Floating Leaves Tea

Charcoal Roasted Oolong and Aged Oolong

2012-01-20T14:27:00.000-08:00

As many of you have probably heard or read about in the news, that was a big snow storm in the Northwest. It was very fun to see people making snowmen and to see kids sitting on their sleighs with big smiles on their faces. Despite all of this recent beauty and fun, I am ready for the snow to go away. It's COLD!!!

A nice surprise showed up at the shop when I needed some "warmer" teas to drink. Our winter charcoal roasted high mountain oolong and an aged 1979 BeiPu Oolong just arrived.

This charcoal roasted high mountain oolong is very balanced in its flavor and texture. There is a wonderfully warm and pleasant charcoal note that lingers in the mouth and in the cup. I especially like that this tea can stand up to brewing and I can get a lot of good infusions out of it. I brewed this tea in a gaiwan and was able to get 7 solid infusions out of it.

The 1979 BeiPu is herbal, warm, soft and grounded. I have noticed that I prefer this tea in a yixing teapot more than in a gaiwan. If you choose to rinse this tea, I recommend that you do a quick rinse. The rinsing water comes out fairly strong, so you will be giving up good flavor if you rinse too long. The tea yields 4 good infusions. I pushed the tea and brewed two more infusions, with the fifth and sixth taking more time to brew but turning out enjoyable, also.

I will list these two teas on the website soon with more tasting notes (This time "soon" means within two days, I promise).

Happy New Year and Many Thanks to All of Our Tea Friends!

2011-12-30T22:07:00.000-08:00

It has been a great year. It is always fun to hang out and enjoy tea together, and I have also been delighted to meet some new tea drinkers and share their excitement when they discover their right tea! I want to thank many of you who order tea from the Floating Leaves Tea website and for all of the sweet notes you have written me. I hope I will have the chance to meet you soon and drink some tea together. I take a lot of pride in and work hard to select the best tea and the best value to share with tea lovers, so my humble shop and I are very grateful for your continued support. I am glad that you tea lovers are a part of my shop and the tea culture that I try to share and grow here.

I want to mention that Floating Leaves Tea has a new "Thank You For Referral Program." When you refer your family or friends to Floating Leaves Tea, please ask them to mention your name, or better yet, have them include your email or phone number so that I can contact you. You will receive a $10 store credit that is good towards your next purchase. For internet customers, I will contact you first to give you a code that you can enter into your shopping cart on your next purchase. Please have some patience with the system and me as we are still in the testing phase for this new program.

Some goals of mine for this coming year? I hope to spend more time in Taiwan and learn more about tea. I would also like to work with some more tea farmers to produce custom-roasted teas for us. And of course, I want to drink more good tea with everyone!

Some goals that are not tea related? Stay healthy, continue to have fun with my son and my friends, and hopefully get to enjoy a real two-week vacation sometime this year.

Thank you again for your support! May 2012 be filled with happiness, good health, prosperity and good tea for all of you!

New Winter Baozhong - Winter 2011 High Mountain Oolong Update

2011-12-02T20:13:00.000-08:00

Today there were brief moments of sunshine and it was a great moment for Baozhong tea. The new winter Baozhong crop arrived about a week ago and its flavor has already opened up much more compared to a week ago. Baozhong to me is a delightful tea. It has a clean taste and a wonderful lingering aftertaste. With some sunshine on my face, it's just perfect!

I talked to our tea buyer two days ago and he was satisfied with this season's high mountain oolong. He said some farmers chose to oxidize this season's tea a bit more so the tea has a good, solid tea broth. He also mentioned this winter's tea can stand up to brewing much more than this past spring's tea (leaves were very tender due to a colder spring). He is especially excited with the winter DaYuLing and I can't wait to taste the tea with all of you! Our tea buyer was also able to find a good Buddha Hand as well. This Buddha Hand was literally sold out when he found it, but with a little begging, we were able to get some. All of the new high mountain oolongs are scheduled to arrive in about two weeks. Please check out our website for updates: www.floatingleavestea.com

Then how about roasted oolongs? We are hoping to be able to taste some soon and to have them in stock sometime in January. Stay tuned.

The Basic Taiwanese Oolong Making Process Part III

2011-11-10T13:57:00.001-08:00

Part III and the last few steps of the oolong making process are:

-Kill Green: After the tea leaves have been oxidized enough, tea makers have to stop the tea from further oxidizing. They use high heat to stop the components in the leaves from oxidizing. The temperature to do this is around 170 degrees (celcius), but I have also heard that some people use more than 200 degrees. Heat will also get rid of more moisture in the leaves and help with forming the particular fragrance of an oolong. Through this process, tea makers want to get rid of the "greeness" in an oolong and bring out the real "tea fragrance."

-Shaping, Pressing and Rolling: After Killing Green, the tea leaves are put into the pressing machine to break the cells. This process also helps to shape the tea. If it's Baozhong tea, the leaves just need to be dried, then it will become Baozhong Mao Cha. For rolled style oolongs, the tea leaves will be put inside a piece of cloth that is tightened up into a ball and rolled between two plates. For a high mountain oolong, the leaves will be rolled around 8 times to get the shape that a tea maker is looking for.

-Drying: After tea makers get the shape they want for an oolong, they will put the tea leaves into the drying machine. After the drying process has been completed, tea leaves will have a water content around 4 to 5 percent. At this point, tea is called Mao Cha. Nowadays, consumers can go directly to farmers to purchase tea, so a lot of people are buying and drinking Mao Cha.

-Sorting, Roasting, and Matching tea: When Taiwan tea was produced mainly for export, tea farmers would make Mao Cha and tea vendors and merchants would purchase the Mao Cha and sort, roast and match different crops of tea into the final product that they were looking to create. Sorting is done to get rid of excess tea stems, broken leaves and old leaves. The tea is exposed to the air as it is sorted, so some moisture will get back into tea. Tea vendors will roast the tea a bit to get rid of that moisture. A lot of times, tea buyers will ask for certain teas to be roasted, so it will be the vendor's job to roast the tea as requested. For a big wholesaler, they will match different crops of tea to get the signature taste for the company's brand.

The Basic Taiwanese Oolong Making Process Part II

2011-10-28T12:24:00.001-07:00

-Indoor Withering: After the oxidation process has started from outdoor withering, farmers and tea makers will move the tea leaves indoors and spread them on bamboo baskets to "rest." While the leaves are resting, water in the leaves will evaporate through stoma (pores) on the back and the edges of the leaves. Due to the loss of some water, the leaf cells have also lost some pressure. Tea leaves will look like they've started to "lose some life" (imagine what it looks like if you leave some spinach on the counter for a couple of hours). Then tea makers will go through each tray and stir the leaves. Stirring is to help the water content in the tea stems and veins travel throughout the leaves evenly. One can't stir the leaves either too lightly or too strongly. Too lightly and the moisture won't travel through the leaves evenly; too strongly and the veins will break, causing the water content to get stuck. Tea will have a higher chance of tasting bitter or astringent if the water gets stuck.

-Big Stirring and Resting: Though the previous process, the tea leaves are supposed to lose the right amount of moisture. The process of Big Stirring is to help the leaves maintain the remaining water so that all of the "components" in the leaves will function properly and will transform with oxygen. This Big Stirring has to be heavy enough to break lots of veins so that the tea leaves will not continue to lose its water. At this point, tea has a huge floral bouquet and the leaves feel soft and a bit slippery. Traditionally, one should be able to see the red edges on the leaves at this point. After Big Stirring, tea makers lay the leaves back on the trays again and let the tea rest and continue to oxidize. This might take about 4 hours.

The Basic Taiwanese Oolong Making Process

2011-10-15T12:54:00.000-07:00

Here is Part 1 on the basic processing for Taiwanese Oolongs. I hope this can help you to understand how an Oolong is made and bring you to deepen your appreciation for these amazing teas.

-Tea Picking: For Taiwanese Oolongs, the standard picking is two leaves and a bud. For a traditional style Oolong, producers want the leaves to be mature enough. Leaf maturity is judged by the ratio of the two open leaves. According to the Tea Reform Institute, the perfect set for picking is for the first open leaf to be 70% the size of the second open leaf. Traditionally, the best tea picking time is around 10am because the dew has just evaporated from the tea leaves. Nowadays, not many farmers follow this practice anymore. Tea pickers are now paid by the weight of the leaves they pick (and sometimes they are paid on a per-day basis) so they want to start as early as possible. In a lot of farms, you will see someone with a broom hitting the tea bushes gently before the picking starts to get rid of the remaining dew on the leaves.

-Outdoor Withering: After enough fresh picked leaves are collected, farmers will lay the leaves out on big pieces of canvas outdoors. The duration for this process varies depending on the weather, but is usually around 30 minutes. I heard from a farmer that the perfect condition for this process is sunshine filtering through clouds. I always thought a bright and sunny day would be more perfect, but he said bright sun can "burn" the leaves. The purpose of this process is to let some of the water evaporate from the leaves (走水, "water walking") so that some of the bad smell (臭青, "stinking green") will evaporate, too. Due to the loss of some water, the cell membrane weakens and oxidation kicks in. One can smell some sort of light floral fragrance during this process. I asked some farmers how they know when this process is done and they all said it's done when a light floral note shows up, and they also know it by the look of the leaves. The first open leaf loses its shininess on the surface and the leaves feel soft.

In my next post, we'll talk about the next two steps of the process. Look for it soon!

Chinese Tea Vocabulary

2011-10-14T12:42:00.000-07:00

I just added the Chinese vocabulary/characters for "The Basic Process of Taiwanese Tea Making"

Taiwanese Tea Making Vocabulary

Have fun learning!

Tea Story: Alishan Farmer

2011-10-01T14:46:00.000-07:00

The 2005 trip to Taiwan was a great one. We met a lot of tea people and farmers, and Mr. Zhang in Alishan was one of them. So how did I get to meet him? Here's our story!

We were in Taipei looking for a tea roaster. We stumbled into a tea store and found the tea roaster that we wanted. The owners were very generous and invited us to sit down and have tea with them. They asked us where we were from and what we were doing in Taiwan. I told him we were living in Seattle and were in Taiwan to look for teas and to learn about tea. One of them asked us where we were going next. We told him that we were going up to Alishan. When asked if we knew anyone in Alishan, we told him no and that we just wanted to go up there and randomly meet farmers. He took out his address book and started to make phone calls. After 5 minutes, he wrote down two names with phone numbers and told us we could go visit them. Mr. Chen said that one of them would pick us up when we arrived at the station in Alishan and that we could stay in the second farmer's house. We couldn't believe what was happening, so generous and warm of him to help complete strangers and we were very grateful that he arranged this for us. We stayed and had tea for a couple of hours and told them that we would return to visit again.

The first farmer picked us up at a bus station in Alishan, treated us to lunch and gave us tea to drink. He took us to one of his tea fields and was very proud of the location where he could grow his tea. He pointed out the mist that was accumulating up in the mountains. He told us that in a short time, the mist would travel down the slope and carry with it a lot of nourishment that his tea loved! He showed us different tea fields and then we went back to his house. We were greeted by an older farmer with a huge smile. We introduced each other, and this older farmer, Mr. Zhang, told us that we would be staying at his place that night. We thanked and said goodbye to the first farmer and left with Mr. Zhang. At his house, we were greeted by Mr. Zhang's wife, Mrs Lin. She showed us to our room and then she told us she would be cooking dinner for us. She apologized that they were vegetarians and there was no fancy food in the mountains. We thanked her and told her that she was being too polite. Mr. Zhang met us and told us that we should go for a small hike in the neighborhood. He is a great hiker. From time to time, he would stop and say, "Am I walking too fast?" I could hardly keep up with him, but I always said with a red face, "No, keep going!" There were lots of bamboo plants and trees in Alishan. It was a great delight to walk with Mr. Zhang. He knows a lot of the plants and told us a lot about them.

We ate very well that night. There were fresh bamboo shoot growing on Alishan and they were so good that I am sure I could eat bamboo shoots every day. It's one of my favorite vegetables. Along with bamboo shooots, Mrs Lin also prepared pickled wasabi roots (Alishan grows a lot of wasabi), some sort of fern-like vegetable, some vegetable grown in their own garden, tofu, and soy protein. Mrs Lin is a fantastic cook. She apologized again that the food was not good enough. I looked at her and smiled, "Are you joking? This is gourmet in America!"

The next day, Mr. Zhang took us to some of his friends' places to have tea. There were no appointments made. We just showed up (I know this can be annoying, but I do enjoy things like this. So spontaneous). We had a great time in Alishan, drinking lots of tea, talking about tea, doing lots of hiking, and eating lots of fresh vegetables. Before going to bed, we spent a relaxing time drinking tea with Mr. Zhang. He suddenly asked, "How long have you known Mr. Chen in Taipei?" We said, "We just met him three days ago." "What? It sounds like you have known each other for a long time!" he said with a big smile and continued, "This is 'Yuan Fen'(緣份, the closet translation I know of is 'Affinity'). Mr. Chen and you must feel very lucky and happy to know each other, and I am happy that Yuan Fen brought you two to me."

The next morning, before Mr. Zhang took us to the train station, I asked him how much we owed him for the room. There are a lot of hikers that visit on the weekends, so they run a small business renting out their rooms. He smiled and said, "I can't take your money. You are friends of Mr. Chen." I found a chance to go back to the room and left some money under the pillow.

On the train back to the city, I couldn't help thinking about the two days we spent with Mr. Zhang and Mrs Lin. I couldn't believe that we didn't know them at all before we met them, and yet there was so much kindness and generosity. My eyes were filled with tears and I realized how much I have missed Taiwan........

To be continued........

Baozhong Farmer

2011-09-25T12:55:00.000-07:00

Ever since I started to visit Pinglin for Baozhong tea, I've continued to have a special love for that place. I simply love the landscape there. It's so green and full of life, which makes me feel energized when I'm there. Usually when I talk about loving a place, a lot of my good memories include the people there that I know.

I was introduced to Baozhong Farmer Chen and his wife back in 2005. They graciously received and shared tea with us, as well as taking us to visit his tea farm. I still remember that day so well. At the time, I had not been back to Taiwan in a long time, so it was great to be in a place where I felt familiar with the food, customs, weather and the people. It was also a different trip that time. I went back with a new interest: tea.

That day was a usual humid and warm (28C) day for Taiwan. I greedily took in the air and was so excited to be in the hot climate. As we got out of his van, Farmer Chen led us to a winding dirt road that slowly crept up the hill. After 5 minutes of walking, he suddenly stopped and said, " Ah! I love this weather! It makes me sweat!"

After knowing him for over five years now, Farmer Chen strikes me as a very straight forward person. He is confident about what he knows and he won't pretend to know things that he doesn't. Once I asked him about his views on other teas. He told me he didn't know much about them, since he only makes Baozhong tea ( In recent years, he starts to make some Black tea and Oriental Beauty). His father was also a Baozhong farmer, so he learned the skills of tea making through his father and eventually took over the family business.

One time I was asking him about his aged teas and he brought out the aged Buddha Hand that I liked a lot (I am glad that some of you liked that tea a lot, too!) I asked him how old that Buddha Hand was and Farmer Chen told me "about 10 to 20 years." I burst out laughing so hard and said, " Mr. Chen, do you realize what you just said spans 10 years?" He looked at me with a smile and looked at his wife to see if she had an answer. He said, " To be honest, how can I keep track of those things?" We continued to drink tea and later I stood up to look around. I opened the container where they stored the aged Buddha Hand and found a note on the lid stating how old the tea was, with a date of their last roast as well. I said, "Mr. Chen! The tea is 18 years old" and showed him the lid. He smiled and said, "You see, I was right. 10 to 20 years old!"

Farmer Chen and his wife work on the farm together. Mr. Chen processes all of his teas himself and Mrs Chen helps. They own a retail shop on the main street in Pinglin so she spends a lot of time there, too. They have a son and he is in Taipei so that he can have "a better life" than farming. Tea making is very hard work. I asked Chen once if his son is interested in growing tea and he said no. I asked what is going to happen when he no longer can farm. He said he doesn't know. "Can you adopt me?" I asked. He answered with a smile, "Do you know how hard this is, Miss Tai?" "I can try. I am a very tough person." "I don't think you can do it." Mr. Chen replied (In the past, I have asked some farmers to adopt me so that I can learn more about tea, but I've always been rejected. How frustrating!)

We have carried Farmer's Choice Baozhong from Mr. Chen for five years. Each year, we have tried to find a Baozhong that has a heavier body than the competition style Baozhong, which is known for its strong floral notes. After I tried teas with Mr. and Mrs Chen last year and made my purchase decisions, I told Farmer Chen, "Mr. Chen, you are the farmer. You should be the one to choose 'Farmer's Choice Baozhong' for us." He stood up and came back with some tea leaves in his hand. I tasted a sip of that tea and looked at him with my eyes wide open, "Are you serious? This is not even Qingxin Oolong!" (Yes, I sounded snobby. What an impolite way to act towards a respected tea farmer!) He said, "Miss Tai, I am a farmer. I work on the fields all day. I don't have time to drink tea Gongfu style, so something with a big flavor is what I would drink as a farmer."

It is always a delight to spend some time with the Chen family. I am looking forward to many more years of my tea relationship with them.

Northwest Tea Festival

2011-09-21T14:15:00.000-07:00

It's Northwest Tea Festival time again: October 1st and 2nd. There are great talks and demos. Check it out if you have time: www.nwteafestival.com

I will be there on Oct. 2nd to do a class on How to Refresh/Roast A Stale Tea At Home from 12:30 to 1:30. It will be a delight to see some of you there.
Please note that Floating Leaves Tea will be open at 2:30pm that day, Oct. 2nd.

Well, it's getting cooler and cooler. Time for a delicious cup of hot tea!

Taiwanese Tea Information

2011-08-22T22:16:00.000-07:00

I have been working on writing more about Taiwanese teas for my website and would like to share them with you.

The first page that has been completed is about Taiwanese Tea, Growing Regions and Tea Varietals with Chinese pronunciation. You can check it out here:

Tea, Regions and Varietals

We are still working on the page layout and the list of teas will expand over time. I hope you will enjoy learning the Chinese terms for our favorite teas. If you have any feedback or questions, please contact me at tea@floatingleaves.com

I am also working on stories about the tea farmers that I met in Taiwan and some facts about Taiwanese Teas. I will announce them as soon as they have been published on the website. Have fun reading!

Floating Leaves Is Six Years Old

2011-08-06T13:22:00.000-07:00

Floating Leaves Tea is six years old!

It has been a wonderful journey full of so many good memories with new and old tea friends alike. We would like to thank you for supporting our business. ALL of our tea and tea ware will be 15% off from August 8th to 18th. Check it out at www.floatingleavestea.com

And of course, I will love to see you at the shop for tea.

Our new crop of Oriental Beauty just arrived. The leaves are beautiful and it has notes of rose and honey. It should be on the website soon.

Enjoy your summer and drink lots of good tea!

Free Shipping

2011-07-15T14:39:00.000-07:00

There is a "Free Shipping" option now on www.floatingleaves.com! If you order more than $80 of tea/tea ware, you will be upgraded to free shipping.

Thank you all for your generous support. If there is a problem, please contact me at tea@floatingleaves.com.

Floating Leaves Tea Online Customers, Thank You!

2011-07-06T15:36:00.000-07:00

I am blessed to be in the tea business, I simply love what I do. Throughout the years, I have made a lot of tea friends and every time that I hear from one of you that you really love the teas from Floating Leaves Tea, it always makes my day.

I have spent many enjoyable hours drinking tea with a lot of you and I wish I could drink tea with those who are not living in Seattle as well. In the past month, I have received a lot of emails from online customers asking me about the new season's teas, as well as to give me comments on my products. Even though I have never seen some of you, I feel like we know each other through the tea. Thank you all for your encouragement and for your kind words. I am looking forward to serving you more teas and to finding the exact cup that's right for you.

This Spring's Tea Offerings

2011-06-16T12:40:00.000-07:00

Since I have been back, many of you have come into the shop to taste our new tea offerings. Thank you! The news teas have finally been listed on the website.

I want to especially thank online tea customers for your patience and your trust in our teas. I hope that someday we can all sit down and drink some tea together. Thank you all for your support of Floating Leaves Tea!

I am really liking this season's tea a lot. I think they all have wonderful, clear and unique characters! And I hope you are enjoying the tea, too. A note about this season's teas: due to a longer period of cold weather this past season, a lot of the tea is very tender. I suggest that you adjust the quantity of tea or the brewing time that you normally use. I have noticed that the tea's flavor generally "releases" much faster than usual.

Also, one of our tea tour members, Marilyn, writes a blog. She just published some posts with her experiences from our Taiwan 2011 tea tour:

http://www.heartsdelights.blogspot.com/
She has great pictures. Check them out!

Taiwan Tea Trip: Muzha Part III

2011-06-02T16:27:00.000-07:00

The Chinese say that to make a good tea takes Time/Weather 天時, Location/Soil 地利, and Human/Skills 人和. After several years of watching how an Oolong is made, I have to say I have a lot of respect for those dedicated tea farmers.

Traditional Tieguanyin is rich in its body and flavor. This tea takes more oxidation 發酵, stirring 攪拌, and roasting 烘焙 when compared to Baozhong and High Mountain Oolongs. In fact, it takes more work than just about any other oolong tea. On our most recent tea tour, we were lucky to see part of the oxidation and stirring processes.

We went inside a small room where there was a metal tube, a tumbling machine, and a tea rolling machine. We also saw small balls of tea on the floor. Farmer Zhang opened one ball and loosened up the tea leaves a bit on a bamboo tray, then he tossed the leaves in a tube that heated up the leaves (I forgot to ask what the temperature in the tube was). Once in a while, he would reach in and feel the tea. I remembered one time I was on Dong Ding mountain and a tea maker offered to let me reach in the tube and feel the leaves. I turned down that opportunity because I noticed that temperature read 300C and I could hear a hissing sound from the leaves!

After he poured the leaves out of the tube, he rolled them up and would then pick up another ball of tea from the ground and repeat the process. He told us that he had to do this about 50 times!

Tieguanyin is known for its roasting. Farmer Zhang told us that he would do one roasting and let the tea rest for about two weeks before doing further roastings. He said a lot of customers go to him for Tieguanyin that was done a year or two ago. After that amount of time, the tea's fire will mellow, which makes the tea rounder and smoother. He said Baozhong and high mountain oolongs are designed to be drunk when fresh. That kind of tea is bright and the energy focuses on the head and mouth area, while Tieguanyin's focus is on the throat area and its energy travels down through one's whole body.

And here is the delicious cup of tea the farmer is looking for.......

Taiwan Tea Trip- Muzha Part II

2011-06-01T11:46:00.000-07:00

I have always enjoyed visiting Farmer Zhang up at Muzha. I love seeing his smile and his dedication to tea. He told us good tea starts with the right varietal, which is the Tieguanyin varietal Hong Xin Wai Wei Tao 紅心歪尾桃 that his ancestors brought over from China.

He also told us that tea plants need good care and he was very proud to show us a huge photo album of his Lupine flowers. He said they are great for fertilizing his tea plants and because of them, he doesn't need to use artificial fertilizers.

We were very lucky that one of the tour members, Jim Miller, knows a lot about plants. Jim explained how Lupine works: " Lupines, which are in the same family as the pea/legume(Fabaceae) are "Nitrogen-fixing." By that, I mean, they draw nitrogen from the air and store it in nodules on their roots. Therefore, they make great "green-manure." They are called " cover crops" and are grown to turn into the soil in which they grew. This can be done in two ways:
1. About a month before planting, a desired crop, the cover crop, may be dug and turned over to decompose in the soil. This adds the Nitrogen in the roots and the plants fibrous material to the soil. This improves the soil and feeds the plants.
2. Or, they can be cut at ground level, which leaves the roots with the nitrogen to feed the plants around them and the cut plants serve s a "mulch" which holds in water and prohibits weeds from germinating. The fibrous material which is added to the soil increase the organic level of the soil. As these substances decompose, they improve air and water-holding capacity to the soil. So by growing cover crops (Lupines), protects the soil from erosion during the winter, adds nutrients in the form of nitrogen, which all leafy plants need for foliage; tea leaves, and improves soil with organic material."

2011 Spring Tea

2011-05-23T06:03:00.000-07:00

It has been a great trip and it was great to see our tea farmers and wonderful tea-industry people again.

Due to a colder and longer winter, the tea is being harvested later in the season and production is low, too. It seems like everyone has been waiting impatiently and excitedly for the Spring tea to be finished and ready. I was deeply grateful that my tea friend saved me some good high mountain oolongs for me to taste; I went back home to southern Taiwan for a while and the Spring teas were selling quickly. Yes, tea sells really fast in Taiwan, especially at the beginning of a new season! I am pretty excited about the Lishan and DaYuLing, and can't wait to share it with you.

As for Baozhong, the Competition tea is not ready yet, so a tea friend that is a Baozhong expert will choose the tea and send it to me when it's ready. I personally chose Farmer's Choice Baozhong and will bring some back with me. I think this season's Baozhong tastes better than the previous season's.

I was very happy to meet up with Mr. Zhan, who is quite an expert at roasting Dong Ding with charcoal. He is such a gentle person and it feels really peaceful to drink tea with him. He doesn't have much charcoal roasted tea left. He told me that his health hasn't been too good these years so he can't roast too much tea. Before I left, I took hold of his hands and asked him to take care. I told him that we will continue to love his tea for many years to come.

A lot of new gaiwans have been sent out, so we should have them in stock sometime in June. I also found some yixing pots that should work especially well with Taiwanese Oolongs.

I am leaving for Seattle tomorrow. Floating Leaves Tea shop will be open again starting on Wednesday. See you soon, with some tasty new teas to try!

2011 Spring Baozhong

2011-05-19T04:58:00.000-07:00

Today I went up to Pinglin to taste some Baozhong. Due to the colder weather, the Baozhong is being harvested later than usual, so all of the competition tea is still at the competition hall. Today is only the second day of the tea competition.

We focused on tasting Farmer's Choice Baozhong today. Farmer Chen likes to work with a lot of tea varietals, so he brewed us not just Baozhong from Chin Hsin Oolong, but he also let us try Baozhong tea that is made from the "Slow Growth" varietal and also one made from the Shui Xian varietal. It was so interesting to try different types of Baozhong. We all agreed that the Shui Xian Baozhong tasted very different from the others, but it will taste even better if it's roasted a bit. The Slow Growth varietal of Baozhong tasted interesting and it's noticeably sweeter than the rest. Farmer Chen told me it will really open up after a couple of months.

My tea friends and I agreed on the one we liked the most and I am very excited to share that tea with you soon.

As for high mountain teas, I have tasted a some from Alishan and Lishan. So far, my impression is that the quality is good and the tea has a very soft tea broth. Tomorrow, my day will be spent focused on tasting high mountain teas. After my initial impressions from tasting a few of them already, I think this season's high mountain oolongs are good and I am excited to bring some delicious teas back to Seattle!

Taiwan Tea Trip - Muzha

2011-05-18T03:52:00.000-07:00

We took the special cable car up to Muzha and the view was quite fantastic. It was very hot that day! The Tie Guan Yin farmer's wife was so thoughtful to prepare some cold brew tea for us so that we would have something refreshing to drink when we arrived. After the delicious cold tea, we proceeded to taste several different kinds of hot Muzha Tie Guan Yin. Farmer Zhang poured tea for us all afternoon and he was very proud to show us some Lupine flower photos. He told us that he used them as a fertilizer for his TGY tea plants.

After an afternoon of tea drinking and tea learning, Mrs. Zhang cooked a wonderful lunch for us made up of locally grown foods. I have to say she is a very good cook!

Tomorrow I will share more from our Muzha experience.

Shrimp cooked with tea

Tea fried rice

Farmer Zhang brews tea for us

Cold brewed tea

View of Taipei from the Maokong cable car

Cable cars to Maokong / Muzha

Thank You to My Dear Tea Tour Travelers

2011-05-15T11:47:00.000-07:00

We had another great trip to Taiwan this year with many wonderful memories. I want to sincerely thank the fantastic tour group members with whom I was able to share many delicious meals and experiences with. I am so happy to have been able to teach you more about my beautiful homeland, our excellent teas and of course, the good cultural, shopping and eating experiences that we have. Thank you for making this such a fun and worthwhile trip for everyone.

Also, a big thank you to my co-guide Maggie. She is a fellow foodie from Taiwan and a trained chef as a well, so she added a lot of useful knowledge to the group.

I have many more pictures and stories to share in the coming weeks, after I finish this season's tea buying. I'll be back to the shop in a little more than a week and would love to see you all again then.

Taiwan Tea Trip - Alishan, Hiking

2011-05-11T07:07:00.000-07:00

I have always enjoyed hiking on Alishan. There are beautiful tea fields, bamboo forests and many varieties of rare trees. We hiked from 1600 meters to around 2000 meters. The view was fantastic and we could see the far-off mountains from where we were at.

Hiking through the bamboo forests

The forest of trees that we passed

The view from the top

Beautiful high mountain tea plants

Enjoying a break after our hike

Taiwan Tea Trip - Alishan, Tea Process

2011-05-10T17:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the late update, Blogger has been down for a few days, so we had to wait for the issues to be fixed before we could post again.

It has been colder than usual for this spring's Taiwanese Oolong. When we arrived on Alishan, the farmers were just starting to pick tea. We were lucky to get to participate in a lot of the tea making process.

Tea rolling to shape the oolong balls

"Stir Green" is a process to help water evaporate evenly from the leaves; its needed for the oxidation of the tea leaves and help them "waken" with the right flavor at the right time

A tea maker showed us how to "stir green"

Outdoor withering and oxidizing

Taiwan Tea Tour - Alishan

2011-05-09T06:27:00.000-07:00

Tea pickers picking fresh Alishan

This spring has been colder and longer than usual, so the tea is being picked later in the season. When we went up to Alishan, we were very lucky with the weather and were able to pick tea as soon as we arrived. We had a great time picking tea with the tea pickers and had a simple lesson from one of them, who showed us what to pick and where to pick. It was fun for the tour members to be on Alishan, learning from the tea pickers and tea makers about famous high mountain tea. Some of tea leaves turned into a dish that we ate. Those deep fried tea leaves were delicious!

Tomorrow I will have an update with some photos of the tea making process.

We have fun picking tea together

The tea that we picked...lots of hard work

Delicious fried tea leaves

Taiwan Tea Tour Day 2

2011-05-04T06:07:00.000-07:00

Before we headed out to Pinglin, Konghai and I had time to wander around a morning market where lots of vegetables, fruits and cooked foods are sold. It was great to be in a market like this. I miss them and all of their unique stuff!

After breakfast, we all went up to Pinglin to visit the Baozhong fields. My friends, Farmer Chen and his wife, were very happy to see us. They immediately asked us to sit down and we enjoyed having lots of Baozhong tea with them.

After lunch, we went to the Chen's tea farm and we had a great time picking tea. After collecting enough tea leaves, we went to their house where they processed the leaves for us. Mr. Chen showed us how to do outdoor oxidizing and explained the basic process of how he makes Baozhong tea. We were all very grateful that he and his wife took the time to show us his farm, share with us lots of information and of course, provide us with many of their delicious Baozhongs to drink.

Taiwan Tea Tour - Day 1

2011-05-04T05:38:00.000-07:00

We've arrived in Taiwan. The weather is holding up and we are excited to begin the tea tour!

We started our first day at the famous Wistaria Tea House in Taipei. It was great to be there, relaxing and enjoying some very good teas. We received an excellent tea lecture from Zhou Yu and a delicious meal as well. Here are some photos to share. I will write more about the experience after I get over my jet-lag. Enjoy!

The start of a tea ceremony with an old tree puer

Drinking a smooth & delicious aged Dong Ding

After lunch, a fresh Dragonwell green tea in a Song Dynasty cup

Lunch at Wistaria Teahouse

A beautiful flower arrangement

Spring Tea Tour

2011-04-25T21:36:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again, Spring tea tour and tea-buying time!

The first 11 days of May will be our annual Taiwan Tea Tour. I am grateful that I will have a full tour again this year and I will do my best to update the trip regularly through this blog.

Both the Floating Leaves Tea Shop and online tea shop will be closed from May 2nd to May 24th. If you need to stock up on your tea, please do it soon. I hope to bring back more tasty teas from this trip.

A New Lishan

2011-04-16T15:04:00.000-07:00

Thank you all for liking the winter high mountain Oolong. We were all lucky to have enjoyed quite a good season for Taiwan Oolongs. All of my high mountain teas sold out quite quickly, but I ordered a new batch of Lishan and it arrived three days ago. When I first tried the tea, I found it to be floral and full bodied. The scent was beautiful and present in all six infusions that I made. Today, I tried the tea again and there is a nice smoothness that has started showing up. I was very excited about it. As I have mentioned before, when a tea is shipped over, it might take some time for it open up and develop, so I am looking forward to seeing even more roundness from this Lishan and possibly some surprising notes. When you have a chance, please come and taste the tea with me. Some people have asked me if this is a spring tea. This Lishan is still a winter Oolong. Yes, farmers have just started to harvest spring teas in Taiwan, but the harvests are mostly for lower elevation teas. Any recent harvesting of higher elevation teas would be for varietals like Jin Xuan. Our high mountain oolongs are made with the Chin Hsin varietal, which grows slower than a lot of other oolong varietals. In a region like Fu Shou Shan or Da Yu Ling, we might need to wait until the middle of May for the harvest and production to be completed.

A Video on Tea Buying

2011-04-01T11:52:00.000-07:00

As you may remember, my friend Jennifer Sauer (Bon Teavant) joined me on my Taiwan tour last May. She was very kind to produce some wonderful tea videos from our journey together. I have to admit that it was nerve-racking to watch myself in the video and to hear a voice that I can't believe came from me. Jennifer made a video about how I go about choosing a tea for purchase; the link is below. I hope that it is both informative and enjoyable for you to watch! Please let me know what you think of it and I hope that I can provide even more useful and interesting content for everyone in the future. Enjoy!

http://bonteavant.com/2011/03/tea-buying-high-mountain-oolong.html

Yixing Teapots

2011-03-24T11:23:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, some online customers asked me to find them some Yixing teapots. I finally found several recently and wanted to figure out what kind of tea suits each Yixing teapot before I posted them on the website for sale. But before I had time to finish my project, many of the pots had already been sold!

I have just posted the remaining pots on the website so that everyone can have a chance to look at them. I will be updating everyone about what I find out about their qualities (slowly) on the website.

*This photo is provided by Douglas King: www.douglaskingphoto.com

Yixing Tea Pots

2011-03-13T16:16:00.000-07:00

Some of you who don't live in Seattle have asked me to find some suitable yixing pots for you and to put some of my teapots on the website. I am finally getting my act together and will be posting some Yixing pots on my site.

I mostly drink Taiwanese Oolongs, a little bit of Chinese Oolongs and Puer in the winter, so the pots I will select and post will be for the teas that I drink.

I got the following pot from a tea friend. She has used this pot for 8 years for lightly oxidized Tieguanyin from China. She said she can't drink that tea anymore and has been drinking shou Puer. She sold me the pot and I have been testing it out on some high mountain oolongs from Taiwan and it works beautifully. It's a small and adorable pot. It holds around 70ml of liquid.

Next, I got this pot (below) around two years ago. I have mostly been brewing shou puer with it. It was owned and used by someone else before I obtained it and I don't know how many years it has been used prior to my possession. It also holds around 70 ml of liquid.

These two pots will be on the website soon and there will be more coming on as well.

Muzha Tieguanyin

2011-02-24T14:57:00.000-08:00

The brief sunny days left us and the threat of snow is here. Well, I should say it's actually already been snowing these past few days. I wear so much clothing now that I look like a teddy bear (10 years in Seattle and I am still not used to the cold weather).

I saw the postman opening his truck and knew there was a box of tea for me. Perfect timing! The second shipment of Muzha Tieguanyin has arrived. I heat up the water and put plenty of Tiequanyin leaves into a Yixing pot. Yum! Hearty, warm, and satisfying. We were able to get a really good price for a tea of this quality, so we can pass on the good price to you as well.

Also, please note that Floating Leaves Tea shop will be closed at 4pm from March 5th to March 8th.

Bright Day and Baozhong

2011-02-19T12:14:00.000-08:00

We have had a lot of rainy and dark days in Seattle this winter (not much for news, I know). This morning, I was awoken by sunshine in my room and I knew it would be toasty warm at the tea shop today, which made me happy. The tea shop faces south. When it's very sunny during the winter, the sun will come into the shop directly. Today is one of those days. It's bright and warm inside. I suddenly thought of the Baozhongs that I haven't had much of in a while. I have been drinking darker Oolongs and high mountain teas for the past few weeks.

I decided to taste Farmer's Choice Baozhong and Hon. Mention Baozhong side by side. The rinsed leaves of Farmer's Choice has a hint of seaweed and those of Hon. Mention carry that typical Baozhong floral note. As I proceeded to drink the teas, I found Hon. Mention Baozhong to be very pleasant, light, and floral. When I sip the Farmer's Choice Baozhong, there is a new flavor that I haven't noticed before, some sort of special and nice prune taste. It reminded me of a specific type of dried plum that I can get in Taiwan. It's extremely dry and hard and tastes salty, sour, and sweet. As kids, we would take one and put it in our mouths and slowly suck the flavor out. On hot summer days, I liked to take a couple of them and soak them in a glass of water until the flavor infused into the water. Then I would add some ice cubes to make a refreshing drink.

While I was thinking all of this, I noticed that I was drinking Farmer's Choice Baozhong really fast. I suddenly realized how much I was enjoying it. I was enjoying the simpleness of the flavor, the cleanness of the liquid, and the well-balanced texture and feel of it in my mouth.

I was sitting in the shop, sipping the tea, looking at the people and cars going by. I thought about how most people must have grabbed at the rare chance to enjoy sunshine today, and I was enjoying the sunshine from inside, thinking of some place very far away. Taiwan, I'll be back soon..............

Dong Ding Dong Pian

2011-01-27T15:12:00.000-08:00

This is the first time that I have carried a Dong Pian Oolong from Taiwan. Dong Pian Oolong is harvested after the main winter Oolong is harvested.

When I first tasted this tea, I had mixed feelings about it. The rinsed leaves smelled vegetal. I am honestly not a fan of vegetal-tasting Oolongs. After I swallowed the first sip, a bouquet showed up in the tea that was so big that it took me by surprise. The vegetal note remained in the second infusion, but some floral notes and a hint of citrus showed up. The aftertaste was very big and obvious. I have to say that this is for sure not a "boring" tea.

I enjoy drinking this tea. It is different, a welcome change, and provides a unique experience. You may initially feel like this is just an OK tea, and then just a few seconds later, the huge bouquet will hit you with a nice surprise.

Practice your Chinese with me at Floating Leaves!

2011-01-16T11:30:00.000-08:00

Chinese Practice Night is back! We will start the Chinese practice class at the shop on February 10th. It will be a weekly practice from 6pm to 7pm every Thursday night. A $5 donation would be greatly appreciated.

Our tea shop is pretty small, so if you are interested in coming, please send me an email, tea@floatingleaves.com, so that I can save you a spot.

I will be focusing on correcting pronunciation, tones, increasing your vocabulary and helping you to communicate with some basic sentences. Therefore, I will only take people who know some basic Chinese language. If you're not sure what your level is, feel free to ask me. We will of course accompany our lessons with some good tea as well.

Looking forward to helping you with your Chinese over some nice pots of tea!

Muzha Tieguanyin

2011-01-10T19:26:00.000-08:00

The brief number of sunny winter days have already left Seattle and we are having its usual gray and cold days. I like to have a pot of robust roasted Oolong to start my day when it's cold.
Lately I have been drinking Muzha Tieguanyin. This tea was made in 2005 and has been roasted from time to time. The first time that I had this tea, I made it in a Gaiwan. The tea is wonderfully roasted and the dried fruit notes are very apparent. In later brews, the tea turns sweet and the signature "metallic" taste from Tieguanyin will show up.

I just tried this Muzha Tieguanyin in a Yixing tea pot and noticed the tea tasted much softer. It lost some of the dried fruit notes, however, a Chinese herbal taste showed up. I found it very interesting. I like having this tea in either of the brewing styles. If you have this tea, please try it out using various brewing methods and see what you notice and like better.

New ShanLinXi and Lishan

2010-12-30T22:19:00.000-08:00

Christmas has been busy. Thank you all for supporting my business, either ordering from the website or coming in for the new teas. I hope you have all had a chance to try out the new winter teas and enjoy them.

It had been so busy for me that I actually haven't had much time to enjoy these new teas myself. Yesterday, I finally had some quiet moments at the shop and the sun was out! I felt so happy to sit at the tea table and enjoy the new teas with the warm sun on my face.

I started with the new winter ShanLinXi. A customer showed up to taste the tea with me. We had five great infusions of this tea. It has a wonderful citrus note blended with a sweet, floral bouquet. There is a tartness in the tea that is balanced by the citrus note and sweetness. On the fifth infusion, the tea still tasted strong. I couldn't stop smelling the wet leaves while I drank the tea, they smelled so good!

Then we moved on to the Lishan. Many customers and I have been very satisfied with this tea. It's a solid high mountain tea with a smooth and strong body. The aftertaste of this tea lingers for quite a while. We made six good infusions out of this tea and decided to take a break. I sat there and enjoy the wonderful bouquet lingering in my mouth with a very nice Hui Gan (a sweetness that attaches in the throat area after one swallows the tea).

In the afternoon, two tea friends showed up, and I was very excited to tell them that I had a great tea session today with the ShanLinXi (I have had great tea sessions with Lishan). One of them is a big ShanLinXi fan and he told me he noticed when the weather is drier, ShanLinXi tastes better. Well, it was the first day of sunshine after who knows how many days of rain. Or, is it that my feelings of ease and peace helped me to better enjoy the tea?

Anyway, I will share more of my tasting notes for the new winter Oolongs in the next couple of posts. Thank you again for all of your support this year. I look forward to sharing more tasty teas with you in the coming year. Enjoy your teas and have a great 2011!

New Winter Oolong Just Arrived!

2010-12-12T22:50:00.000-08:00

It's always very exciting to see boxes of new tea get delivered to the tea shop! Our Pinglin Baozhongs, Lishan, Alishan, DaYuLing, and ShanLinXi have arrived!

I have had fun tasting teas these past couple of days, but have noticed that some of the teas haven't opened up all the way yet. Throughout the years of importing tea from Taiwan, I have noticed some tea takes a couple of weeks to open up and some tea will go through changes of flavor for about a month before they settle.

These past two days feel like so long for me because I am so impatient with some of the teas! I want them to open up right away! I know some of you have been waiting for the new season's tea to show up and I simply can't wait to share them with you. The good news is that our tea buyer had very good things to say about the high mountain teas, which makes me want to experience these teas at their best even more.

Some customers came by the shop and had the chance to taste some of the new teas with me. They all said that the tea tasted very good. One customer who has been very into high mountain oolongs for years told me that this is possibly the best season over the past several seasons.
I have updated new teas on the website. If you can make it to the shop, please come taste some of the teas with me.

New Winter Oolong Will Arrive Soon!

2010-12-02T12:14:00.000-08:00

I have been praying for a good winter Oolong harvest since October. Due to the changing climate, there were typhoons in Taiwan in October!

In early November, I talked to our tea buyer in Taiwan and he said the tea was not good. It was too watery and did not have enough substance. Every time I heard bad news like this, my heart sank. He said we should wait and see if better teas would show up later in the month.

I guess my patience paid off this time. We talked again last week and he was very excited to tell me that he had found some good High Mountain Oolongs. He took some of the teas he purchased for us and tried them at home. He wrote me an email this morning and stated that the tea tastes very good!

The High Mountain Oolong is on its way to Seattle. This season, we will have Alishan, Lishan, ShanLinXi and DaYuLing to share with you. I know many of you have been waiting a few seasons for us to get a good ShanLinXi and DaYuLing and I think you will be happy with what we have to offer this season. It's estimated to arrive in the middle of December and I can hardly wait to taste the teas with you! I will post more news and tasting notes shortly after the new teas arrive.

New Taiwan Shui Xian

2010-11-21T13:45:00.000-08:00

The new Taiwan Shui Xian is ready; it's finally back at Floating Leaves! Compared to the usual Chinese Shui Xian, it's much less oxidized and is a moderate fired oolong. It's a fun tea to taste and to learn about the differences that a varietal can have depending on where it's grown.

This particular Taiwan Shui Xian offers a satisfying hearty roasting note, and a grain-like taste. Come taste it with me or you can order it online at www.floatingleaves.com.

Our new winter Baozhong is scheduled to arrive in Seattle within two weeks. Our buyer in Taiwan is sourcing other Taiwanese Oolongs for us as well, and we should have those within the next month.

Well, it's Thanksgiving time again. Wherever you are, be safe, eat lots of good food and drink tons of good tea!

I'm Back! Floating Leaves Tea Returns to Its Normal Business Hours

2010-11-13T15:44:00.000-08:00

I am back to the tea shop and I am very happy to see some of you coming to the shop these past few days. I always enjoy drinking tea with you.

Some of the winter Taiwanese Oolongs have been harvested and some are still being made. In the next couple of days, I will be able to give you updates on our upcoming winter Oolong selections.

Stop by if you have chance. Let's have some tea together!

Our hours are:

Wednesday to Sunday: 11am - 6pm

2011 Taiwan Tea Tour

2010-10-29T17:59:00.000-07:00

The itinerary for 2011 Taiwan Tea Tour is up. Please check it out:

2011 Floating Leaves Tea Tour Site

We are going to visit Farmer Chen in Pinglin to learn about Baozhong tea, Farmer Zhang to learn some basic tips for Tieguanyin and oolong tea roasting, and Farmer Zhen for Alishan High Mountain Oolong. Mr. Zhou Yu of the famous Wistaria Teahouse in Taipei will be doing a tea talk for us, too. Be ready for lots of tea activities and lots of delicious food!

There will only be 6 guests for next year's trip; I want to make sure that everyone gets a lot of personal attention. Space is limited, so please let me know if you are interested in coming. If there are any unique activities, especially tea-related ones, that you would like to see added to the tour, please contact me privately and I will see if I can accommodate your wishes. I am looking forward to having you on my trip.

Also, a quick reminder that Floating Leaves Tea will be closed from November 1st to 10th. All of the tea orders that are placed during this time will be sent out on the 11th.

Lishan Tea is here and it's delicious. I hope I will have a chance to taste it with you before I leave. The organic Oolong is finally here,too! It will be on the website shortly.

New Teas! Charcoal Roasted Dong Ding and Lishan

2010-10-15T12:33:00.000-07:00

Just as it starts to get cooler in Seattle, a package of tea has arrived at the perfect moment! I opened the package and couldn't wait to taste the Charcoal Roasted Dong Ding that I ordered.

It was raining outside when I brewed this tea and I was happy to smell the warmth of its charcoal fire. As I was smelling it, a nice fruit note showed up. Ah, a nice typical Dong Ding Tea smell. The tea is full bodied, but soft, too. The charcoal note lingers throughout every infusion, and it feels so warm and satisfying. I will be drinking this tea a lot during the winter!

What if you don't really like roasted Oolongs? Don't worry. There is a delicious Lishan High Mountain Oolong for you. You may also find that you like both teas! The dry leaves of this Lishan smell like a yummy fruit. The first infusion was pleasant, but makes you wait anxiously for the bolder and fuller infusions to come. The tea blooms beautifully in the second infusion, where it is floral, fruity, and buttery! I was so excited with this change that I did the following three infusions way too fast. The notes are strong and the aftertaste is one of the best parts of this tea: it lingers for quite a long time. After I was done with these two teas, I had a very happy tea buzz................... Stop by for some of our new teas; supplies are very limited.

Grilled Shrimp with Wenshan Baozhong

2010-10-07T15:02:00.000-07:00

Here is one more recipe that uses Baozhong Tea. This one is very easy to make (even I can do it!) so please try it. The aroma and bouquet of the Baozhong will show up after you eat the shrimp. It's a great dish to serve as an appetizer. Enjoy!

Grilled Shrimp with Baozhong

-Brew Baozhong tea and let it cool down to room temperature.
-Peel the shrimp (keep the head), butterfly the shrimp and twist it from the back.
-Arrange the shrimp in a shallow dish and pour the tea broth over it. Let it marinate for 2 to 3 hours in the refrigerator.
-Before grilling, pat-dry the shrimp and season it with salt and pepper.
-Grill until it turns pink. Do not overcook.
-Serve and enjoy!

Taiwan Tea Photos

2010-10-04T21:52:00.000-07:00

I had a great time this past weekend at the NW Tea Festival. I was very happy to see some tea friends that I haven't seen for quite a long time, like Jason Chen(C.C. Fine Tea) and Brett Boynton (Black Dragon Tea Bar). I was also very happy to see many of the people that had joined my Taiwan Tea Tour and had showed up for my presentation! The presentation went well. Thank you all for coming.

I also want to thank Jennifer Sauer (Bon Teavant) for turning some of the photos from a part of our Spring tea tour into a short but terrific video slideshow. Here is the link. It is pretty neat and shows some of the fields where our tea comes from, as well as how some different types of Taiwan oolong is processed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMs9YsqKcSk

Enjoy!

*Dong Ding photos, Lishan photos and part of PingLin/Oriental Beauty photos are from Jennifer Sauer. Alishan photos and part of the PingLin photos are from Dance Smith.

Tea Presentation at NW Tea Festival

2010-09-26T12:29:00.000-07:00

This year at the NW Tea Festival, I will be presenting a tea talk about major tea regions in Taiwan with professional photographer Jennifer Sauer. She will show her photos and videos that she took in Taiwan as well. Participants will get to taste the teas that I'll talk about, accompanied by some interesting photos of the land, tea farms and farmers that we met in Taiwan. The presentation is from 2pm to 3pm on Saturday, October 2nd. Hope you will be able to join us!

Later on that day from 4pm to 5pm, I will be doing a tea tasting that is limited to 10 people. I will talk about how an oolong should be aged and give some basic tips for a quality aged oolong. If you are interested in this one, you will need to sign up when you are at the tea festival (first-come, first-serve). Looking forward to seeing some of you there!

Tea and Cooking

2010-09-16T14:01:00.000-07:00

If you have been coming to the shop often enough, you have probably noticed that I love to drink and talk about tea all day long. Then the conversation will switch back and forth between food and tea.

It's been a while since I have had the idea to put two of my favorite things together and to share my experiences. But can I cook? Not really. Two years ago, however, I was lucky to meet Maggie Blake. Maggie was born in Taiwan and trained as a chef in California. We hit it off right away. Over time, we talked about our love of tea and cooking and talked about collaborating on a project related to both of our passions.

It is our new adventure to work together and share my love of tea and her love of cooking.
We will explore Taiwanese Oolongs region by region, and also post our delicious recipes for cooking with tea. Enjoy!

The first Taiwanese tea we will use is a Baozhong tea from Pinglin. In my next post, I will be covering my tea experiences in Pinglin and the basic historical facts for this tea. But first, I wanted to share a recipe with you while I still have it fresh in my memory. Please give us feedback to let us know how this turns out for you when you have the chance to try it out.

Cod with 13 year old aged Baozhong(serving two people):

Sauce:
-1 small onion, sliced
-2 cloves of garlic, chopped
-1 stick of celery, sliced
-1 cup of stock (chicken or vegetable)
-1 Tb of aged Baozhong

Steps:
-Saute onion for 2 to 3 minutes on medium-high heat.

-Add garlic and celery; saute until all the aroma comes out and the onion is translucent.

-Add the stock and tea. Let it boil, then simmer for about 15 minutes.

-Drain the sauce, discard the vegetables and tea, and set the sauce aside.

Fish:
You can use Black Cod, Halibut or Sea Bass (8oz to 10oz fillet). Season the fish with salt and pepper. Sear and cook until the fish is done.

Side Dish:
-One package of Udon noodles
-10 to 15 sweet peas (split them into half lengthwise)
-2 green onions, bias cut
-2 cloves of garlic, minced
-5 shitake mushrooms, sliced
-1 Tb of soy sauce
-1/2 Ts of sesame oil
- Salt and Pepper

Steps:
-Bring a pot of water to a boil.

-In a pan, saute the shitake mushrooms for a couple of seconds.

-Add garlic, then the peas.

-Put the package of udon noodles in the pot of boiling water and cook for a minute. Remove the noodles and put them into the pan.

-Add soy sauce and mix it into the vegetables. Add additional seasonings if desired. Add the green onions and sesame oil. Mix and toss all of the ingredients well.

Before serving the dish, put the sauce back into the small sauce pan and heat it up. Adjust seasoning if desired. Thicken the sauce with butter (cut into small pieces, add them slowly to the sauce and whisk constantly to emulsify the sauce).

To serve:
Place the noodles and fish nicely on the plate, drizzle some sauce on the them and place the sauce on the side. We finished the dinner with a cup of Jin Xuan Oolong and some green salad. It was very satisfying.

Floating Leaves Tea New Business Hours

2010-09-10T13:32:00.000-07:00

Floating Leaves Tea shop will have new business hours starting September 19th because my son is going to be starting school!

You can also purchase our tea online: www.floatingleaves.com. Not all of our products appear on the website, so please feel free to contact me by phone or email with any of your questions.

New Business Hours:

Wednesdays to Sundays: 11am to 6pm
Mondays and Tuesdays: Closed

Thank you for your continued support. The extra time I have off will also allow me to source more unique products, and more tasty Taiwanese oolongs!

Baozhong and High Mountain Tea

2010-09-03T13:30:00.000-07:00

I would like to thank all of you for supporting Floating Leaves Tea. Many of our 2010 Spring Oolongs are already sold out! This is beyond my expectations.

My inventory of Farmer's Choice Baozhong sold out quickly, but luckily, I was able to get a new batch from the same farmer. It tastes fresh and has his characteristic taste and scent. I will be putting this on the website pretty soon.

All of our High Mountain Oolongs are sold out, too. I am contacting some tea friends in Taiwan to see if I can get some more delicious high mountain tea in. When I receive news about getting more of these teas, I will post an update on the blog.

Meanwhile, come in to taste our Dong Dings, Jin Xuan, a new batch of Oriental Beauty, or come and taste what I have been roasting!

I also want to let you know that Floating Leaves Tea will be closed for the Labor Day weekend, September 5th and September 6th. Whatever you will be doing and wherever you may be, please stay safe and remember to find time for a good cup of tea! Happy Labor Day!

Organic Teas in Taiwan

2010-08-19T12:03:00.000-07:00

During my trip to Taiwan this past May, I encountered more organic tea and organic tea farming publications in Taiwan than ever before. I learned that some Buddhist Organizations are pushing for organic farming movements in Taiwan, too. They work with the Taiwan Tea Reform Institute(茶葉改良場) and the Council of Agriculture to encourage more farmers to become certified organic producers.

The publication that I read is from the Taiwan Formosa Organic Association or FOA (臺灣寶島有機農業發展協會). There are some wonderful articles on farmers' dedications to organic farming. They are very touching and inspiring. For example, they featured one Farmer Lee who is already 75 years old. His family grew vegetables. At the age of 60, he was introduced by a friend to volunteer at a local temple. With time, he noticed that many of the monks had some health issues. He went to ask a doctor friend about their condition and the doctor friend told him that too many soybean products and pesticides can cause the symptoms that the monks had. The volunteer who took care of the vegetables at the temple worked very hard to make sure that all of the vegetables are "beautiful and big," so he used lots of pesticides for that. After Farmer Lee discovered that, he realized how important it is to do healthy organic farming and went back to school to learn about organic farming. He came to the US once and discovered that in America, 25% of all pesticides are used in growing just cotton. After he went back to Taiwan, he worked very hard and finally discovered a way to control the insects attacking cotton without dangerous pesticides. His daughter also joined him and worked on their organic cotton farm.

While I was in Taiwan, I received a tea gift from a dear friend of mine. The tea is a transitional organic tea. It is certified and sponsored by an organization called Ci-Xin (慈心). When I first brewed the tea in a gaiwan, I really didn't like it. One day, I tried it out using the "grandpa style" (just toss some tea in a cup or bowl and add hot water). The tea had way more body and flavor!
Three days ago, I received another organic tea sample from a friend. After I tried it, I thought it would be a good product to carry and to share with my customers. I called my friend last night to inquire about the tea and he told me that unfortunately, the tea is sold out! I told him that I really want to support organic tea from Taiwan and it would be great for our American friends to have more access to our organic teas. After 5 minutes of consideration, he told me that he would keep a bit of the sold-out tea for Floating Leaves Tea so that more people could have a chance to try it. I was so grateful! This tea is lightly oxidized and my friend roasted it a bit. The first infusion has a yummy roasted note and then it reminds me of the Mi Xiang Oolong (蜜香烏龍-Honey Fragrant Oolong).
My friend said that organic tea farming is more risky to produce. The product's taste is more difficult to stabilize and the yield is lower than non-organic products. It also takes more work and costs more to produce organic tea than non-organic ones. Because of these factors, a lot of farmers don't want to make organic lightly oxidized Oolong, especially since there is already so much demand for regular, lightly oxidized teas. So far, most farmers are making organic teas using black tea or more highly oxidized Oolong.

Annual Sale at Floating Leaves Tea

2010-08-07T10:30:00.000-07:00

Floating Leaves Tea has been at our current location for two years now. Thank you all for coming into the shop and sharing a cup of tea with me. It's always fun and a pleasure to drink some tea with you. For those who can't come in the shop and have been ordering tea through our website, I want to thank you for finding us and for your continuous support. I hope sometime in the future, we will be able to meet for tea.

We will be celebrating our anniversary with our annual sale. Starting this Sunday, August 8th and ending two weeks later on the 22nd, all of our current season's tea and teaware will be 15% off. Take advantage of this great opportunity to stock up on your favorite teas. Our Farmer's Choice Baozhong, 2nd place Baozhong, Alishan Din Hu, and ShanLinXi are all very low in stock, so get some before they run out.

Jin Xuan - Milk Oolong

2010-07-22T12:30:00.000-07:00

Many people have asked me about Milk Oolong (AKA Jin Xuan oolong). The Jin Xuan varietal of tea plants has been said to carry a natural milk flavor. At least 15 years ago (or longer), I had my first taste of Milk Oolong in Taiwan. I remember it was special and that I liked it.

A tea friend told me that there was one year that Milk Oolong won a very special and highly-regarded prize in a Taiwanese tea competition, after which, more and more people asked for this kind of tea. Some dishonest merchants and farmers saw that they could make a lot of money by blending some milk flavoring with the tea. Newspapers and the TV news reported on the many fake Milk Oolong teas and over time, people forgot about this tea.

Nowadays in Taiwan, I rarely hear people talking about Milk Oolong, and when I do, it is usually not a local resident that is looking for this tea. I have asked many tea farmers and tea people why Jin Xuan can't produce the natural milk flavor anymore. No one seems to know the answer to this question.

In the past two years, some customers have brought over various Milk Oolongs for me to try. It has been very disappointing to find such strong milk additives in those tea samples. I am not trying to prove that all Milk Oolong is bad, since I did have some good experiences with it in the past. Before you purchase one, you might want to ask the tea merchant if it's a blended one, and if she is honest, she will tell also teach you how to tell the difference between a genuine Milk Oolong and a fake one with milk flavoring.

Iced Teas

2010-07-07T13:42:00.000-07:00

Finally, summer has arrived in Seattle! I can't tell you how excited I am! I just learned that the east coast has been baking for many days now. Many Chinese people believe that drinking hot tea can cool a person down. If you disagree, how about having some nice cold teas on a hot summer day?

I am addicted to my Aged Baozhong, especially when it's cold brewed. I put some leaves in a glass jar, put some room temperature water in it and waited until the liquid turned brown. That's when I know it's ready. It's fruity, sweet, and refreshing. Throughout the day, I will keep adding water as I drink the cold-brewed tea and it tastes very good this way.

Lots of green teas are also suitable for cold brew, or you can quickly brew up some hot tea and pour it over a cup of ice cubes. They are all very thirst-quenching and refreshing.

Da Yu Ling

2010-06-26T13:30:00.000-07:00

Many of you have probably already heard the news that the Taiwanese government is planning on shutting down the tea farms in the DaYuLing area, which is famous for its premium quality high mountain oolong. We have heard this rumor for the past three years and I learned that the government is pretty serious about it this year.

When I was in Taiwan this past May, I thought it would be great if I could find a good DaYuLing tea. We didn't carry it last season and had a fairly small amount of it the season before that. It would also have been great because this year might have been the last season for us to enjoy this tea.

On May 22nd, 4 days before I left for Seattle, I went to visit a tea friend and hoped to hear some great news about DaYuLing tea. We sat down and he said, "Not good. The tea is not good. The tea farms in the FuShouShan and DaYuLing area were attacked by 'red spiders'." He showed me a picture he took in FuShouShan. There were around 10 "red spiders" on one tea leaf. I later learned that red spiders are actually not spiders. They are a pest to many plants and fruits. They are like spider mites (kind of like aphids); I don't know exactly what they're called in English but I'm sure you can find more information about them somewhere online.

I asked my friend why it was a bad thing to have "red spiders" on the tea bushes. Afterall, isn't Oriental Beauty also produced with the help of some sort of bugs? He replied, "That's different. The bugs for Oriental Beauty nibble behind the tea leaves and take some of the leaves' moisture out from the vein. The red spiders bite too much and destroy the cells in the leaves, so it will be hard to make good tea."

I feel bad for the farmers and feel bad for not being able to get a good DaYuLing. Hopefully, I will still have a chance next season.

Another Good Surreal Experience

2010-06-10T21:19:00.000-07:00

I went to Dong Ding mountain with my friend Jennifer Sauer, a professional photographer. The farmer was waiting for us as we arrived and showed us where we were going to stay for the night. After we all settled in, he gave us some Dong Ding teas to try. He told me to make the tea. He said I should make the teas the way I am used to so that I could choose the teas to buy based on the usual way that I taste and serve tea. I thought that was fair and proceeded to brew the teas.

After sampling six teas, I had an idea of which two I liked. The farmer's wife came out from the kitchen at that time and told me she saved two special teas (out of the 6) that she thought I might like. I pointed at two cups and she said "exactly." I smiled at her and thanked her. I like the way we communicate. No need to say very much because we have a good mutual understanding.

We had an early dinner and then the farmer took us out to see fireflies. I sometimes feel like the farmer is living in the past. It shows up in such things as his taste in music. Every time he starts his car, music from the 1930's to 70's would start playing. When we got to see the fireflies, it was dark and it was magical to see those floating lights in the trees. Suddenly, I started to crack up a bit as I heard the music from the farmer's car. It was surreal. That was so Taiwan, where anything is possible.

The next day, the farmer took us to see some tea being processed and we visited his friends and relatives for tea. The landscape is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. When I looked at the mountains and tried to see beyond them, there was a beauty that was so touching that I couldn't help but cry. I always look forward to being in Taiwan, but it's hard for me too because I will eventually have to say goodbye to the land and to the nice people I meet.

I thought this season's Dong Ding Traditional tea is not as robust as the one from the previous season, but it has a softer mouth feel. Two days ago, I had a great Dong Ding tea session with a tea friend. It was yummy! Jennifer also shot some videos of the tea making process. It will take a while to edit, but we promise to share them when they're ready.

*All the pictures in this post come from Jennifer Sauer.

Charcoal Roasted Dong Ding

2010-06-03T14:56:00.000-07:00

I walked into an apartment in Taipei and the owner greeted my son, Jennifer (my friend) and I with a smile. He asked us what kind of tea we would like to drink. After some more chit chat, his wife pulled out a bag of tea and brew it for us.

As we were sipping on one of his oolongs, the owner asked us if we would like to see charcoal roasted tea. I have to admit I was surprised to hear that because we were in an apartment! He lead us through a room and opened a door. The air was hot and heavy, making me feel like I was in a sauna room with a charcoal smell! It was a surreal experience. There were two baskets of tea being roasted at that time. The room is so small that it can only hold two baskets. He lifted one of the baskets to let me see the charcoal. There were ashes on top and he used a hand tool to push some ashes aside so that I could see the actual burning charcoal.

We went back out to the living room and drank more tea. I asked him about the process of charcoal roasting tea. He said it took him one and a half days to build the charcoal fire the way he wanted. Each bamboo basket can only hold one and a half jin of tea (900 grams). Sometimes he would roast the tea for two hours and take it off the fire. When he has finished one roasting, he may let the tea rest for 6 months before roasting it again. He said that there isn't really a formula for roasting, it's all based on his experience and feeling.

I purchased some of his charcoal roasted Dong Ding to share with you. Also, all of the new Spring teas should be listed on my website soon. I should be receiving the rest of the Spring oolongs shortly and will schedule tastings for them. Please come by and see me soon!

Muzha tea growing region

2010-05-25T03:08:00.001-07:00

I went up to Muzha with my friend Jennifer. She was assigned to do a report on the tea houses in the Muzha area. This area is best known for Taiwanese-style Tie Guan Yin oolong, although other types of tea are produced here as well.

The weather was nice while we were there (which means no rain and not too hot). It was really nice to walk around. There were a lot of trees, flowers and tea houses. There were sounds of cicadas, birds, frogs and unknown insects. We would also occasionally hear Buddhist chanting coming from a distance. One of Taipei's most famous temples, Zhinan Temple, is located partway up the mountain towards Muzha.

An organic tea farm

There are also hundreds of tea houses in this area. It's close to Taipei city, so the area attract lots of business from local tourists during the evenings and weekends. At one of the tea houses we visited, there were at least 50 tea booths outside for people to enjoy tea!

Part of a tea house in Muzha

We also went by some tea farms and were really happy to see them doing what looks like organic tea farming. There is increasing awareness of organic tea farming in Taiwan. I have some brochures about organic farming supported by the private sector. When I get a chance to read it, I will translate and pass on the information here.

I'm coming back to Seattle soon and the Spring tea will arrive shortly after. It was a good season overall and I'm anxious to share it with everyone. See you soon!

Another organic tea farm in Muzha

View of Taipei

Pinglin

2010-05-20T08:46:00.000-07:00

A view in Pinglin

Today, my friend Jennifer and I went to Pinglin to taste spring Baozhongs. My friend Mr. Tsai was very kind to meet us at the subway station and drive us up to Pinglin.

Mrs. Chen, the Baozhong farmer's wife, was there waiting for us. As soon as she saw us, she started to heat water on the stove. We tried five different Baozhongs first and then we switched to two aged Buddha Hands and three aged Baozhongs. So much good tea to drink! Farmer Chen came back from picking up his competition tea and joined us for tea. Mrs. Chen was busy, but she made the time to cook us a delicious lunch.

The delicious meal by Mrs. Chen

After lunch, we continued to drink more Baozhong tea. I decided on an Honorable Mention Baozhong, Farmer's Choice Baozhong and I will also bring back an aged Baozhong and Buddha's Hand oolong. My friend, Jennifer Sauer, is a professional photographer and she took a video of me choosing the teas with the farmer. We will share the clips when they are ready.

Tasting Baozhong

Unloading Baozhong Tea

After our tea purchasing, we said goodbye to the Chens and Mr. Tsai took us for a brief tour of Pinglin. It was a great day and the view was beautiful. I can't wait to share the tea I chose and more of my stories with you. The teas are quite interesting and I am excited about the quality and taste, and thankful that the weather and growing conditions have been good to Taiwan this season.

Tea leaves waiting for bugs to attack - Oriental Beauty Oolong

Taiwan Tea Tour - last notes on a great trip

2010-05-14T08:56:00.000-07:00

We went to Taipei Tea Association yesterday. The chairman of the association did a talk on the history of Taiwan teas and presented to us a slide show. We had the chance to sample five Taiwanese teas and learn about their characteristics and the regions they came from. People asked questions and I thought it was great to wrap up our tour by learning about the main regions of Taiwanese teas.

I am very grateful to the people who joined the tour and for their openness in giving me a chance to show them what I love about Taiwan; the people, the tea and the food. I was especially grateful to the farmers, tea educators, their families and to my friends who came out to help me on this tour. My words cannot fully express my thanks for their hospitality and generosity.

I am heading over to Dong Ding tomorrow and will start to source some great Spring Oolongs to bring back to Seattle. I've already had the chance to try several high mountain teas, as well as several Baozhongs, and I am excited to say that I think this season has tea with fuller tastes than season's past. I'll keep you all updated over the next few weeks, but since my internet connection will not be constant, please excuse delays in updating.

Pinglin Trip

2010-05-12T08:14:00.000-07:00

Today we went to Pinglin to visit farmer Chen. His wife was waiting for us in their tea shop and told us Mr. Chen was busy and would join us shortly. She heated up some water and offered some fresh Baozhong tea to drink. It was quite delicious and I thought the quality was better than last winter's Baozhong.

Then she took us to see their spring Baozhong competition tea entry. Today was the last day to submit competition tea. There were not many farmers there, but we still got to see how they packed the tea and such.

For lunch, we went to have a wonderful tea meal feast. We all enjoyed the food and stuffed ourselves full on the delicious dishes.

We walked back to farmer Chen's house and he was waiting for us. He greeted everyone with a smile and took us to his tea farm. It was drizzling today so we didn't get to see any tea being picked. Farmer Chen was very kind to explain to us the tea varietals and the process of picking tea.

Then he took us to his house and he explained to us the process of making Baozhong tea. When I get back to Seattle, I will add more details on this part.

We returned to their tea shop and enjoyed many more pots of delicious Baozhong.

Alishan Trip

2010-05-09T06:46:00.000-07:00

We took the high speed train from Taipei to Chiayi. Farmer Zhan and his son in law were already at the station there waiting for us to arrive. It was very nice to see their smiles again!

Alishan high mountain tea was harvested 2 weeks earlier than usual this season, so we didn't get to see the harvesting. However, the farmers were very kind to show us how the harvesting, oxidizing and roasting are done.

We were also fed this delicious vegetarian meals!

Preparing the tea for roasting

Oxidizing the tea

An Alishan tea farm

Rolling the oolong balls

View from the train

Next stop: Pinglin and Baozhong tea. More stories and photos to come.

Taiwan Trip: Wistaria and Zhou Zu

2010-05-04T13:57:00.000-07:00

The Floating Leaves Tea tour group has safely arrived in Taiwan! Today, we went to visit Mr. Zhou Yu and his wife Sophie at the famous Wisteria teahouse. I love having tea at Wisteria, it's a beautiful place. After walking in the heat and the busy energy of Taipei streets, sitting there brought some calm and quietness to us.

Mr. Zhou Yu did a special tea talk for us. When I discussed timing with him, he originally said the talk would be around 30 minutes and then we'd have an open questions session. After he talked for about 10 minutes, I knew he'd have much more to talk about. He really got into it and we had a special opportunity to hear a tea expert give us a thorough education! You know the feeling when you sit down, have tea, and start some conversations. You know when you are going to have a good time and then time no longer controls the agenda; the subject flows freely.

Mr. Zhou Yu touched on the subject of tea and culture, how he does gongfu cha, organic tea and more. I will share with you some of what he said when I have more time. At the end, a participant asked what tea he drinks every day, and he said either an aged Dong Ding or an aged Puer. He said when he drinks a tea, he is not looking for a particular flavor. He is looking for how he feels after he drinks a tea. He said a good aged puer can make him feel calm. Then the participant continued by asking why a good aged puer is so expensive. We really can't afford to drink such a tea on a daily basis. Zhou Yu smiled and took out a canister of a loose puer that he had purchased in Hong Kong in 1994. We all felt very grateful that he shared that with us. The tea was very clean and soft and it made me perspire after three cups. He told us we don't need to buy super expensive aged puer right now. Start to buy some good quality raw puer and age it. Then we will have good and inexpensive aged puer to drink later!

I thanked him and his wife for spending so much time with the group. They said that since we had come all the way from the states, that's what a host should do. That's one of the things I like most about Taiwan, the people's sincerity and generosity....

Tomorrow, we head out to Alishan to visit with some farmers up there and to see how this season's Alishan high mountain oolong has turned out. I'll be out of contact for a few days, but expect more updates and some pictures soon! Don't forget that I'll be out of the teashop for this month, but Floating Leaves is still open on the weekends. We will continue to fill and ship your online and phone orders once a week as well.

Spring Oolong

2010-04-27T22:30:00.000-07:00

I talked to some tea friends in Taiwan this week and I was quite happy to hear that they all think this spring's tea quality will generally be higher than this past winter's. Last season, I was not able to carry several types of high mountain teas, including Shanlinxi or Dayuling, because their quality wasn't what I expected from those teas.

I asked the farmers about the temperature variations that have been happening frequently over the past month and if that would affect the quality of the tea. They said at least there wasn't a drought (like in SW China) and the tea plants are yielding more than last season. They expect a strong harvest.

That's good news. I am optimistic that I will find some great Oolongs during next month's trip!

Floating Leaves Tea - May Schedule

2010-04-16T14:10:00.000-07:00

The Taiwan Tea Tour is coming up very soon and I am really excited about it! We will have a lot of fun together and we will be sure to take a lot of pictures and to share our new tea knowledge with everyone. If you have any special tea questions, please remember to email them to me soon. After the tour, I will be staying in Taiwan to do this Spring season's tea purchases. I will do my best to update you on Taiwanese tea news while I am there.

While I am in Taiwan during the month of May, the Floating Leaves Tea shop will be open on Saturdays and Sundays only, from 11am to 7pm. Your internet tea orders will be shipped once a week. Thank you for your understanding and I look forward to sharing some delicious Spring Oolongs with you after I return.

Cooking with Tea

2010-04-09T14:46:00.001-07:00

Here is one of the cooking with tea recipes that I promised to give you in my last post. If you get a chance to try it, please let me know how it turns out. Enjoy!

Braised Pork Belly infused with Muzha Tieguanyin and Savoy Cabbage

-Cabbage, take out the core and separate the leaves. Blanch them in tea (use the tea after you make 3 cups for the braised liquid with salt). Set aside when it's done

-Pork belly or side pork 1 pound (long and flat)

-6 Tb soy sauce

-2 star anise

-2 Tb rice wine

-2 tspn sugar

-1/3 cup and 2 Tb Muzha Tieguanyin tea leaves

Steps:

1) Cut pork into 3 pieces, placed them on a plate and marinate in soy sauce with broken-up star anise (flavor will easily release after they're broken) for about 30 minutes

2) Pat dry the pork and put the rest of the soy sauce and star anise into a sauce pan. Add rice wine, sugar, and tea (brew the tea with 3 cups of hot water first for 3-5 minutes, need strong tea, but try not to make it bitter)

3) Pan fry the pork in hot oil with medium-heat. Fry until it is crispy and has a nice, brown color. Pat dry and then add to the sauce pan. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 50 minutes uncovered. Turn the meat once a while. The sauce will also reduce when the meat is done. The sauce should have the consistency of syrup. If not just add cornstarch to thicken it.

4) Slice the pork about 1/4 inches thick (try to fan it out). Arrange cabbage leaves on the plate and then place the pork on top of it. Drizzle the yummy sauce on top of the meat and leaves. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Cooking with Tea

2010-04-07T10:30:00.000-07:00

Tea is good to drink and tea can be very good to cook with, too. My friend Maggie and I have been working together on a "tea cooking" project. She is a trained chef and I love to eat, so this is a great partnership!

Last week, we had our second attempt at cooking with tea. She gave me some ideas of what dishes she wanted to make and I gave her some ideas on which teas might go well with the ingredients. She came up with a chicken dish using our High Mountain Buddha Hand, a steamed Halibut with Jasmine Green Tea, stir-fried Shrimp & Vegetables with Dragon Well, and Pork Belly with Muzha Tieguanyin. All of the dishes were delicious and the tea flavor came out very nicely. We had a feast and were very proud of the results. In my next post, I will give you one of the recipes.

Maggie Chiu was born and raised in Taiwan. She received her professional cooking training from a culinary school in California. She used to own a restaurant in Taipei and cooked at the Four Seasons. She now lives in Seattle with her husband.

Blog and LaLaShan

2010-03-26T15:30:00.000-07:00

I am glad that my writing helps you in your tea discovery, and hope that it will continue to do so. A customer wrote me a note this week and I thought it would be nice to share it with all of you:

"Thanks for including the sample of Tiequanyin in my last order. It was delicious, and I was hoping you would add some to your web page. Also, the first time I had the LaLaShan I wasn't overly impressed, but after reading your blog about the tea I tried it in my yixing teapot. I thought it was much, much better brewed in a yixing rather then the gaiwan that I had originally brewed it in. Hadn't really figured there would be that much difference. Thanks for the idea, and thanks for the great tea."

Thank you all for reading my blog! Keep experimenting and please share your results.

Brewing LaLaShan High Mountain Oolong

2010-03-11T10:30:00.000-08:00

After having tested out my Lishan oolong (sorry, sold out!) in a Gaiwan and a Yixing tea pot, I thought it might be interesting to compare another High Mountain tea in various Yixing Pots and a Gaiwan.

I decided to test out the LaLaShan Tea and used three yixing pots that I normally brew Taiwanese High Mountain oolongs with.

After rinsing the tea, I smelled the lids and preferred the smell from the gaiwan lid the most. After the first round of tea, I decided I liked the taste of LaLaShan from the yixing pots better than the gaiwan. I compared four infusions of the tea from these three pots, and I most preferred the tea from the Yixing pot that is closest to the gaiwan (please see the picture above) because it yielded a round and smooth tea liquid. The tea liquid that I liked the least came from the middle Yixing tea pot. For the LaLaShan, the middle pot made the liquid taste bitter. I also liked the LaLaShan from the larger Yixing pot on the left. This pot and its clay made the tea taste bold.

It's quite fun to test out a tea in multiple tea ware and to notice that they will have different results. Try it out yourself and see what you discover.

Taiwan Trip

2010-03-05T10:30:00.000-08:00

I will be in Taiwan for tea this May! One of the exciting things about this trip is that I will be working with a professional photographer/videographer and we will be shooting some informative tea videos. We already have some ideas for possible projects. One of our ideas is to feature an organic tea farmer. Another one is to compare different tea making processes.

I thought that it would be a great idea if you, my customers and blog followers, were interested in participating in our project as well. Start by gathering some of your thoughts together. If you could talk to a tea farmer in Taiwan, what would you ask him and what kinds of things would you like to know? Here's your chance to find the answer to your important questions!

Alishan

2010-02-20T22:16:00.000-08:00

Every day after I arrive and open up the shop, I choose a tea to drink. My preference is mostly based on the weather. Lately, it has been gloriously sunny in Seattle! This beautiful weather has caused me to crave for this season's Alishan High Mountain Oolong.

This Alishan tea gave me a very good surprise two days ago when I drank it. It has developed much rounder flavors and carries a beautiful floral bouquet with a citrus note. The tea blooms especially well after the second infusion.

A customer wrote to me and told me that this Alishan was his favorite high mountain tea from this season. He has tried various Lishan and DaYuLing oolongs from Floating Leaves as well as other places and thought this Alishan carried especially good high mountain characteristics. He also commented on the energy of this tea and asked me if this Alishan was made from old tea bushes.
I told him it shouldn't be, but I heard from the farmer's wife that they rotate the tea bushes so that they don't over-harvest the tea.

Good Alishan is limited in quantity for this season because of the big typhoon that hit Taiwan last year, causing a lot of damage to the area. This season's Alishan is surprisingly good and has gotten even better in the past month.

Happy Chinese New Year 新年快樂!

2010-02-12T15:07:00.000-08:00

The Year of the Tiger is right around the corner! It's going to be a pretty exciting year for many of us.

Thank you for supporting Floating Leaves Tea in this past year. Tomorrow, I will be at the tea shop brewing tea for people. Please stop by and let's start the new year with a good cup of tea!

We are also doing a special 15% discount on our new season's tea to thank you and to celebrate the new year with you. This is a rare opportunity for you to save off of the current season's tea. If you can't make it in, just give me a call or drop me an email to hold the teas for you.

Have a peaceful and prosperous Tiger Year!

Travel Tea Bottle

2010-02-09T13:30:00.000-08:00

In the past five years, I've traveled out of Seattle many times, but my trips have been limited to Taiwan, Vancouver BC, and Portland. Normally, I don't bring tea or tea ware with me because I can always find places to drink tea.

Last month, I went to Vancouver with some friends. I guess I am too addicted to tea, so I brought a glass tea bottle in the car. I also prepared three more bottles for the people who were traveling in the same car. We all had a special stash of Baozhong tea and it worked perfectly! The tea can stand up to long periods of soaking and we had delicious tea on the road.

If you travel a lot or if you want to drink some loose leaf tea in the car, you might want to consider one of those bottles. Glass breaks more easily than the plastic bottles, but they will not release chemicals with hot water like plastic bottles might.

Brewing Tea in a Gaiwan VS Yixing Pot

2010-01-29T22:30:00.000-08:00

A customer came in and asked me if I had any Lishan Tea this season. I told him yes, and he said he would like to try some. I took out a gaiwan and started to make tea. I usually brew my oolongs in a porcelain gaiwan. He asked me why I didn't brew tea in a yixing pot (he saw there were at least five of them on the tea table).

I told him I love yixing pots, but when I let people taste a tea for the first time, I prefer to use a gaiwan. I believe a gaiwan will give a tea a more "orginal" taste than a yixing pot. After he sampled the Lishan, he was quite satisfied with the quality.

After I receive a new season's Oolong, I am normally busy comparing them and then offering tea tastings to customers. After I have finished my initial round of tasting and sampling, I can spend time to try out some teas in various yixing pots.

I was about to test out Lishan tea in a gaiwan and a yixing pot today when my tea friend, Doug, came to help me take some tea photos. I invited him to taste the teas with me.
After I rinsed the tea, we both agreed that the smells from the lids were different. The one from the yixing lid was more creamy, and the one from the gaiwan lid was bolder. We did three rounds of tastings to compare the difference. The Lishan brewed in the yixing pot was full bodied and well balanced, but I thought it lost a lot of high notes. The Lishan brewed in the gaiwan had more flavors and was smoother. I liked the tea that was brewed using both methods, and had a hard time deciding which one I preferred. Doug liked it from both methods, too, and he preferred it from the gaiwan.

Everyone should be free to experiment with their teas and their brewing methods until they find something they like. When you do, please let me know!

2009 Winter Dong Ding

2010-01-15T14:10:00.000-08:00

This season's Dong Ding has arrived for close to one month, and it's very interesting to see how the tea has changed.

When I write tasting notes, I usually taste by using gaiwans to brew the tea (I assume most people drink my Taiwan oolongs this way, too). Today is my second time using the bowl method to compare these three new Dong Dings (from left to right: Dong Ding Special Roast, Dong Ding Traditional, and Dong Ding Green).

The first time I did the bowl method with my tea friends, Jason and Alice. We were all very surprised by the differences when a tea is brewed in a bowl versus a gaiwan. With a gaiwan, the Dong Ding Green is light and floral. If you brew it too long, the astringency can show up. The Dong Ding traditional is not as roasted as the previous season's. The liquid is smooth, fruity and grainy. Sometimes it reminds me of soy milk. The Dong Ding Special Roast is robust, roasted, and fruity. I find that this tea can be finicky to brew, but if done right, you will have an excellent cup of tea.

With the bowl method, the most surprising result is from the Dong Ding traditional. It didn't taste as roasted as we expected. After two rounds of hot water, I found the Dong Ding Green to be the lightest one. Dong Ding Traditional is the smoothest one, and Dong Ding Special Roast carries the fullest body.

After at least 20 minutes of soaking the tea today, I tasted the three Dong Dings again. I feel the true characters of these teas are showing up and they might stay like this for the next several months and more (I often notice when a new tea arrives, it takes about two weeks to settle down). Dong Ding Green is very pleasant now. It's bright and floral, and even after 20 minutes of soaking, it's not as bitter as when I first tasted it. Dong Ding Traditional is still fruity and grainy. I think it's the most balanced tea out of these three. Dong Ding Special Roast is bold with a ripe fruit and honey taste to it. I think that this tea might be especially good with age.

Try tasting your teas with different brewing styles and see what you notice!

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T23:10:00.000-08:00

2009 has been a challenging and yet rewarding year for me. With the bad economy, the business was discouraging at times. However, we made it through another year and have come out fine, with good tea that was shared with everyone this year. Thank you all for your support!

I have been blessed with generous people; people who have and continue to give me advice and help on my website, useful feedback on my business, and who have donated time to help Floating Leaves Tea . I am also blessed with generous tea drinkers who have discovered interesting teas from other tea merchants and have shared what they have discovered with me.

Thank you to all whom have come in to Floating Leaves Tea to support my business. I love to have the special kind of connection with all of you, sitting down to drink and chat about tea. My dedication to sell honestly good tea is because of my love for tea and tea culture, and I wouldn't continue to love what I do so much if it wasn't for the wonderful tea friends I get to spend time with. For those who are not living in Seattle, thank you for ordering tea from the website. A lot of you have written me emails with questions and have sometimes called me, too. Even though I have never seen you, I feel like I know you somehow, through the tea.

Looking forward, one of my goals in 2010 is to continue to find good Oolongs. I know I have done well when you take a sip of tea and have a satisfying smile on your face. I know I have done well when you write and thank me for finding your favorite tea. Another goal is to do video projects on various Oolong processes with detailed explanations.

During this holiday season, wherever you are, please remember to sit down and have a delicious cup of tea.

Winter High Mountain Oolong

2009-12-26T13:30:00.000-08:00

I've completed my tasting of the 4 High Mountain Oolongs that we will be carrying this season: Lishan, Alishan, Buddha's Hand, and LaLaShan. They all have a strong enough body and they are unique and very different from each other.

The Lishan Tea has a very nice fruit note with a buttery mouth feel. It has a very light roast to bring out the flavor.

The traditional Alishan Tea is floral, gentle, and complex. It is made by a premium Alishan tea maker and we are happy to have his tea again this season.

The Buddha's Hand is bold and green. It has not been roasted and was produced within the last 3 weeks, but the base is strong and the flavors will mellow.

The Lalashan is roasted, fruity, and has a clear and strong hui gan. It is a bold tea that yields a lot of flavor and many infusions.

We only have a small amount of each tea for now (the Buddha's Hand is temporarily unavailable) and more of them will be in Seattle after the New Year. If you want to figure out which one you might like the most, please check out the High Mountain Tea Sampler on our website: www.floatingleaves.com

I will be posting this season's Dong Ding tasting notes soon.

Happy Holidays to you all. Stay well and drink lots of good tea!

New Winter Baozhong Has Arrived!

2009-12-16T14:10:00.000-08:00

Before I had the chance to try any of the new winter Oolongs from Taiwan, I had heard a lot of rumors that this season's teas would not be good.

When the boxes of new Baozhong arrived at the shop three days ago, I have to say that I was a bit nervous.

I did two tastings with the bowl method comparing this season's teas to the spring Baozhong. I like this season's Baozhong better. I found them to have a thicker body. Next, I tried this season's Farmer's Choice, Honorable Mention and 2nd Place Baozhong in a gaiwan. Farmer's Choice is bold and upfront with both floral and some kind of fruit notes. Honorable Mention is soft and smooth. 2nd Place Bazhong has that typical "competition" floral note. All are enjoyable and different from each other.

I will try to give another update on these three Baozhongs after the first official tasting this weekend. I have noticed many times that some of each season's new teas will change a bit after they have arrived and have sat around for about one month.

2009 Winter Baozhong

2009-11-27T13:18:00.000-08:00

Our 2009 Winter Baozhong was shipped out from Taiwan yesterday! I am expecting it to arrive in Seattle in about two weeks; mid-December. Please watch out for our tea tasting schedule in our next newsletter and blog posts.

I heard that tea production is very low this year. In Pinglin during a regular season, there are around 1500 batches of tea that enter the Baozhong competition. This season, there were only about 950 batches of tea entering the competition. My tea friend told me that just a couple of days after the competition, most of the competition tea was already bought!

Xia Guan Puer

2009-11-16T14:10:00.000-08:00

As the weather is getting colder and colder for me, I have been craving a nice, thick cup of Puer. I generally don't drink cooked puer unless it tastes "clean" to me.

I recently found a source for a Xia Guan puer brick that is from the 90s. The tea is thick and smooth. Look at the satisfying color of the liquid. Doesn't it make you want to drink it when it's cold out, too?

Latest News For Winter Tea

2009-11-10T14:10:00.000-08:00

I have talked to a couple of tea friends in Taiwan and they all said that the tea that has been made so far is average, which is better than the below-average quality tea that some people thought would be produced this winter. There was a drought first, then a typhoon (too much rain), then not enough rain after that, which affected the early harvest.

However, there is a good amount of late season rainfall now, the tea leaves have matured and the harvest will be fully on its way soon. The farmers are waiting for the temperature to drop now to begin plucking.

There is still a good chance for us to get good tea this season!

Is Taiwanese Oolong Usually Blended

2009-10-29T13:30:00.000-07:00

Two customers came in to share with me a Dong Ding oolong they had purchased elsewhere. They told me it was $18 per ounce; I was very excited to try it. I normally don't care how expensive a tea is, but the pricing and the quality should match.

After two infusions, I asked them what they thought. They said it tasted good enough, but they were more eager to know what I thought of the tea. I told them I didn't think it was a bad tea, but I wouldn't pay $18 for it. Later, I laid out the open leaves for them to see and asked them to look closely. There were two different styles of leaves in it. One was roasted and one was not. They told me that they've never "studied" tea leaves after they were done drinking tea before and thought it to be quite interesting. They asked if it's a good thing to mix tea like that and if Taiwanese Oolong teas are usually blended.

I told them sometimes Taiwanese teas are blended, but it doesn't mean that it's a bad thing. I have a tea friend who owns a tea business outside of Taipei. He once told me that his clients would order more than 100 pounds of Oriental Beauty. There is no way that he could get a single crop from one source of Oriental Beauty in that quantity. He searched for teas that had similar quality and taste and he would mix them together and finish the tea off with a touch-up roasting. I have tried those teas before and they tasted good. One wouldn't even notice that the tea was mixed.

In 2005, my friend took me to see the Pinglin Baozhong competition. One of the assistants saw us and went to prepare a gaiwan. He put three different Baozhongs in the gaiwan. I asked my friend what the assistant was doing, and he told me he was going to make us some tea. I wondered why he mixed three different Baozhongs. I drank a cup of that blend and it was one of the best Baozhongs I have ever tasted.

I think it's alright for Taiwanese teas to be blended. If they are, the teas are generally from similar processing methods. I rarely see a tea that is blended from different processes, unless it is low grade or low quality.

Dong Ding and Hong Shui Oolong

2009-10-12T15:19:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite teas of the spring season sold out a couple of months ago. It was a Dong Ding Oolong. I simply loved the way it felt in the mouth. I thought I would wait for the winter season to arrive, but some customers fell in love with that tea and simply couldn't wait.

I called the Dong Ding farmer and asked him if he had any tea for sale. He told me yes, and I talked to him about what I liked and how I liked the previous batch of tea I purchased from him, and how the other types didn't work for me. Then he suddenly said," Oh, what you like is Hong Shui Oolong."

I asked him if Hong Shui Oolong was the traditional way of making Dong Ding. I also asked if I should be seeing the clear red edges when the leaves opened up and how come I didn't see that from the previous batches of his tea. "Miss Tai, don't listen to too much of what people have said about tea," he said. I told him I needed to know because that's part of my job. I needed to tell people the right information.

He went on with saying that the tea has the "appropriate" oxidation level and I will like it. I knew I was not going to be getting much more from him on this particular subject, so I asked him what he thought of the weather for the upcoming winter tea. He said," Why do you care about the weather? You don't grow tea. You only need to choose tea. So weather is not your issue." I bursted out laughing and thought that was totally him.

I called a tea friend in Taiwan that had tried that Dong Ding tea. I asked him about his opinions on Hong Shui Oolong. He told me he liked the tea and it was a Hong Shui Oolong. When asked why, he didn't really know how to explain it. I was getting frustrated and turned on the computer to see what I could find. I read a couple of articles from the myteastories blog and Houde blog and found both of them interesting. I got on the phone again after reading, and talked to one more tea friend in Taiwan. He said, "紅水烏龍是台灣烏龍的一種做法，茶葉發酵度高，茶湯呈橘紅色，沒有花香而是帶熟果香，茶湯入口柔順而且很有喉韻".

I swear I could taste the tea when he was telling me how it supposed to taste like. If you can't read Chinese, here is the translation: " Hong Shui Oolong is a traditional way to make Oolong tea in Taiwan. The tea has a higher level of oxidation. The tea liquid is orange/reddish color. This kind of tea no longer carries a floral bouquet, instead, it has a sort of ripe fruit taste. The feel of tea water is very smooth and it has a good 喉韻(Hou Yun - throat smoothness).

Then he went on," 在以前，紅水烏龍指的是毛茶，現代的定義有一點混淆，有些人把烏龍茶焙一焙，茶湯呈紅色，就叫做紅水烏龍." Translation: "In the old time, Hong Shui Oolong refers to Mao Cha. Nowadays, the definition is a bit muddled. Some people roast their tea to show a reddish tea liquid and they will call that kind of tea Hong Shui Oolong, too."

I told him the original style sounded very delicious and asked why we aren't seeing more of that type. He told me that it took more time and skill to make. Not many farmers have those kinds of skill anymore. I could see that he was very busy. I thanked him and told him I would call back again.

Some of you will have more insight and notes on my new Hong Shui Oolong and I would love to hear from you. I have a new Hong Shui style Dong Ding and I also have a modern style lightly oxidized Dong Ding, too. I would like to give out samples of both types to you if you agree to please write me back with what you think of them after you compare them.

Please write to me at tea@floatingleaves.com to request the Dong Ding samples; include your name and address. Only the first 30 requests will get the tea. If you live in Seattle, please just show up and try these teas with me.

Frequent Asked Questions: What's My Favorite Tea

2009-09-26T14:19:00.000-07:00

I am constantly asked what my favorite tea is. For a tea family, I always say "Taiwanese Oolong" (am I biased?). For a specific tea, my answer changes every season. So this question leads to "What makes me like a tea?"

If you come to the shop enough, you have probably already noticed by now that I talk about mouth feel a lot. Yes, that's the first thing I judge a tea by. Any good tea to me has to have a good mouth feel. Mouth feel for me is how the tea liquid feels in my mouth. It doesn't have to be heavy, but it has to be round and balanced. After one swallows the tea, the sensation should still be there.

So the answer to my favorite tea for this season:
Traditional Dong Ding A for its excellent mouth feel (Sorry, this tea never made it onto my website. Limited quantity. Sold out in a week)
Traditional Dong Ding for its good mouth feel
DaYuLing for its wonderful complexity

Hope this answers your question.

Taiwan Tea and High Mountain Oolong

2009-09-25T22:00:00.000-07:00

After the typhoon in Taiwan, there has been some news about closing some high mountain tea farms so they won't cause more damages in the mountains. I heard about this many years ago. I recently called some tea friends to see if they are doing alright and to ask about the news. They also said they have heard about these closures many years ago.

There were some tea farms "behind the Alishan region, and one in the YuShan region" that have been shut down. It was very dangerous to go up there. They said the government has isn't likely to shut down an existing tea farm. However, it will be difficult to develop new tea regions.

My tea contacts heard some rumors that are quite disturbing. They heard that some wealthy businessmen from China were talking about buying up the whole Lishan region! I have also heard about Starbucks wanting to buy a lot of tea from Taiwan. For the selfish part of me, I hope none of the deals will go through.

The beauty of some Taiwanese tea is that many of tea farms are owned by individual farmers and Taiwanese Oolongs are quite labor intensive. Having been in the tea business for several years, one of my great joys is to go the tea growing areas and talk to farmers, to see their hard work, to see their proud faces, and to exchange that smile when we all agree on a good tea.

Taiwanese tea compared to the rest of the world's tea is not cheap. So once again let's pray that those big business deals will not go through. Let some of the tea art remain alive!

A Tea Class at NW Tea Festival

2009-09-19T19:30:00.000-07:00

As many of you already know, Seattle has its own tea festival. This year, it will be happening on October 3rd and 4th. Please check their website for information: www.nwteafestival.com

I will be at the festival on October 3rd to teach a class on evaluating a Oolong tea's quality. It's scheduled at 2:30pm. After the class, I will be there brewing tea and talking about tea. If you have time, stop by and say hi.

See you all there!

Frequest Asked Questions: Tea Quantity and Brewing Time

2009-08-28T14:10:00.000-07:00

In my last post, I talked about the acceptable water temperature to brew Taiwanese Oolong. This Saturday, two new customers came in and asked to buy a tea thermometer. I told them that they don't need one and then invited them to have some tea with me.

They didn't know what to think of my answer, but if you experiment with good oolong, you will see that it can withstand hot water. I hope you all had a chance to brew your Taiwanese Oolong with boiling water and compared it to the way you normally brewed.

I'm also asked a lot about how long I brew my oolongs for. I would say around 30 seconds; more time is added for subsequent infusions. Every season when I receive new oolongs, I will try them out and then adjust the timing. Once again, weather is different every season, which makes tea different every season. I suggest you brew your tea the way you normally like to do it and then adjust the brewing time.

The amount of dry leaves that I use: I don't measure my tea. I will use a scale to weigh the tea when I am tasting oolongs in the tea competition style or the bowl method. But for those people who are just getting into gongfu style tea, here are the amounts of tea I usually use (I measured them today to make sure): rolled taiwanese oolongs- 8 grams; Baozhong- 6 grams; Oriental Beauty- 5 grams.

I hope so far you are getting a clear message from me. Be adventurous with your tea and don't be afraid of experimenting or making mistakes. For beginners, I hope I have offered you enough information to start. When you read things about "there is only one correct way to make Oolong tea", please ignore them. It's narrow-minded to say that. While we want to learn this and that about tea, please keep the Dong Ding farmer's question in mind: "When you drink a tea, can you tell if it's good?"

New Oriental Beauty has Arrived!

2009-08-16T12:10:00.000-07:00

The 2009 new Oriental Beauty just arrived a couple of days ago, and it arrived at the perfect time. Just this past week, we went back to the usual Seattle weather: cool. I have been craving a darker Oolong recently, and then the new Oriental Beauty arrived! It really hit the spot.

This new one is darker and deeper in flavor and it offers more infusions than the previous season's. Come try it out!

One Year Old

2009-08-13T16:49:00.000-07:00

Floating Leaves Tea has been at its new location for one year! It has been a great move and I love to be able to drink tea and to meet with all of you. Thank you for your continuous support!

All the merchandise will be 15% off in the next two weeks, until the end of August. Also, we have tea samplers out so it will be a great way to try more teas at an affordable price. Please tell your friends.

As always, I am looking forward to having tea with you!

Frequent Asked Questions: Water Temperature

2009-08-03T22:08:00.000-07:00

A lot of people have asked me some very good questions about tea. Many of their questions have been similar, so I thought it would be good to post my answers on the blog, since you might be curious about these questions as well.

One of the most asked questions is about water temperature. "What temperature should I use to brew my tea?"

My answer is to try out different ones and figure out what you think will make the most delicious tea. However, ANY GOOD OOLONG TEA CAN HANDLE BOILING WATER. I am not suggesting that you always have to brew tea with boiling water, or that you have to use a boiling temperature at all. I notice I often use non-boiling water to make my Taiwanese Oolongs because boiling water burns my tongue.

I heard that there is some debate over water temperature for Taiwanese Oolongs. Some people strongly believe that Taiwanese Green Oolong can't take boiling water. That's not what I see in Taiwan. Most Taiwanese people I've met use boiling water. Some people use a very specific temperature for Oolongs and insist that theirs is the only correct temperature. I respect their decisions for their own tea, but they shouldn't say other people are wrong. Each person should brew the way that makes the tea taste best for themselves.

I often hear this statement when I visit farmers and tea people in Taiwan, " Tea is alive. We have to be flexible with it". Weather changes all the time, so how can we use the same method to make our teas?

Try out different temperatures! You will be surprised to see what the same tea can offer you.

Feel free to comment on this. And if you have more questions about Taiwanese Oolongs, send them to me.

Delicious Summer Iced Tea

2009-07-22T13:22:00.000-07:00

Many people have stopped by and told me that they are not drinking as much tea during the summertime. What? How can one stop drinking tea?

A good iced tea is one of the best things to help quench the thirst and it's so refreshing!

For the July 4th BBQ party(it was hot in Seattle that day), I made two iced teas and nobody asked for soda or other drinks like that. Really delicious! Here are the recipes:

Jasmine Tea Lemonade: For one glass of lemonade, use one full tablespoon of honey (mix it well with hot water first) and about an ounce of lemon juice. Mix them well with pre-brewed Jasmine Green Tea and pour the mixture over ice. It's a great drink!

Cranberry and Oriental Beauty (AKA Cranberry Beauty): Use a handful of Oriental Beauty Oolong for about one gallon of water. Cold brew the tea overnight. It's very yummy just the way it is. But if you want to add some flavor to it, mix the tea with some cranberry juice (you might want to add sugar to this because cranberry juice can be very tart).

Both of the iced teas are delicious and one can taste all the ingredients, especially the tea! We carry a special higher-roast Oriental Beauty that was made especially for iced tea.

If you want something more simple, just brew some Dragon Well or Silver Needles and pour the tea over ice. It's so refreshing!

Brewing Da Yu Ling High Mountain Oolong Tea

2009-07-10T16:50:00.000-07:00

When I was in Taiwan in May searching for Oolongs, I didn't notice that some of this past season's tea has a slight bitter taste in the back of my tongue. After I brought them back to Seattle, that mild hint of bitterness appeared in some of the new teas. I don't know why they had such a change. Perhaps just like humans, tea can change in new environments, too.

Many customers have tried this spring's Da Yu Ling and they've commented that this Da Yu Ling is sweet and complex, but not bold. They generally like this tea. A regular customer bought a bag of the Da Yu Ling, and after he tried it twice at home, he came to tell me that the tea had some bitterness to it. I was having tea with some friends at the teashop at that time and he didn't want to sit down to try the tea that I was brewing. I asked him to come back again and to bring the regular pot he uses for high mountain teas and with that pot, we could brew the tea together. He gladly accepted the invitation.

My customer showed up with his pot later in the week. He brewed the tea in his pot the way he is accustomed to and I brewed the same tea in a gaiwan. The first three infusions from his pot were overwhelmingly bitter. He tasted mine and told me that the bitterness was there, but it was not offensive. I laughed and said,"no wonder you didn't like this tea. It's too bitter the way you brew it!" He justified by saying," I think this tea is interesting. The flavor changes throughout the infusions and it can last for 7 infusions. This tea is not boring at all. I just don't like the first three brewings." I laughed again and told him that it was not good enough. He was very intrigued by the tea's different taste when brewed in a gaiwan compared to his pot, though. My point was to ask him to give this tea a chance.

Alone in the teashop one afternoon, I found that I was in the mood to drink Da Yu Ling. I took out a yixing pot and put in a lot more tea leaves than usual. I brewed it for about 20 to 25 seconds (I noticed that customer timed his tea 20 to 25 seconds). It was really good! I wish he was there at the time to try the tea. It had full body and was full of flavors. The slight bitterness was there, but it was not offensive at all. I enjoyed that tea until the last drop of many brewings.

My customer came again afterwards. I asked him if he could bring his pot over so that we could brew the same tea in two different pots, and he accepted the second invitation again.

This time, we were pretty scientific about the brewing. We measured the pots and the leaves. My pot is just little bit smaller than his. He used around 10.2 grams of tea and I used 10 grams. He timed the 20 seconds of brewing time and I added two to three more seconds. It turned out again that the tea from my pot was not as bitter as his. He insisted it was still too bitter and I respected what he was tasting. I told him with a sincerity that I liked the tea. I told him that in Taiwan, many people brew tea even stronger than what we did that day, and they would brew it to just the "right edge". Their tea tastes bitter, but it was normally full body and the Hua Gan(sweetness turns back to the throat) and a sweet taste will appear at the mouth. People like interesting changes like this. He told me it was the first time he ever heard of Hua Gan and he couldn't "sense" it. But it was interesting for him to learn new things.

Taiwan Tea Tour 2010!

2009-07-07T12:10:00.000-07:00

As some of you already know, I am going to lead a tea tour to Taiwan next May. We will be visiting Pinglin (Baozhong tea), Muzha (Tiequanyin), Alishan Mountain, taking tea classes from some of the most famous Taiwanese tea experts, eating delicious food and doing many more fun things.
The itinerary is posted on Floating Leaves Tea website HERE

Check it out!

I look forward to taking you to my homeland: Taiwan!

*All the pictures are from one of the 2007 Taiwan Tour members: Jim Molnar

Favorite Moments of the Trip

2009-06-26T23:28:00.000-07:00

I was very happy that I could make it to Taiwan with Konghai. It was really nice to see my mother and my family. It was their first time seeing Konghai and they adored him! My mother even made the effort to take extra days off from her work to go to Dong Ding mountain with us.

It was hard for her to to leave part with us so soon, but we promised we would go back to visit next year.

I saw my best friends from high school. One of them came with us on our trip to Dong Ding and we got to spend half a day together. Even though it was only half a day, we both found our friendship to be strong. It will never die off and we care for each other. I saw my other friends in Taipei, got to hang out with them, and one of them was very generous to let me stay at her place.

I was very grateful to the farmers and tea people I met on this trip. I met the Dong Ding farmer and the Tieguanyin farmer for the first time. Both of them and their wonderful wives spent a lot of time with me and I can't wait to see them again next year to learn the arts of their tea.

And I really enjoyed seeing my old tea friends and mentors, like farmer Chen, Mr. Tsai and Mr. Lui. I have known Chen and Lui for five years, and Tsai for more than 10 years. It was very relaxing to be with them. They have all had their tea business for many years. I like to be at their establishments, not only to drink good tea, but also to see people come and go. It doesn't seem like time is really an issue for anyone.

I enjoyed learning tea from them, too. Most of the farmers and tea people are not very good at explaining things. They teach by telling me to "experience" tea. This is so different from the logical way of learning. I was frustrated in the beginning, but later, I learned to appreciate this method. If I can't taste the tea, it doesn't matter how many facts I learn about the tea. I knew that I had breakthroughs in my learning when I heard such statements as : " Hey Miss Tai, I am going to brew a tea that will make you smile," or "Miss Tai, the tea that we are going to drink is the taste of heaven."

And food! It was delicious as usual.

I love Taiwan! Good people, good tea and good food! I can't wait to go back there again.

Shui Xian from Taiwan

2009-06-25T20:35:00.000-07:00

This is the first time that Floating Leaves is selling the Shui Xian varietal of tea from Taiwan. I didn't have a chance to meet the farmer who made the tea, but I was happy that I got a chance to see where it was grown.

The current farmer actually doesn't own the farm. I will call him Shui Xian farmer because I forgot to ask for his name! What had happened was that Mr. Den, who knows everyone, passed by the farm one day and noticed that the farm looked like it had been unattended for some time. He was curious and went to look for the owner of the tea farm. Den discovered that the owner has passed away.

One day Den visited the Shui Xian farmer and told him about the farm. The Shui Xian farmer told Den that it was such a waste for the tea fields to be unattended, and said that he would like to take care of the farm. Den was excited and told the farmer he would look for the children of the owner. He found them and told them the proposal. They were happy that someone else wanted to grow tea because they were not interested at all.

My friend, Mr. Tsai, told me that the Shui Xian farmer works very hard and he is a believer of organic farming. He doesn't use chemicals to kill weeds and uses organic methods to fertilize the tea trees.

If you are curious about what this Taiwanese Shui Xian tastes like, please visit Brett's (Black Dragon Tea Bar) BLOG ARTICLE, where he has kindly reviewed the tea.

Pinglin Trip, Part Two

2009-06-21T10:40:00.000-07:00

Mr. Tsai took me and Konghai to Farmer Chen's place. He was not back yet, so we sat down with his wife to have tea. She prepared at least seven different Baozhongs for me to try. Some tea came from half-jin packages, and she took some other teas out from those huge plastic bags. I didn't notice any marks on any of the bags. I have to say all the farmers and tea business people have incredible memories (perhaps they all drink tea every day?). Before I had a chance to tell her, she told me what those Baozhongs were. It was fun to try so many Baozhongs all at once. After I went through them twice, I was surprised at how light some of the competition winning teas were. My two favorite ones were one that didn't enter any competitions at all and one that was in the competition but didn't win any prize.

Later, Farmer Chen came back with some fresh tea leaves. He saw Konghai and gave him those leaves to play with. He sat down with us to try all the Baozhongs. Then he was distracted by Konghai. I think he likes Konghai a lot and he took a lot of pictures of him. For the whole tea tasting, they didn't make a single comment on what they thought of each tea. I knew that once again, I had to decide on which tea I considered to be the best for me to bring back to sell.

After all the Baozhongs, I asked if they had any aged teas. She came with two. I tasted them and liked the Buddha's Hand one better. When asked about the age, Farmer Chen said," ten, twenty years". I bursted out laughing and said,"there are 10 years of difference between what you just said". He smiled and looked at his wife for confirmation," I don't remember how old it is". I like that, at least it's very honest. I went to the jar where they stored the aged Buddha's Hand and smelled the tea. I saw the lid with the date! I showed them the lid and said," it's 18 years old!" Farmer Chen laughed and said," see? I was right!"

It was always nice to see Mr. and Mrs Chen. They were very easy going. Especially with him, he always had a smile on his face. Too bad I didn't have a chance to see him make tea this time. Most of the tea was already done for the season. I like the dedicated look on his face when he is making tea. There's always next year!

Pinglin Trip, Part One

2009-06-20T23:50:00.000-07:00

After my Dong Ding trip, my head was still thinking about Farmer Lin. I couldn't stop thinking about what he said to me, "When you drink a tea, can you tell if it is a good tea?" I was confused with what exactly I was looking for in the tea learning.

My friend, Mr. Tsai, met me and Konghai outside of the subway in Hsin Dien. Today he was going to take us to Pinglin. Before we went to see Farmer Chen, he told me that we were going to meet his friend, Mr. Den, and Den was going to take us to see the farmer who made our Shui Xian Oolong. We met Den at the Shui Xian farmer's farm. My heart got lighter because there was so much greenness in that area. Den was taking pictures when we arrived. He told us that the farmer was not at home at this moment. We would go to his house later to see if he was back. That was so Taiwanese-style. Friends or neighbors just show up at your door without an appointment. I sometimes miss that way of living.

Den told me that those tea plants in front of me were Shui Xian varietals and the farmer used organic farming methods to take care of the plants. They had really large size leaves compared to the more popular Taiwanese varietals.

Den told us we should go to another farmer's place to say hi (I didn't think he made any appointments with that farmer either). We showed up in front of a typical three-story apartment-type building. The farmer, his wife, three young babies, and the farmer's parents lived there together. When we showed up, they were all very friendly. Den told him that we would like to try some of his teas. He immediately put water on the stove. In no time, his mother came out with a huge plate of really juicy looking watermelon.

After the first pot of Jin Xuan varietal Baozhong, he asked me what I liked to drink. I told him if he had any Baozhong with a nice round mouth feel and yet heavy body. He left and came back with some different looking leaves. He told me that it was made from Da Yeh(Big Leaf) varietal. The tea liquid did have a heavier feel to it. Sometimes when I said I wanted something heavier, people would think I wanted it to be brewed heavier, too. I asked the farmer if Baozhong was like this 15 years ago. He smiled and said:"Oh no, tea at that time was even heavier than this." I asked him why he stopped making tea like that. He smiled again and told me that nobody wanted tea like that. I said, "that's not true. I am interested in that." In my brain, I was asking myself if tea at that time really tasted better. We said thank you and went on to see Farmer Chen.

Dong Ding Trip, Day II

2009-06-06T18:21:00.000-07:00

I woke up early today and decided to look around on my own. It was still misty and not too hot. The tea farms around the house looked pretty well taken care of. I thought those must be Lin's farms. When I looked closer, I found there were many different varietals of tea plants. I went through each farm and looked very closely at the shapes of the tea leaves. I didn't know that farmers in Dong Ding chose to grow many different varietals.

I ran back to Farmer Lin's house. His wife saw me and asked me to sit down and have breakfast. I told her that I was not hungry and asked him why there were many different tea plants, and asked him if he could show me how to identify each one of them. He said, "Why do you want to know the varietals? The point is to taste a tea and tell if the tea is good or not. Our ancestors brought us soft stem Oolong. It's the best." Later my mother and Konghai got up so we had breakfast together. Mrs Lin knows her husband well. She asked me if I needed to take anything for Konghai and she could help me. I knew she was going to show me the tea plants. I asked her if she could help me on the stroller.

I told Mrs. Lin that I will learn as much as I can and I am grateful that her husband spent so much time with us and showed us around. She showed me some tea plants, picked different leaves for me and told me what they were. On the way back to her house, I was thinking why I needed to tell the differences of tea leaves. I was thinking about his words: "When you drink a tea, can you tell if it is good?"

I asked them that I wanted to try a couple of teas that I had yesterday to confirm which one I liked the most. In the end, I was debating on two of the teas. Mrs Lin could tell. She told me," I think you should buy..." Mr. Lin said" You can't tell her which one she should buy. She has to learn how to experience a tea. She has to choose for herself." I didn't feel bad at all with what he said. He is right. I am the one who decides which tea tastes the best to me. After sampling the teas, he told me that he wanted to show me the neighborhood.

I was very happy to walk around. Farmer Lin took me to his own farm. He told me that there were not many farms left and that people were lazy. They went to do different things and tried to make money faster. We went to a hill and saw tea brushes here and there. He told me that those were wild teas and they made delicious tea. Many of the leaves were already bitten by bugs. We picked some leaves and they already had a very sweet aroma. Later we went by a farm that grows soft stem Oolong. We picked some leaves, too and I compared the fragrance between the soft stem and wild leaves. Both of them smelled very good, but the wild leaves had stronger aroma.

In the evening, I asked him if he had any aged tea. He told me yes and was thinking about whether or not he wanted to sell me any. He eventually sold me a bag without letting me taste it.

My mother doesn't really drink tea, but she told me that she could tell they had good tea. She asked me which one she should buy. I told her my opinions. She went to them and wanted to buy the one I said. Mr. Lin told her not to buy that tea. He said," Your level of tea learning is not as high. You wouldn't fully appreciate the quality of that tea. Your daughter can tell. That's why I sold her that tea. You should choose this one." He went to pull out a bag of tea and sold my mother a tea that he thought she would be able to appreciate.

After I left Dong Ding, I was felt pretty sad. One thing to make me sad was Dong Ding is not producing much tea anymore. People make tea elsewhere and call it Dong Ding. Another thing was that I felt Mr. Lin was living in the past. Even though he didn't teach me direct tea knowledge , he taught me tea spirit. I was thankful that I got to know him. Like what he said, it is an affinity to get to know a person and to get to share tea.

Dong Ding Trip, Day One

2009-06-02T13:12:00.000-07:00

Before I went up to Dong Ding mountain, I was very excited and nervous. I heard that the farmer I was going to meet was very "different".

I talked to him a couple of times to arrange the meeting time and meeting place. He sounded very nice.

He met my mother, Konghai, and me at a bus stop. He held Konghai and my backpack and told us to walk to his car. In the car, he listened to Chinese and Taiwanese music that are from 40 to 60 years ago. He told us that was "real" music; when one listens to it, one feels good. The rest of the music is trash and it will pollute our souls.

On the way to Dong Ding, I saw some tea farms. They felt a little neglected and it felt there was not much life in the area.

His wife greeted us and she already had lunch ready for us. After lunch, Farmer Lin took out a tea tray. That was the moment I was waiting for: to drink tea. He made a 2009 spring Dong Ding. I took a sip and said, "This is your tea. This is a flavor that only your tea can produce." He said nobody can make a tea flavor like this. Then he went on talking about people, society and life. I was very content to savor the tea and tried to grab a chance to ask him about tea.

After the fourth infusion, he told us it was time to go see scenery. It was only the fourth infusion! I couldn't leave! I told him that he didn't need to trouble himself. My only interest was to drink tea. But he didn't listen so we went into his car. He took us to see a waterfall. It was very beautiful there. He was very nice to bring us some homegrown peaches and plums. Afterwards, we climbed some stairs and reached to a very narrow point. I saw a rope and remembered that my friend told me that the farmer made him climb the rope to see a different view. He asked us to climb up there. My mother said no. Oh, by the way, my high school friend was there, too. She didn't want to climb up there either. I thought if I didn't climb, he would be so disappointed, so I went. I saw another waterfall up there and it was quite a view. After I got off the rope, I was still a little bit shaky.

In the evening, his wife brewed me five different Dong Ding teas. He told me to savor and feel each tea so that I can decide what I like. He went on talking about how humans only care about money and the evil that's happening in the whole world. I listened to him and at the same time tried to focus on the tea and remembered how they were different from each other.

I was happy to have that much Dong Ding and was grateful that they were so generous. I went to bed with a mission that I had to talk to him about tea the next day.

I am back to Seattle!

2009-05-28T15:46:00.000-07:00

I had a great trip to Taiwan and I am back to share the tea that I found.

For the unique varietals, I found a Buddha's Hand, a Taiwan Wuyi, and a Shei Shan. All of these teas have enough body, a nice mouth feel, and distinctive taste. For Baozhong, I purchased Farmer's Choice and Honorable Mention from Farmer Chen. There will be no first place this year, but you will get a chance to taste it at our Baozhong tea tastings.

There is also a selection of Dong Ding and Tieguanyin teas; some of them are very low in quantity. Both of these teas have full mouth feel.

For the high mountain teas, I chose a Shanlinxi, one Lishan, one Dayuling, and one Hehuanshan. This spring, the high mountain tea is gentler and has a softer body than previous winter teas. For the Alishan lovers, I'm sorry, but I couldn't t find one that was good enough to bring it back for you to drink. There is also an aged Buddha's Hand produced in 1991 and possibly an aged Tieguanyin.

In a couple of days, I will post some of these new teas on the website and offer you some tasting notes. Please keep an eye out for our upcoming newsletters for a series of tea tastings.

See you all very soon for new and age teas.

2009 Taiwan Tea Trip

2009-05-23T18:02:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that I have to leave Taiwan in three days. It feels like I just got here and I am getting used to the rhythm of life. I am grateful to the people that I've met. They were helpful and generous. I will write more about this trip when I get back to Seattle. Here are some notes about the tea I have already tasted and that you will be able to try some soon.

I tasted 7 Dong Ding teas. Six of them are Spring teas and one of them is winter tea. This farmer is dedicated to producing tea the traditional way. A lot of attention and the best leaves that are actually from Dong Ding mountain go into making this tea so high in quality. All of his tea has very nice mouth feel and the flavor will stay in the mouth and throat for many hours. I chose one that I thought is the most balanced one. The farmer also gave me a small bag of aged Dong Ding. He didn't remember how old it is and told me not to sell that tea. If you can come by soon, I will share this with you when I am back.

My friend, Mr. Tsai, took me to Pinglin. We wanted to meet a farmer who has Xia Sha varietal. He told me that the farmer worked very hard and is dedicated to organic farming. Unfortunately, the farmer was not there that day. Mr. Tsai already ordered some tea for me. I will see if I can try it this Wednesday. Then we went to meet Farmer Chen and his wife. I probably tried 10 different Baozhongs. My favorite one was one that didn't win at the competition. I thought it has more weigh than the rest and it's very smooth. I also tried some aged oolongs. I chose one that was made from the Buddha's Hand varietal. This age Oolong has a very clear plum smell and it tastes very clean.

On the third day in Taipei, I went to meet farmer Zheng and his family in the Mu Zha area. He is dedicated in making Tieguanyin. They were very friendly and very eager to let me try their teas. I lost count of how many I tried. They wanted me to try more. I told them I couldn't drink any more tea. I was not completely satisfied with this year's Tieguanyin so I chose a couple of teas that are about three to five years old.

I also drank a lot of high mountain teas. So far, I am not too crazy about Alishan tea. I did like one ShanLinXi, which has a very smooth body. I will try more high mountain teas over two days and decide what I want to bring back to Seattle.