It's a colder season so the harvest is later than usual.
We just heard from our Baozhong farmer that he started to harvest QingXin Oolong varietal to make his baozhong on Friday April 28th. And we are getting ready to choose our spring Alishan.
For our lightly oxidized Taiwanese Oolong lineup we carry JinXuan and Nantou Four Season as daily drinker teas. We prefer QinXin varietal for our Baozhong and High Mountain Oolongs.
Here is some information on these three varietals:
-SiJiChun( for Nantou Four Seasons): A tea farmer in Muzha discovered this varietal several years ago. This plant has a strong life force and can yield six harvests in a year! Its feature flavor is like jasmine or ginger lily fragrance.
-JinXuan, aka Taiwan Tea #12: This varietal was "made in Taiwan". It was officially published in 1981, and it's now the 2nd most grown tea varietal in Taiwan. It's often seen in tea fileds under 1200 meters high. When it's grown past that elevation, the young stems contain too much water. In this instance the success rate for producing a high quality oolong tea sharply falls. Sometimes JinXuan will have an osmanthus like bouquet. When JinXuan does produce a milk candy flavor, its broth is round. This is why tea drinkers first called JinXuan milk Oolong.
-QingXin: This varietal was brought to Taiwan from Fujian and it has been a very popular varietal for a long time. QingXin grows slower and yields less than SiJinChun and JinXuan. However, its success rate to produce finer Oolongs is higher. The flavor profile from QingXin Oolong varies. It can be floral, fruity or honey-like.
Since QingXin Oolong grows at a slower pace (and because it's the varietal we prefer for our Baozhong and High Mountain Oolongs) please have patience as you wait for our Spring Oolong harvest to be available. We are hoping to get some of the teas in around the middle of May. For higher elevation Oolong, like Lishan, we are hoping to have it in by the end of May.
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