Tea for the Tillerman October 23, 2012
Just arrived 6000 ft Ali shan. Some seriously windy roads, a great driver, and tired from a good long day. We visited another tea research station in yuchi for a tea cupping of some newly released cultivars. Delicious highly oxidized, not quite black teas that Thomas has dubbed Brandy oolong.
Then we visited dong-feng farm near Sun Moon Lake for some muscle building tea rolling. We were each given a basket of freshly withered leaves to roll. Rolling breaks the cells of the plant, releasing the juices and prepared the leaves for drying. It took about 45 minutes to get them to the proper condition. The aroma coming off the leaves from this process was amazing: very camphor and cinnamon like.
After our workout, we climbed up the mountain in our little van, as we told hair-raising stories of other mountain bus trips we had survived. This is a really fun group! Tomorrow is an 18 hour jade oolong manufacturing day. I absolutely love it here. Plus, I got some great video of an organic tea garden that butted up against a sheer half mile drop off the mountain. Can’t wait to share it with you when I get back to Austin!
-Dr. Oolong