tea post

[sillybearhappyhoneyeater]

guys, i just want to share a cool experience that happened to me today in Taiwan.

this is good for anyone who likes tea to know,

although different rules apply to different tea cultivation regions, this is a good one for taiwanese tea.

 

taken from my fb page, which you are welcome to friend

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006073785674

 

 

 

Today I went to visit a real tea boss.
He owns a number of farms in South Taiwan and makes very good Alishan and Tieguanyin tea.
I have to say, I am pretty at good at tea for a person who didn't grow up in tea culture, and I went into his shop (where I have visited once before) with the opinion that I wouldn't be too impressed, but I got totally schooled and I am now a more humble little tea boss.

Basically, I opined that this year's winter tea was a little on the bitter side (Taiwan cultivates a great deal of their tea in the winter months, due to the perpetually nice climate here, and winter tea is considered to be the highest quality tea on the market here). The boss told me that I was out of my head and that I must be purchasing summer tea being pawned off as winter tea. Now to my defence, I know my Taiwan tea, and when I buy spring, summer, fall, or winter tea, I know how to tell them apart.
I was a bit tiffed at the chap, and so I started at it with him in a friendly argument.
He then said to me "when you taste tea and when you serve tea, they aren't the same thing. If you are serving tea, you want it to taste like the best tea your client has ever had, because you are trying to do business.
When you taste tea for yourself, you need to taste it at its absolute most harsh level of taste. You need to go home, put your tea in a pot, and pour it for five minutes straight. If it goes really bitter on you, it isn't from a high mountain range and the person who sold it to you is ripping you off."
At this point, I choked down my indignation and thanked him for being so honest.
He told me many other things about how Taiwanese tea works today, and I'll aim to share them with you.
In any event, I'm doing the first of my retastings of this year's winter tea, and I am glad to say that the first one (A Lishan tea from cuifeng mountain range) has passed the test!!!!