eastern Beauty Oolong Tea
The origins of this tea are shrouded in folklore. The prevailing story dates back to the 1930s, when a farmer who had been traveling returned to his tea garden only to find that it had been attacked by insects. Not wanting to waste his crop, he harvested it anyway and to his surprise the processed leaves produced an exceptional aroma. His nearby tea merchant was equally impressed and offered him double the usual price. When the farmer came back to his village to share his feat, nobody would believe him and thought he was bragging. As such, in the local Hakka dialect, this tea is called Peng Feng or Pong Fong, which translates to Huff and Puff, and otherwise known as Braggart’s tea.
Whether true or not, this story is perhaps the first successful case of producing an insect-bitten tea and has since opened up a whole category of teas collectively labelled as Mi Xiang, which means Honey Fragrance. The tiny insect is now known to be the Jacobiasca formosana, aka the green leafhopper or tea jassid. It feeds by sucking phloem juices out of plants, which in turn initiates a self-defence mechanism in the plant by producing phytoalexins, specifically terpenes, and among which hotrienol. Terpenes have a two-fold function, they act as an insect-repellent and attract natural predators to the insects. Hotrienol is also found in grapes, honey and second-flush Darjeeling, for example, and is understood to be responsible for the desirable muscatel aroma. In order to attract the jassids, tea gardens must be entirely pesticide-free and generally at lower elevation where temperatures are warmer. Harvest is usually during the hottest mid-summer months, which is when these insects begin to proliferate. Unlike most other oolongs, only the bud plus 1-2 leaves are picked as they are the most tender and especially targeted by the jassids.
We suggest brewing this tea at lower temperature with longer steeping times as this helps accentuate the musky, fermented, sweet-sour muscatel notes. Progressing through the infusions, this tea gracefully transitions to a more woody character typical of a black tea. Also known as Oriental Beauty, a moniker supposedly given by Queen Elizabeth II after she fell in love with this tea. Other names include Bai Hao, White Tip oolong, Silver Tip oolong, Champagne Formosa, Champagne oolong, Five Colours tea, and Fan Zhuang.