Taiwan Tea Tour Day 2

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

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

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

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

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