-
New
Little Tangerine, lightly roasted Taiwan green tea, 40g
Cold Energy, Green teas, Lighter Aromas, Milder Tastes, Taiwan, TeaUS$23.0三峽 青心柑仔 明前 輕炒青綠茶
Unique cultivar wok roasted green tea
If you’d like your green tea to be umami, refreshing, and slightly floral, yet not astrigent nor bitter, Tea Hong’s Little Tangerine, a unique green tea from Taiwan is a dreamlike answer. It is even softly sweet, with a smooth body and can be easily prepared using various temperature settings and brewing time. It is a single farm, early Spring (Pre-Ching-Ming) single batch harvest from the renowned Three Gorge (Sanxia) area, about 1.5 hour south of Taipei into the emerald mountains. The native tea cultivar is known between farmers as Ganzai 柑仔*, referring its leaf’s close resemblance to that of a kind of sweet tangerine native to this part of Asia. Formally the full name of the tea plant is Chin Shin Gan Zai 青心柑仔. While there are myths and theories about its origin, scholars are still researching how this unique tea bush has come into existance only in Taiwan. Genuine quality, especially that has been masterfully produced, is rare. However, since the farmer has asked us for a humble price, we have directly transferred that low markup in our offer to follow their faithful and honest efforts. Enjoy.
Net weight: 40 g (1.4 oz) in Kraft-alu classic pack -
Misty Heights #8, Taiwan’s very own Assamica black tea, 40 g
Black teas, Denser Aromas, Fuller Bodies, Neutral Energy, Taiwan, TeaUS$23.4雲嶺八號、高海拔台版阿薩姆紅茶
Driving south towards Alishan from Yuchi*, the birthplace of black tea in Taiwan, along the mountainous road through emerald forests, in about two hours time, one can stop by a scenic local hideouts: Yunling*. Here, Master Zheng moves naturally through his stepped tea garden on the slope at elevation 1300m, despite his rather round body. One large patch of his farm is populated with a locally improved version of the Indian tea cultivar Jaipuri*. The whole leaf black tea that he produces using this plant tastes so smooth and delicate that one wonders why a similar thing isn’t found in Assam, where the original tea cultivar was transplanted from back in 1923. Maybe it is the beautiful sceneries here, or maybe it is the specialist tea craft, or maybe it is the culture of Taiwan, or maybe a bit of everything, that turns this immigrant plant into this friendly, smooth and yet intricately complex black tea, Tea Hong’s Misty Heights #8, while remaining that uniquely engaging maltiness that makes an Assamica popular.
Net weight: 40 g (1.4 oz) in Kraft-alu pack -
Floral Pomelo, bouquet style Fenghuang dancong oolong, 40 g
Cool Energy, Fenghuang | Phoenix, Floral Aromas, Fuller Bodies, Oolongs, TeaUS$29.9鳳凰單欉 鳳西柚花香
Genuine Yòu Huāxiāng — Fragrance of Pomelo Blooms — is not an easy to offer variety of dancong simply because it takes not only skills and experience to produce well, but also another key factor that is impossible to control — the weather. Ample sunshine before and after the harvest for proper sun-withering is critical for forming its unique, and mesmerising, aroma and palatial accents that echo the tea’s legendary pomelo and honey floral characters. (more similar details in Old Bush Zhilan) Tea Hong’s bouquet style Phoenix oolong Floral Pomelo has been given a further round of light baking and resting for a deeper, more engaging taste, like it used to be.
Net weight: 40 g (1.4 oz) in Kraft-alu pack -
Old Bush Zhilan, bouquet dancong, 40 g
Cool Energy, Fenghuang | Phoenix, Floral Aromas, Fuller Bodies, Oolongs, TeaUS$43.8鳳凰烏崠、丹湖老欉芝蘭香
From the same small farm that produces our beloved Danhu Old Bush Song Cultivar, old Master Lin tends three venerable bushes that his father planted in his youth, now about 80 years old, crafting from them a seductively fragrant Zhilan Xiang. As a dancong bush gains age in its natural environment, the tea from its leaves has the potential for greater complexity taste and aroma. This is a distinctive trait of this oldest form of oolong. That is one reason harvests from older bushes are keenly sought after by connoisseurs. For a bouquet dancong, however, achieving perfection depends not only on the terroir and the mastery of processing but also on the precise weather and leaf condition at harvest. Unlike classic dancong, where there are a few more steps in which the tea master has some room to compensate for less-than-ideal circumstances, the fewer steps and shorter time in bouquet-style processing has less margin for error note. That means some years are distinctively better than others. That is why for a harvest as nearly perfect as this one, it is a blessing.
Net weight: 40 g (1.4 oz) in Kraft-alu pack -
Fengxi Old Ginger, classic Fenghuang dancong oolong, 40 g
Fenghuang | Phoenix, Floral Aromas, Fuller Bodies, Neutral-Cool Energy, Oolongs, TeaUS$32.8鳳西 老欉薑母香
Tea Hong's Fengxi Old Ginger offers a floral, fruity profile with a ginger tone, and even a tiny hint of that spicy bite. Its elegant bouquet is luxuriously rich and complex, yet intricate and delicate. This distinctive olfactory presence and its intriguing gingery zest make the tea a unique choice in the classic style Phoenix oolong line up. Jiangmu Xiang, as the tea is called in the romanisation of the original name, has a slightly different origin too: about 10min on the motorbike to the east of Wudong — the Mecca of Fenghuang dancong — in the area of Fengxi, where the original 200+year-old tree has been propagated to the hundreds of production ones. Newer ones are now found elsewhere but we stay with the older clones which yields can give deeper and fuller characteristics of the tea. Like all our classic style Phoenixes, the tea has been rested a few months after harvest before the finishing rebake, and then matured amply before release, as in the proper old tradition.
Net weight: 40 g (1.4 oz) in Kraft-alu pack -
FIR Houjicha, far-infrared roasted green tea petioles, 40 g
Green teas, Japan, Lighter Aromas, Milder Tastes, Neutral Energy, TeaUS$16.8遠赤外線 深煎りほうじ茶
An old style petiole tea much elevated using modern technology
Much like roasting green coffee beans to brown colour for making a dark colour drink, a houjicha is a green tea that is deeply roasted. Unlike in China or Taiwan, where a large variety of oolongs and black teas are there readily to choose from for deep baking or roasting, producers in Japan mostly have only green tea to work with. While it sounds straight forward, to find one which taste is respectable is not easy. The very brittle nature of Japanese green tea leaves does not yield much taste when deep roasted. Roasted bancha — i.e. houjicha of lower grade leaves — which is often served in any neighbourhood eateries, is an example. Since larger, older and under-processed leaves are used and the final quality reflects that. There is one kind of houjicha, however, that caught our attention: that from one of our Uji producers who has mastered the process of roasting using a far-infrared system. Much like in our Karigane where the relative higher cellulose and carbohydrate contents in the petioles gives a sweeter and a relatively more complex dimension, this far infrared deep roasted version of purely small leaf stalks does have a pleasantly warm and tidily intact taste profile. My first encounter with something similar was a small cup served after a luxurious crab kaiseki meal in a pristinely beautiful traditional formal style restaurant. It was quite an impressive surprise. To me, this easy going tea doesn’t have to be enjoyed only after an expensive meal. It can be easily infused using a hot or cold infusion method and it is quite forgiving of irregularities. It suits a lot of occasions where tea is a complement. And it is a nice one.
Net weight: 40g (1.4oz) in Kraft-alu pack -
Sold out
GABA Bouquet, a special white tea, 40 g
Floral Aromas, Fuller Bodies, Neutral-Cool Energy, Organic teas, Taiwan, Tea, White teasUS$20.4天然培育 伽瑪芳香白茶
A very rare white tea
Mr Yu rarely wears shoes and walks in his little tea fields barefooted. He loves the contact with the soil that he keeps so naturally fertile, and uncontaminated. So much so that we smell the sweetness walking into his garden. He brews his own fertilisers and devises various ways of natural pest control. He is so into natural farming that a national university has setup quite a few joint projects with him. He totally worships Nature but his hobby is mechanical engineering. He proudly showed me the GABA deoxygenation tank that he modified and explained to me how it is better in processing the tea. Tea Hong’s GABA Bouquet is an invention by him. I have yet to find another tea with this kind of fruity bouquet, smoothness and even a good umami tone. He tried quite a few times before arriving at this distinctive taste quality. This is a rare batch and we can only restock when everything will work the same in the next production. It’s all dependent on Nature after all.
Net weight: 40 g (1.4 oz) in Wide kraft-alu pack -
Phoenix Petioles 1988, matured leaf stalk oolong, 40 g
Fenghuang | Phoenix, Fuller Bodies, Neutral Energy, Oolongs, TeaUS$20.1私藏 陳年鳳凰莖茶
Phoenix tea farmers’ tea
In Phoenix, before a tea goes through the last round of baking to be ready for consumption, it is sorted manually to get rid of the leaf stalks (i.e. petioles), broken leaves, and other leaves that are not as nicely rolled or processed as the others (aka Yu Ye). The producer retains such “refuse”, rebakes it and keep it for personal use or give it out to their neighbours and relatives. They call it cha tou or thê-tao in the local language, as in “Tea Head”*. Provided the right quality, the taste of thê-tao, despite their irregularity in appearance, is actually sweeter and softer than the leaf tea from the same plant and a lot more flexible and tolerant with brewing mistakes. Presenting Tea Hong’s Phoenix Petioles 1988, a thê-tao collected between 1985 to 1988 by our top Phoenix producer. Because of the decades long maturity given onto the tea, it exhibits a post-fermentation characteristics somewhat alike those of finer shu cha Pu’ers — earthy, woodsy, herbal and pacifyingly herbal sweet, combined with an underlying and unmistakable matured Phoenix undertone. A unique taste experience unlike anything else.
Net weight: 40 g (1.4 oz) in Kraft-alu pack -
Moss Island 2018, shengcha Pu’er maocha, pu-erh, 40 g
Cold Energy, Fuller Bodies, Home, Pu'er loose leaf shengcha, Pu'er teas, Stronger Tastes, Tea, YunnanUS$21.3明前冰島 正宗勐庫大葉生茶
Bing Dao Maocha
Leaves from Bing Dao look definitively different as from, say, those of Pasha. It is a different variety of Yunnan Da Ye tea tree1 — Mengku Da Ye (Mengku Big Leaf), that differentiates itself not only with the larger leaf size, but also an accent of crispy sweetness. It is believed that Bing Dao — Island of Moss2 — is the birthplace of the tea tree variety. Variants and cultivars of Mengku Da Ye are used popularly in the county of Mengku3 for both black and pu'er tea production. Some say it began in late 15th century when a governor asked locals to plant 200 seeds here to start tea production. That would become the tens of thousand in this area where the Mengku variety is found to be genetically the most pure. Less than 20% of variation in their DNA, quite impressive for over 500 years of unmanaged sexual propagation in the wild. I think this batch is exceptional in manifesting the characteristics of this unique tea tree. It is a premium harvest. If you are interested, compare this loose leaf form with the compressed form » Bing Dao 2014 that is also available at Tea Hong.
Net weight: 40 g (1.4 oz) in wide Kraft-alu pack -
Pasha Old Tree 2017, shengcha Pu’er maocha, 40 g
Cold Energy, Floral Aromas, Fuller Bodies, Home, Pu'er loose leaf shengcha, Pu'er teas, Tea, YunnanUS$25.7帕沙野生老樹 生茶
Maocha from Wild Old Trees
Of all the sub-regions in Yunnan, Pasha is my personal favourite for shengcha. Its yields are typically more floral, rounder and sweeter yet still carrying the terra’s characters of a little punch. We have included also a cha bing (Pasha 2013) in our Pu’er offering in addition to this premium harvest loose leaf maocha. Although both are produced with top picks from this same area, the two different forms deliver different, yet somehow related taste profiles. The pure, gentle, direct and honest rawness of the loose leaf is a different kind of enjoyment from the transformed taste characteristics of the compressed form. Similar leaves, two teas. Compare them to find out which one you like better. It may tell a thing or two about yourself. We have matured the loose leaf for 7 years before making it available for a better representation of the true Pasha quality.
Net weight: 40 g (1.4 oz) in wide Kraft-alu pack -
Moon Drops Himalayas, deep oxidation Nepali white tea, 40 g
Floral Aromas, Fuller Bodies, Nepal, the Himalayas, Neutral-Cool Energy, Organic teas, Tea, White teasUS$29.3चाँदीको चाँदी हिमालय
When a Taiwanese marries a Japanese in Nepal
The tougher terroir of the Himalayas usually gives a more rugged characteristic to the yield. Yet the ingenious farmer of Tea Hong's Moon Drop Himalayas has employed the creamy Jinxuan ( 金萱 ) cultivar from Taiwan and the umami Yabukita ( やぶきた ) from Japan to produce this tea. Their softer nature most definitely tones down the harsher growing environment to give this tea an extraordinarily round body, accompanied with a sweetness and bouquet that one can hardly find in any other South Asian productions. An extra step of rolling is added to the end of the white tea withering process to develop more depth in the taste profile. This is indeed an unusual gem of white tea. However, maintaining the East Asian tea plants in the Himalayas is not an easy job and getting a good yield from them is even more demanding. We have been following this tea for almost a decade before deciding to carry it. A fine batch as this one on offer is rare.
Net weight: 40 g (1.4 oz) in Kraft-alu pack -
Bai Hua Shu 2012, shengcha Pu’er maocha, 40 g
Cold Energy, Floral Aromas, Pu'er loose leaf shengcha, Pu'er teas, Stronger Tastes, Tea, YunnanUS$33.8一年一採 百花樹
One Hundred Flower Trees
Going pass the famous Jingmai tea region and deep into the rocky mountains of Lancang Lahu, 1800m above sea level into the turf of the Haqniq ( aka Hani ) tribes, enter the ancient hermit village of One Hundred Flower Trees ( hence the name Bai Hua Shu ). The tougher climate here maybe a little too rough for domesticated tea cultivars, so only indigenous tea trees grow here, and they are really old. The locals say all are at least 200 hundred years. They are harvested only once a year for their first flush. The fresh tea is always very potent. We have matured it for over 10 years to make sure their beautifully tamed characters can be well manifested in your cup.
Net weight: 40 g (1.4 oz) in wide Kraft-alu pack -
Western Half of the Mountain 2015, shengcha Pu’er maocha, 40 g
Cold Energy, Floral Aromas, Pu'er loose leaf shengcha, Pu'er teas, Stronger Tastes, Tea, YunnanUS$16.9臨滄 勐庫西半山 大葉生毛茶
Mengku Maocha 2015 — Mengku Xi Ban Shan
Rough terrains, with altitudes ranging from 1000’s to over 3000 m make up almost 100% of the total 475 km2 of Mengku, in the subregion of Lincang in Yunnan. The uneven landscape is interlaced with huge rocks and subtropical forests. That may explain why for over 500 years the production of tea has been a major means of livelihood for the indigenous tribes here. Old tea trees exist in patches here and there. Sometimes there is a single huge one which immediate surrounding would be cleared for pickers to work during harvests. While leaves from the east side of this cluster of mountains are known for their strong character, those produced on the west side are sweeter, silkier and more gentle. I think the latter is better in the form of maocha. We have matured this batch for 9 years for your better enjoyment, and friendlier to the stomach.
Net weight: 40 g (1.4 oz) in wide Kraft-alu pack -
Jade Orchid, bouquet Phoenix dancong oolong, 40 g
Fenghuang | Phoenix, Floral Aromas, Neutral-Cool Energy, Oolongs, TeaUS$21.4雪片玉蘭香
Xue Pian Yu Lan Xiang
One of the most common practices in tea naming in the Fenghuang region is giving a tea the name of the flower which the farmer associates the aroma with. Some of such flowers are fictitious, yet some are real. Like this one, Yu-lan, after the flower tree Magnolia denudata, a.k.a. Yulan magnolia. Jade orchid — as the name "Yulan" is translated — is a tree native to the region where Phoenix is. The tea cultivar itself is relatively new, having been developed locally by a farmer Wei Li Man in the 1980’s. That is why the more popular name for the plant itself amongst local farmers is Li Man zhong, or Li Man’s cultivar. To me, the winter harvest resembles the flower’s aroma more closely so we select only this for Tea Hong’s Jade Orchid. This tea is also available in a small portion as a part of Tea Taster’s Box: Nine Oolong Samplers.
Net weight: 40 g (1.4 oz) in Kraft-alu pack -
Aura of the Night, bouquet Phoenix dancong oolong, 40 g
Fenghuang | Phoenix, Floral Aromas, Fuller Bodies, Neutral-Cool Energy, Oolongs, TeaUS$33.2鳳凰單欉 獅頭 夜來香
Yelai Xiang Dancong
The complex, yet bright and lively floral aroma of this tea is associated with a native flower, yelai xiang, aka Chinese violet. It is a vine yielding light yellow small flowers that are especially fragrant at night, hence the name, yelai xiang — the fragrance that comes in the night, from which we have derived our product name. The plant is native in Guangdong province and neighbouring areas. It is the province where the Phoenix region situates. It has taken us some work to get to Lion Head Peak ( see below for more about the origin ) to acquire this best quality representation of the variety. Please enjoy.
Net weight: 40 g (1.4 oz) in Kraft-alu pack -
Sold out
Huo Shan Yellow Tips, traditional yellow tea, 40 g
Fuller Bodies, Green teas, Huangshan & Anhui, Lighter Aromas, Neutral-Cool Energy, Tea, Yellow teasUS$24.8明前正品 霍山黃芽
Renaissance of a millennium old tribunal yellow tea
For the same refreshing, cleansing sensation as the finest Huangshan Maofeng, ample green tea’s health constituents, yet with the absence of astringency, a yellow tea like Huo Shan Huang Ya ( i.e. Yellow Tips ) is a best choice. This superb first flush selection is produced almost like a Maofeng green tea but lightly oxidised by covering the tea when it is still very warm during processing. The heat converted some of the leaf constituents into simpler sugars. This particular step gives a softer, sweeter and much easier taste but as delightfully quenching and more body. The concept of this technique has been millennium old, yet it is only in recent years that really fine tasting products become available and accessible. Distinctive as Tea Hong’s Huo Shan Yellow Tips is still rare.
Net weight: 40 g (1.4 oz) in Kraft-alu pack
