2011 Taiwan Tea Tour

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

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

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

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.