Dongding Oolong Tea Origin | Taiwan Tea Development History and Origin Story Assam No.8 Black Tea Variety Flavor

If you have been drinking tea for some time, you may already know that Taiwan is famous for its excellent oolong tea. Their alpine oolong is of extraordinary quality, their oriental beauty is magical, they all feel happy after tasting their Wenshan bag, and Dongding Oolong Tea who has tasted them all feel cured.

Over the past century, Taiwan has actually put a lot of work into improving their black tea game. This month's tea party will explore their black tea.

From 1895 to 1945, Taiwan was basically occupied by Japan. At that time, the Japanese wanted to develop the black tea industry in Taiwan for two reasons: one was to reduce the competition between Taiwan green tea and Japanese green tea, and the other was to increase the output of exported tea (mainly black tea).

After a period of trial and error with imported Chinese tea varieties, the Japanese colonial government (through the Black Tea Institute they established) began to try to grow and produce black tea with seeds they imported from the northeastern Indian state of Assam.

These Assam plants grow very well in Taiwan (Nantou County). This kind of tea, known as "East Sun Black Tea" (East Sun Black Tea), is very popular.

During the Japanese colonial period, wild tea trees in Taiwan were also "rediscovered", and some black tea was made from these plants. This kind of tea is called "Taiwan Camellia". The quantity of this kind of tea is small, so it was not really put into commercial production until recently.

In 1945, the Japanese colonial government was expelled, but the Tea Institute, now known as TRES (Tea Research and Promotion Station) continued their work to develop black tea (and other types).

Their early works are Assam # 8 and Ruby # before the age of 18 basically the Taiwanese version of Assamica, the latter is very famous for mixing native Taiwan wild tea trees I mentioned earlier, an Assamica plant from Myanmar or Yunnan (lack of historical literature).

I mentioned these two kinds of tea because they are very famous Taiwan black tea, and Assam 8 is one of the island teas.

This month, we will launch two new Taiwan black teas: 2020 Organic Golden Egret 17 and 2020 Green Heart Honey Black Tea, plus a small amount of 2020 Assam 8 tea to complete this dialogue.

2020 Organic Golden Egret 17 comes from TRES # 17, a variety developed by TRES in 1983 for black tea, green tea and Oriental Meilong tea.

It is also known as egret 17. Tea itself is a kind of full-leaf (not broken) black tea with rich taste. I find it particularly smooth and satisfactory.

It has a honey flavor, which is called "honey fragrance" by growers in Taiwan, which is most prominent in Oriental Mei Oolong tea. It is not as flashy as the Green Heart, but I find that its lack of "freshness" has been made up for in terms of smooth body and comfortable drinking.

The green heart honey black tea in 2020 is made from Qingxin, which was brought to Taiwan by the Japanese colonial government in the early days of the occupation of Taiwan (around 1895). This variety, native to China, is mainly used in high-altitude oolong tea.

It is a very picky plant and is difficult to grow, so tea made from green heart is often more expensive. I think you may taste the oolong tea expression of this tea. It's really beautiful, bright and lively. This is definitely "honey-scented" tea.

2020 Taiwan Assam No. 8 tastes mellow, with Assam's molasses and cereal flavor, but the taste is smoother and less astringent. This is a kind of tea we have all the year round, but I'd like to give you some because you have a month to explore Taiwan black tea.

For all these teas, whether western / large teapot soaking or kung fu soaking is good. Most people generally make western black tea because they like to drink a lot of black tea in the morning and do not pay enough attention to Kungfu Tea at 7 o'clock in the morning.

If you brew these teas by brewing Kungfu Tea, they are actually very flexible. They can be soaked quickly, starting for about 25 seconds, followed by an increase in soaking time, or even a minute for the first time.

In addition to the most basic guidelines for making tea, it is actually the same as brewing coffee. As long as you like the taste of that cup of tea, it is a good cup of tea.