High Mountain Taiwan Oolong
In May of this year, Nono and I had the opportunity to visit a tea harvest at a high mountain tea farm in central Taiwan. It was an awesome experience, and it was great for us to see how it all happens – from the picking to roasting to tasting. We were not a part of a tour or anything, it was a “friend of a friend’s” farm and he let us participate in the spring harvest.
I’ve got the pictures in this album on Picasa, here are a couple of highlights.
This was taken from the mid-elevation point on the farm. We were at about 1800m elevation. Supposedly, tea can be considered high mountain if is produced about 1200m elevation. The air was so clean and fresh up there!
This picture shows the farm and the processing buildings. The larger looking building on the right is used only for drying. It’s a big open room with a big blower inside. The building on the left is where the tea is processed and where people sleep.
Here the freshly picked leaves are drying. After a couple of hours, they’ll be put inside to dry further. They will dry between a half day and an entire day based upon the temperature, humidity, etc.
Here is a process where heat is applied to the leaves. They roll around in this big dryer. After a minute or two of this, they’ll be put into a bag and crunched / rolled for a few minutes. These two processes are reaped many many times (about 40 ) until the tea is done. The drying process opens the tea leaves and drys them out, while the rolling compacts and closes them.
Tea tasting is constantly happening during the processing. Grab a handful of tea, put it in a bowl and pour boiling hot water on it. They also put a spoon in there which is used to smell the tea. I was surprised at how much emphasis is put on the smell of the tea.
It was great to see another side of Taiwan; Getting off the beaten path. Going up into the mountains, breathing the fresh air, being around all the tea…It was awesome. I believe the best Oolong teas in the world are from Taiwan – and there’s lots of them around here!
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