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

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

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.