News from Taiwan + NJ
Make sure to read up on the latest harvest!
Winter Harvest 2023 Reveal
Hi all!
Happy Winter harvest! Today’s letter will be longer than usual as I’ve recently returned from a few weeks in Taiwan. This year’s Winter harvest was a blast to help produce! There’s nothing like being at the farms during harvest to appreciate how much work goes into making a single cup of tea. I have so much admiration for all of our farmers.
Read on to get a first look at the newest teas & more!
🏜️ weather report
Winter harvest this year went off without a hitch. In Alishan we harvested late October and completed roasting the black oolong on 10/31. We spent the evening drinking the latest harvest of milk oolong as the aroma of our black oolong slowly roasting filled the air! Waking up the next morning to take the black oolong out of the roaster for a first taste was next level.
In Shanlinxi, we harvested on the farms November 3rd-5th. To produce the best winter teas in this region, it’s best to harvest a week after the last rain. Initially we were set to harvest the second week in November, however after seeing scheduled rain on Oct 27th, it was decided to harvest sooner in order to optimize for quality and hydration of the leaves. With a chuckle, Uncle shared this secret recipe of his and lamented that everyone who harvested before the 27th wouldn’t have a tea as delicious as his... and boy is it tasty!
🍵 winter tea collection
This year’s winter tea collection includes three teas from the winter harvest and one special find… with more to come. As always, I promise that each tea in our lineup is both unique in flavor and processing. You’ll likely want to try them all, as so many of you usually do!
In addition to 2023’s Winter harvest oolongs, I have a truly limited release to share. This one was sourced from a new farmer located in Pinglin and was made from the Summer harvest. There is no guarantee that we’ll ever have this particular tea again (read on and you’ll figure out why...) so make sure to try it before it sells out!
🥬 Unroasted green oolong
Drink this tea. It is superb. Personal opinion: Winter harvest is the best season. IYKYK. This year we had the pleasure of participating in making Uncle’s green oolong. In a blind taste test on Day 1, I was delighted when we unknowingly selected Uncle’s as the best of the samples from nearby producers. We were blown away with its impressively smooth mouthfeel and luscious vegetal taste, and felt super lucky to have access to such high quality oolong. At midnight on the final day of harvest when we tasted the final batch, we were blown away by how it turned out. Zero bitterness. Juicy, vegetal broth. Addictive. I’ve been drinking this tea daily since harvest and know you’ll love it too.
How we made it: Each day harvest began early, with pickers in the fields by 6am and wrapping up before the midday sun grew too intense. When enough baskets were filled we’d drive the fresh leaves ~30 minutes down the mountain to the processing facility one truckload at a time to begin the withering process. As the longest step of making oolong, withering & oxidation takes roughly 12 hours. It was often past midnight before we could first taste the day’s tea. Finally, the tea leaves would head to their final step to be rolled into balls. Usually this would take another 4-5 hours of intense manual labor and the skilled orchestration of specialized equipment. Workers would roll and then dry, roll and then dry, until the tea achieved ~2% hydration and could be packed into vacuum sealed air-tight bricks. For our unroasted green the process stops here, however for our roasted teas like the red, double red, and black oolongs, they’d head off to the roaster!
Tasting notes: Butter lettuce, snow pea, water chestnut
🥛 Milk oolong
It’s a fan favorite. We’ve been sold out of milk oolong for a few months and I’m sorry! For everyone who loves a slightly floral, creamy oolong you will not be disappointed with this year’s batch. It’s back and it’s the same comforting, delicious broth with the Liu family’s special oxidation style giving it a flowery, mouth-tingling feel you’ve come to crave. Stock up & drink up!
Tasting notes: Sugar cookies, wildflowers, cream
🍫 Black oolong
Our creamy, roasty, chocolaty sibling of milk oolong is here! This Winter’s batch is a luscious oolong with notes of dark chocolate, brioche, and honey. With a broth that feels richer and more substantial than Spring’s lighter amber liquor, folks who love a classic black tea will be delighted to find this familiar flavor profile in a non-astringent offering! We’ve roasted this batch for just about 15 hours, slightly longer than Spring’s 10-hour roast. While very similar in profile, I always find the Winter harvest of the black oolong has a little more body. This one reminds me of smooth dark chocolate – you know the fancy stuff that is a touch fruity with just the slightest hint of acidity? Yum.
Tasting notes: Dark chocolate, brioche, honey
🍯 🍑 Bug bitten black tea
I’m not sure what to say other than you’ll need to smell it to believe me. This special limited release of bug-bitten black tea oozes honey and bright fruit aromas. Our newest producer combined tieguanyin, jinxuan, and qinqxin leaves into a black tea that is rare and laborious to produce. Because only leaves bitten by tea jassids could be used, this summer harvest batch of tea is limited in quantity. As with all tieguanyin leaves, brew it hot at 212℉ to get the full flavor and help the leaves open up. If you’re more into aromas, go lighter on the leaves. If you’re looking for a robust broth, add more leaves. You’ll be able to steep this tea for 6+ rounds. I already regret not bringing back more! 🙈
Tasting notes: Honey, red guava, peach
🥫 INTRODUCING PORCELAIN CAN #2
A few years back we stumbled across Eli’s porcelain cans and collaborated with him to produce a special batch just for us. This winter I’m ecstatic to share the latest version with you! Using a smoother, whiter porcelain, this vessel feels lovely.
You may be asking, “What do I do with a porcelain can?” Well, happy to share! Paired with our beaker it's the perfect tea drinking kit! Brew in the beaker, drink out of the can. Fin.
If you’ve already got a favorite tea mug, don’t be afraid to let your imagination run wild. Vase? Pen holder? Soup bowl! It’s cool, you’re going to want one.
Porcelain Can #2 is a limited batch. When it’s gone, it’s gone forever…
And with that, I think it’s time to let y’all get to the shopping part! Have any questions about the teas or gifts for the holidays? Send me a message 🤘
-Sam
Spring Harvest 2023 Reveal
Hi everyone!
Exciting news all around, spring harvest has arrived! Below I’ll share some of my brief thoughts on the teas, I truly hope you will love them! Within this batch there is surely a tea for everyone, it’s just a matter of which one will become your favorite of the season... or perhaps year? Stay tuned for more news from me in the coming weeks and months - and if you have any ideas, thoughts or recommendations please send them my way!
-Sam
🏜️ weather report
It was a tough start to the year with a severe drought across the island pushing back harvest dates and contributing to an overall lower yield. Back in 2021 Taiwan made headlines when drought caused reservoirs and Sun Moon Lake to hit record lows. 2023 hasn’t been much different. That being said, similar to 2021 this year’s harvests are unique and delicious in their own way, just less to go around!
🍵 spring tea collection
This spring we have five (5) teas total – three (3) classics, one (1) XXPERIMENTAL, and one (1) secret tea that’ll be released in another month or so! Spring is widely accepted as the highest quality, most highly prized leaves of the year. It’s something really special to be able to enjoy the taste of a season and I hope you enjoy the flavors of 2023.
🍐Unroasted Green Oolong
If you know, you know. This green oolong is first-class! I find this batch to be particularly refreshing, and have noticed it almost reminds me of cold pressed unfiltered evoo. With incredible depth the broth is juicy, structured, and coats the mouth, while leaving a slightly dry sensation on the tongue. Relative to last year’s spring harvest, this tea has a less floral nose and possesses a subtle sweetness.
Tasting notes: sand pear, green banana, snow pea
🍯 Black Oolong
Fact: Everyone loves this oolong. For those who are new to the jinxuan cultivar, this tea was developed by the Taiwanese Tea Research Extension Station to present creamy, milk-like qualities and flavors. When we roast our jinxuan and transform it into our Black Oolong, the result is an incredible chocolatey, honeyed broth. This harvest tastes like a really fruity, super dark single-origin chocolate, the fancy kind 😏.
Tasting notes: cacao, tupelo honey, hazelnut
🍑 Double Red Oolong
Crafted to our specifications only once per year, our Double Red Oolong was our first XXPERIMENTAL tea created in collaboration with our Master Tea Maker. Described in a word, this year’s Double Red is balanced. The aroma packs a lot of roast and is a bit heady with an almost camphor-y or sulfurous presence that lingers in the nose. While drinking, the broth is smooth on the tongue, has a sweetness in the throat, and finishes off sour– a signature of this style of tea. Usually we encourage folks to let this oolong rest for a few months to calm down, however this year it’s open season from day 1!
Tasting notes: Grilled apricot, toasted walnut, jujube
XXPERIMENTAL NO.7
XXPERIMENTAL NO.7 is an incredibly light roast on our favorite unroasted green using qingxin oolong leaves from our farm on Shanlinxi. During the tea making process, we siphoned off a portion of the finished product and decided to continue the roasting process. In all, we roasted this batch for a total of five hours, 2 hours at 70°C, a quick rest, then 3 hours at 75°C. If you’re doing a double take, you’re right! We experimented a few years back and ran this test in the Winter. This year we’re using leaves from the Spring to see if we can bring out even more of that dry mouthfeel by using baseline leaves that will be a bit more floral from the get-go. Without spoiling the surprise, we think this tea is a little sweeter than it’s unroasted counterpart 😊