Brewing LaLaShan High Mountain Oolong

After having tested out my Lishan oolong (sorry, sold out!) in a Gaiwan and a Yixing tea pot, I thought it might be interesting to compare another High Mountain tea in various Yixing Pots and a Gaiwan.

I decided to test out the LaLaShan Tea and used three yixing pots that I normally brew Taiwanese High Mountain oolongs with.

After rinsing the tea, I smelled the lids and preferred the smell from the gaiwan lid the most. After the first round of tea, I decided I liked the taste of LaLaShan from the yixing pots better than the gaiwan. I compared four infusions of the tea from these three pots, and I most preferred the tea from the Yixing pot that is closest to the gaiwan (please see the picture above) because it yielded a round and smooth tea liquid. The tea liquid that I liked the least came from the middle Yixing tea pot. For the LaLaShan, the middle pot made the liquid taste bitter. I also liked the LaLaShan from the larger Yixing pot on the left. This pot and its clay made the tea taste bold.

It's quite fun to test out a tea in multiple tea ware and to notice that they will have different results. Try it out yourself and see what you discover.

Taiwan Trip

I will be in Taiwan for tea this May! One of the exciting things about this trip is that I will be working with a professional photographer/videographer and we will be shooting some informative tea videos. We already have some ideas for possible projects. One of our ideas is to feature an organic tea farmer. Another one is to compare different tea making processes.

I thought that it would be a great idea if you, my customers and blog followers, were interested in participating in our project as well. Start by gathering some of your thoughts together. If you could talk to a tea farmer in Taiwan, what would you ask him and what kinds of things would you like to know? Here's your chance to find the answer to your important questions!

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.

Happy Chinese New Year 新年快樂!

The Year of the Tiger is right around the corner! It's going to be a pretty exciting year for many of us.

Thank you for supporting Floating Leaves Tea in this past year. Tomorrow, I will be at the tea shop brewing tea for people. Please stop by and let's start the new year with a good cup of tea!

We are also doing a special 15% discount on our new season's tea to thank you and to celebrate the new year with you. This is a rare opportunity for you to save off of the current season's tea. If you can't make it in, just give me a call or drop me an email to hold the teas for you.

Have a peaceful and prosperous Tiger Year!

Travel Tea Bottle

In the past five years, I've traveled out of Seattle many times, but my trips have been limited to Taiwan, Vancouver BC, and Portland. Normally, I don't bring tea or tea ware with me because I can always find places to drink tea.

Last month, I went to Vancouver with some friends. I guess I am too addicted to tea, so I brought a glass tea bottle in the car. I also prepared three more bottles for the people who were traveling in the same car. We all had a special stash of Baozhong tea and it worked perfectly! The tea can stand up to long periods of soaking and we had delicious tea on the road.

If you travel a lot or if you want to drink some loose leaf tea in the car, you might want to consider one of those bottles. Glass breaks more easily than the plastic bottles, but they will not release chemicals with hot water like plastic bottles might.