Special Pricing for DaYuLing - Thanks for the Positive Feedback!

I want to thank many of you who have purchased our winter Oolong and have told me how much you like the teas. This winter's tea has been selling well. Our Lishan and 2nd Place Baozhong have already sold out! The recently-stocked charcoal-roasted ShanLinXi is nearly sold out as well.

Our Lishan oolong has been a solid tea over the past several seasons. DaYuLing can be a more finicky tea to brew, but this winter's tea is particularly good. DaYuLing drinkers have found the tea to be very enjoyable, but Lishan's pricing has made the tea more attractive.

I really like this season's DaYuLing, I think it is my favorite high mountain tea right now. I want to give high mountain oolong lovers an incentive to try this beautiful tea, so I've decided to reduce our DaYuLing's pricing to match that of our Lishan tea. For those who have enjoyed this season's Lishan tea, I wouldn't be surprised if you like the DaYuLing even more.

This DaYuLing is full of surprises. DaYuLing can be a bit tricky to brew, but if you pay attention to bringing out all of its potential, you will enjoy great sessions with this tea. It will reveal to you its creamy, soft, and complex nature.

Our Taiwan Shui Xian and Taiwan #18 Ruby Black teas will arrive soon. Stay tuned.

Charcoal Roasted Oolong and Aged Oolong

As many of you have probably heard or read about in the news, that was a big snow storm in the Northwest. It was very fun to see people making snowmen and to see kids sitting on their sleighs with big smiles on their faces. Despite all of this recent beauty and fun, I am ready for the snow to go away. It's COLD!!!

A nice surprise showed up at the shop when I needed some "warmer" teas to drink. Our winter charcoal roasted high mountain oolong and an aged 1979 BeiPu Oolong just arrived.

This charcoal roasted high mountain oolong is very balanced in its flavor and texture. There is a wonderfully warm and pleasant charcoal note that lingers in the mouth and in the cup. I especially like that this tea can stand up to brewing and I can get a lot of good infusions out of it. I brewed this tea in a gaiwan and was able to get 7 solid infusions out of it.

The 1979 BeiPu is herbal, warm, soft and grounded. I have noticed that I prefer this tea in a yixing teapot more than in a gaiwan. If you choose to rinse this tea, I recommend that you do a quick rinse. The rinsing water comes out fairly strong, so you will be giving up good flavor if you rinse too long. The tea yields 4 good infusions. I pushed the tea and brewed two more infusions, with the fifth and sixth taking more time to brew but turning out enjoyable, also.

I will list these two teas on the website soon with more tasting notes (This time "soon" means within two days, I promise).

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.

The Basic Taiwanese Oolong Making Process Part III

Part III and the last few steps of the oolong making process are:

-Kill Green: After the tea leaves have been oxidized enough, tea makers have to stop the tea from further oxidizing. They use high heat to stop the components in the leaves from oxidizing. The temperature to do this is around 170 degrees (celcius), but I have also heard that some people use more than 200 degrees. Heat will also get rid of more moisture in the leaves and help with forming the particular fragrance of an oolong. Through this process, tea makers want to get rid of the "greeness" in an oolong and bring out the real "tea fragrance."

-Shaping, Pressing and Rolling: After Killing Green, the tea leaves are put into the pressing machine to break the cells. This process also helps to shape the tea. If it's Baozhong tea, the leaves just need to be dried, then it will become Baozhong Mao Cha. For rolled style oolongs, the tea leaves will be put inside a piece of cloth that is tightened up into a ball and rolled between two plates. For a high mountain oolong, the leaves will be rolled around 8 times to get the shape that a tea maker is looking for.

-Drying: After tea makers get the shape they want for an oolong, they will put the tea leaves into the drying machine. After the drying process has been completed, tea leaves will have a water content around 4 to 5 percent. At this point, tea is called Mao Cha. Nowadays, consumers can go directly to farmers to purchase tea, so a lot of people are buying and drinking Mao Cha.

-Sorting, Roasting, and Matching tea: When Taiwan tea was produced mainly for export, tea farmers would make Mao Cha and tea vendors and merchants would purchase the Mao Cha and sort, roast and match different crops of tea into the final product that they were looking to create. Sorting is done to get rid of excess tea stems, broken leaves and old leaves. The tea is exposed to the air as it is sorted, so some moisture will get back into tea. Tea vendors will roast the tea a bit to get rid of that moisture. A lot of times, tea buyers will ask for certain teas to be roasted, so it will be the vendor's job to roast the tea as requested. For a big wholesaler, they will match different crops of tea to get the signature taste for the company's brand.