2016 Winter Taiwan Tea Trip: Meishan

This is the first time I visited this tea farm at Meishan. The tea country at this part of the mountain is absolute beautiful. The farmer and his wife also run a bed and breakfast business. They showed us around and cooked us food. Besides tea farming, they run a bed and breakfast business too. If you ever come to this part of the tea world, make sure you check it out: http://zhulin.okgo.tw/

We spent two days visiting tea fields, taking walks, and drinking tea. We were surrounded in nature and kindness. I hope your 2017 will be filled with beauty, good tea and kind people too!

beautiful tea country

well-maintained tea field

bamboo forest right outside our cottage

we were surrounded by spetacular mountains

sunset with amazing "cloud sea"

A Couple More Tea Photos To Share From Instagram

Here are a couple of more photos I want to share from 9 Thousand Things on Instagram. I have a lot of fun looking at Alexander's photos. His photos help me to stop for a second and daydream - which I love doing - about two of my favorite things: traveling and tea!

Here are a couple of examples:

The following photo is for our Spring HeHuanShan.

Title: Lost World

Among all the photos Alexander took of Floating Leaves Tea, this is probably the one I go back and look at the most. I think it's because of the location. It makes me feel like it's a setting from a book. Where is this mysterious place? I started to imagine a person with the tea and his stories. Sometimes I put myself into the story. When customers come into the shop, I "close the book" and attend to them.  After they leave, I get to "read" the book of my imagination and I love it! When you look at this photo, can you imagine it being a part of a story?

The next photo is simply delightful and a bit mischievous. It's for our 2016 Spring Alishan, and the photo "describes" the nature of this Alishan well.

Title: Beneath the Bounce the Springs

Enjoy!

*photography provided by Alexander of 9 Thousand Things on Instagram.

2016 Lishan - My Favorite New Spring High Mountain Oolong

Many customers have asked me if I have a favorite High Mountain Oolong from the 2016 Spring harvest. It's hard to pick just one because they are so good in many different and wonderful ways.

ShanLinXi is complex:  its flavor is rich and will carry through many different steepings. It's no wonder why ShanLinXi has been the customer-favorite High Mountain Oolong this season.

Alishan is beautiful and "quiet."  It's a tea that makes me feel like I would be content reading a book while sitting in the garden.

This season's DaYuLing is a late bloomer. As it gets into later infusions, the DaYuLing opens up and blooms into a delicious tea.

HeHuanShan is a great tea this season. Its texture is smooth and buttery and it has a huge, amazing aftertaste. I was debating with myself over whether I would pick this one or Lishan as my favorite.

Finally I set my mind on Lishan because it has a great flavor, a long-lasting aftertaste, and its liquid is so buttery that I can't stop drinking it - just one infusion after the other!

Beautiful, juicy tea leaves

I am a "texture" tea drinker. I do have to say that this Spring's High Mountain Oolong will make you very happy. If you haven't tried them out, give them a shot, I believe you will agree with me.

*photography by Jake Knapp of Could 9 Photo & Design

ShanLinXi Spring 2016 - Customers' favorite High Mountain Oolong

I love this Spring season's High Mountain Oolong!

Over the weekend, I did two blind tea tastings of my new 2016 Spring High Mountain Oolongs. People had fun tasting and discovering which one is their favorite for the season. Our Spring selection includes oolongs from:  Alishan; ShanLinXi; HeHuanShan; Lishan, and DaYuLing mountains.

Getting ready to taste 5 High Mountain Oolongs. Photograpy by Lee Damon. 

ShanLinXi turned out to be the people's choice this season! We brewed 5 High Mountain Oolongs at once in the bowl style and we didn't know which tea was in which cup. ShanLinXi's flavor showed up right away and it carried on through the end.

This season's High Mountain Oolong has definitely been worth the wait. I feel it has more complexity than the previous season's, and they all have a great, smooth texture! Want to know what delicious surprises this season has to offer? Please check out our High Mountain Oolong sampler and let me know which one is your favorite!

FLT High Mountain sampler, with a new look! Photography by Jake Knapp. 

In my next post, I will talk about the characteristics of each tea and let you know which one my favorite is!

Taiwan Tea Tour, Alishan Tea Processing - Part II

Weighing the oxidized tea leaves for "Big Stirring":




The tea leaves after the Big Stir:




"Kill Green" (using high heat to stop oxidation):








Bruising the leaves to break down more cells and bring the leaf juices to the surface:




Using even heat to redistribute the moisture from the leaves, while preparing other batches of leaves that have just finished the killing green process. Next, it will be time for shaping the leaves:






*Thank you, Matthew, for the photos.

Tea Story: Alishan Farmer Part II

In 2007, we led our first Taiwan Tea Tour and took 6 of our customers to see Alishan's Zhang family. Before the trip to Alishan, the six tour members were already quite amazed by Taiwanese food & culture. In Alishan, they were able to experience wonderful Taiwanese hospitality and delicious food in person.

Each morning, Mrs. Lin would cook us breakfast. It was so delicious that we would eat more food than we usually do in the morning. After breakfast, we would take a break and then gather in their living room for tea. On the tea table, one would see crackers, different types of dried fruit and roasted peanuts. Those roasted peanuts were SO GOOD that we couldn't stop eating them!

After many pots of tea and snacks, we got into Mr. Zhang's car to go visit his sister. The moment we settled down into her living room, her husband started to heat the tea water and she disappeared into the back and came out with a huge bowl of crackers and candies. She asked us to have some. Our tour members looked at me with their eyes wide-open, and said, "What do we do?" I taught them to politely say, "No, thank you!" We were already full from breakfast and snacks. Every 10 minutes or so, she would disappear into the back and come back out with more food! Homemade soy milk, steamed buns, pickled peaches that were picked in their backyard....

At around 11am, she asked, "Do you want some instant noodles?" I had to laugh and translated what she said. Everyone simply shook his/her head, so I told her we were not hungry at all. Then she said, "If you don't like instant noodles, we can order some lunch boxes." I translated again and we all had to laugh. One of our tour members asked, " Do you Taiwanese people eat like this all of the time? How is everyone still skinny?" I said, "We do eat a lot of food, but not like this. This is one of the ways that a Taiwanese person shows his or her affection and hospitality. Don't worry. I will make sure they won't give us any lunch boxes." After tea (and some more snacks), we said goodbye and headed to the Jade Mountain National Park.

It was quiet and beautiful, unlike Alishan National Park which is a major tourist destination and is always packed. Farmer Zhang took out a bag with an assortment of snacks from his car and told us we should take a walk. After an hour or so, Farmer Zhang asked us if we were hungry. We all said no, and some tour members said they could skip lunch. After the walk, we went back to the car. Mr. Zhang opened his trunk and took out a butane burner and a big pot and told us it's time for lunch. I didn't know Mrs. Lin had prepared some soup stock and vegetables for us, so all we had to do was to heat up the stock and add noodles. There we were at a parking lot in a national park, cooking noodle soup. It was delicious and we had a lot of fun!

Farmer Zhang is no longer very involved with tea farming and he is lucky that his son-in-law is very interested in tea. It was great to see the next generation taking up tea farming work. I met his son-in-law, Ah-Chon, back in 2005. He was a very polite and quiet young man. Throughout the years, I have seen him stepping up to take over the business. He is very enthusiastic at sharing what he discovers.

Ah-Chon likes to experiment with tea. Last year, he let us taste three teas that were from the same day's harvest, but he applied different roastings to them. It was great to taste teas like that and it was great to watch him talking about them. I love to see that smile and the light in his eyes when he talks about his work.

I love to be in that specific part of Alishan, so tranquil and surrounded by trees and bamboo forests. I love to eat the food from Mrs. Lin and love to drink tea with Mr. Zhang over many conversations about his life philosophy. I love taking walks with the family after dinner when the fireflies are out.... The Zhang family make the place more special and it shows in their smiles.

Tea Story: Alishan Farmer

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........

Taiwan Tea Trip - Alishan, Hiking

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

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

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

Alishan

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.

A Quick Review On Winter High Mountain Tea

Here are some quick tasting notes on some of the high mountain teas that I received and tomorrow, I will give some more notes on one more Lishan, Shanlinxi, and Buddha Hand.

Alishan: It's very nice and smooth on the mouth-feel. This Alishan only has a little floral bouquet. The smoothness will last through all the infusions(I stopped at the fifth infusion). No much changes among the infusions.

Alishan A: This Alishan has a bigger floral bouquet compared to the previous one. The first infusion didn't show up much body or floral note. The second one unfolded. The fragrance will stay through all the infusions. The body feels lighter than the previous one but very delicate. It's a pretty balance tea.

Lishan: This Lishan has enough body. The first two infusions carried a nice floral note. The third and fourth carried a bit honey and fruit note.