2016 Spring Tea Trip: A Quick Tea Update

Due to the snow in February, and lower temperature after that, Taiwanese spring tea harvest is delayed for roughly two weeks.

I visited Muzha for Tieguanyin in April 12th, they were just starting to harvest the Si Ji Chuan( Four Season Spring). This cultivar grows faster than the majority of cultivars in Taiwan. The True Bush Tieguanyin was not ready for harvesting yet. Farmer Zhan told me that there was no sun for two weeks before this day.
I was at Dong Ding Mountain on the 14th and 15th, farmers were harvesting JinXuan( Tawan Tea #12). It was misty with sunshine breaking through here and there. Farmers were deciding if they had to pick Soft Stem varietal, because the weather was not looking good for the following week.
Same thing happened in PingLin. Farmers are waiting for Chin Xin varietal to get mature enough for harvesting.

I did bring back some amazing roasted Dong Ding and traditional Tieguanyin. For darker roasted style teas, I like them at least one year old, so that the roast can have time to intergrate. I will put them on my website as soon as possible.
For High Mountain Oolong and Baozhong, my two tea buyer friends will be sourcing them when the spring harvest is ready.

There will be more posts about this spring tea trip. Stay tuned.

2016 Taiwan Tea Trip: Wistaria Tea House

I am so happy to be back in Taiwan: the humid air, warmer temperature, the food and of course the tea people and teas!

After 12 and half hours of flight, Wistaria Tea House is always a perfect place to relax. 

A pot of Yu Shan High Mountain Oolong, a pot of 70's Dong Ding, and a pot of 60's Aged Puer brought so much happiness and satisfaction.

the entrance of Wistaria Tea House

window display

beautiful tea menu, so many good tea to choose from!

60's loose leaf Puer

awesome tea snacks: roasted peanuts, mochi, and tea plum

Happy Year Of the Monkey!

The year of the monkey is coming and I am already feeling its energy! Monkeys are known for being smart, versatile and mischievous. This monkey year is also combined with the fire element. There will be a lot of surprises and adventures for sure!

Even with so much energy and so many unknowns for the upcoming year, I have never felt so ready to tackle the year ahead of me. With this being said, I would love to welcome and celebrate the new year with you, with good tea and good energy.

If you are in Seattle, please come join me for: 

Chinese New Year Celebration, Saturday February 6th, 1-3pm

Please join Kimberly Ivy of Embrace The Moon Taichi and Qigong School and me for a series of great activities to set up the right practice and energy for this coming new year. Two years ago, I went back to my Taichi/Qigong practice. I can't talk enough about how many benefits I am getting from these practices!

Activities will include:

-What is Chinese New Year? I will share fun stories about Chinese New Year, what food to eat, specific activities and preparations we all can easily do to welcome the coming new year!

-Qigong Exercises: What can we do for our health and spirit? Kimberly will teach you some simple, effective techniques to clean out the old, invite the new, strengthen and nourish your immune system for the dynamic changes at hand!

-Chinese Astrology: What does the Year of The Monkey have in store for us? Participants will learn about their animal signs and how their own sign relates to the monkey year.

-Chinese Gong Fu Tea: What kind of New Year's celebration doesn't include good tea?! I will serve traditional Chinese Gong Fu tea. It's a great way to bring relaxation to your body, mind and home. 

Everyone will receive red envelopes and some lucky Chinese calligraphy words for the New Year and access to a youtube link of the Qigong techniques for practices and review!

Location: Embrace The Moon 1716 NW Market St. Seattle WA 98107

$36/person. To register, please go to www.embracethemoon.com. Only 5 spots left!

Chinese New Year Celebration, Saturday February 6th, 3:15 to 5pm:

Making Chinese Dumplings: Chinese dumplings are one of the food items we eat for the new year. We believe it will bring us prosperity. They are delicious and fun to make! I plan to make pork/cabbage dumplings, and shrimp/chinese celery dumplings with you. We will cook some up and enjoy the dumplings we make together!

$30/person including ingredients. For those who sign up for the 1-3pm program, the discounted fee is $22. You have to register for this so that I know how many cooking materials to prepare. To register, please go to www.embracethemoon.com. Only 3 spots left!

Pod Cast: A Talk On Taiwanese Oolong With Ken Cohen of Talking Tea

I love drinking tea with people. When customers from other states take their time to visit Floating Leaves Tea, I feel special and grateful to make that face to face connection with tea lovers from around the country.

A couple of months ago, a tea lover from Philadelphia named Ken came to Floating Leaves Tea. I had so much fun drinking tea with him and his partner. Near the end of our chat, he told me that he hosts a podcast to promote tea knowledge. He asked me if I would like to be a guest on his program. Of course, I love to talk about tea!

That was my first time doing a podcast. Those of you who have had tea with me have probably noticed that when I start to talk about tea, I can't stop. It's no surprise then that this podcast turned out to be pretty long.

Like many people, I can't stomach listening to my own voice in a recording. For the first five minutes of the program, I was literally holding on to the table while saying, "Oh my goodness!" By the end though, I felt very good listening to the program. I know that my enthusiasm and love for tea was clear, even through my strong accent! If you get a chance to listen to it, I hope you feel the same way. And please give us feedback and let us know what you would like to hear and learn about in future videos or podcasts.. Enjoy the talk!

http://talkingtea.libsyn.com/the-world-of-taiwanese-oolongs

2015 Spring High Mountain Oolong - Fantastic Tea!

When our buyer, Rob Bageant, was out buying the Spring High Mountain Oolongs, I stayed connected with him via messaging. It was a bit of torture for me not to taste the tea, but at the same time, it was pretty fun to feel I could taste the teas based on his descriptions. We have bought tea together many times throughout the years; I have confidence and feel very connected to buy tea this way even though I was not there physically.

dry leaves of ShanLinXi

It excited me when our buyer's opening statement was, " Very good tea this season. So balanced." Then, he said, " it makes tea buying easy this year because it's so good!" When he was tasting DaYuLing, "this tea has no flaw", he said. I was screaming in my apartment, " I want to taste it"!

I had some of the High Mountain Oolongs shipped to Seattle via express mail. The box magically showed up in two days. Of course, I couldn't wait and tasted them all in a row. 

At that moment, I understood what Rob meant by the tea was very good this season. I tasted the Alishan, it was so beautiful that I felt that I was in a garden. Then I proceeded to ShanLinXi, it was a good ShanLinXi as I remembered: citrus, fruity, and wonderful stimulation in the mouth. Then I moved on to HeHuanShan, I remembered I kept saying, " I like this tea, I like this tea......There is so much goodness going on". When I tasted the Lishan, this came to my mind, " Yes! Thank you! A well balanced, solid, good Lishan. Thank you!"

I heat up the water to prepare to brew DayuLing. To be honest, I didn't know what to expect. I have not carried this tea for many seasons. The first sip reached to my mouth. I had my eyes closed," Oh my! I have not tasted anything this buttery for a long time!" 

brewed leaves of DaYuLing

I remembered I read it somewhere saying that tea is the nectar of God. Yes, it is and it's magic. Tea leaves in a cup, and those farmers are able to transform a plant into a liquid that is so beautiful, complex and full of goodness. 

After so much high mountain tea, I felt pretty lively. I felt like I turned into a butterfly, happily flying around flowers in a beautiful garden. I felt very grateful of the farmers, the weather, and Rob. I felt fortune to be able to taste them. I had the wonderful flavor of tea lingering in my mouth, thinking, "Life is very good, isn't it?" 

坪林包種比賽茶評分的標準

坪林包種比賽茶評分的標準

這裡是坪林比賽茶較詳細的質料：

外形佔百分之二十 (20%)：在比賽之前農夫都會把茶梗挑去，茶葉外形要整齊、一致，且不要有雜色。

茶湯顏色佔百分之二十 (20%)﹕ 茶湯以蜜綠色﹐ 翠綠色為上等。而且茶湯不可以混淆，要清澈。

香氣佔百分之三十 (30%)﹕要有花香，且要單一香氣﹐ 不要有悶味﹐ 也不要有雜味。單一香氣的原因是不要有混茶，而且很有明顯的品種香。

滋味佔百分之三十 (30%)﹕ 茶的滋味要圓潤、甘甜、有活性。茶喝起來要無異味、無酸性。

Taiwan Tea Map

Working with my tea friend at Floating Leaves, we created the following tea map to show where the major tea producing regions in Taiwan are.



Click on the map to expand it for easier viewing.

Welcome to Floating Leaves Tea Blog

I grew up in Taiwan and often thought that tea represents my culture. Tea was everywhere. Every time I visited my friends, there was always tea to have. And I will always remember when I visited teahouses with friends on numerous weekends.

I came to Seattle sometime in 2000. My partner at that time and I shared at least a pot of Taiwan Oolong every morning. In 2004, I went back to Taiwan to purchase tea for our new teahouse, Floating Leaves Tea. That trip opened my eyes and I fell in love with Taiwan all over again, because of the beauty of its tea. I met lots of new tea friends and tea farmers. I was so thrilled to be in the tea fields, touching tea, picking tea and participating in the tea making process. I am grateful for the generosity and helpfulness of the people I met, and I am proud of Taiwanese Oolong.

It has been for quite some time that tea friends and my customers have encouraged me to write my thoughts and experiences about tea. Here I am finally starting this journey. Please give me your feedback to my writing and let’s grow together in the tea world. Sit down and enjoy your good pot of tea! I am looking forward to having some tea with you.


Shiuwen Tai
Floating Leaves Tea