Monday, August 31, 2015

Roots healthily, grows vigorously!

October 2014, Josephine and I visited Lishan tea district. Our good friend, Mr. Johnny Tu is very generous to lead us to see his tea factory, tea plantation...
On this photo, Johnny is sharing with us a tea-tip:
"How tall tea bushes are, 
expecting their healthy roots will penetrate the same depth under the ground."

"樹有多高,根就有多深。
根深入地底愈深,茶樹愈健康。
牠能吸收到更多的
茶氣與微量元素,根愈深氣愈強,乾旱時才能吸收地底下的水,深深抓住土壤,不讓牠流失。"   This is a feedback from a tea specialist, Master Lan, known as 南方嘉木.

Maybe, it is a humble suggestion to every tea professional. 



Life is colorful...



Life is colorful, and home is sweet home.
Relaxed and enjoy fine Oolongs, what else can you ask more?  
Tea is not just tea.  Bring it in your daily life. 
Find the one that fits the moment and serve it in style.

Are these Specialty Teas ?





Are these Specialty Teas ?
More and more 'jobbers' walk in or text in to inquire about some basic teas, most Green, either pan-fired or steam-fired, Black, OP or BOP, Oolong standard... They want to 'create' Specialty Teas with their own blends...
From the demand and repeating orders that make me believe some trends are going big out there. I don't want to know what are those added in the blends... Smell strong though, look pretty too, just not in my cups.
What exactly Specialty Tea trade I am in? Since APTI to STI... Still not sure.

One of my tea sensei, Mr. CS Lo, shares with me the following statement, I thought my tea friends will be interested in reading it. ----


"What is specialty tea depends on how you define it. I used to discuss with visitors on the definition of good tea, in our QandA session.
My advice is that you can only find your good tea for yourself personally after a certain period of tasting time on various teas by yourself. The maker’s specialty tea is not necessary the real good tea for you or good specialty tea for the consumer in person individually.
Specialty tea with its high quality, scarcity, high commanding price or its profound commercial promotion is indeed good for conspicuous consumption, showing your high social status symbol. To an ordinary tea-lover, such a conspicuous consumption is nonsense, waste of money and even at the expense of one’s personal health.  Specialty teas are the games of tea experts, tea connoisseurs, brokers and gifts makers and so forth.  Specialty tea has its two blind spots, poor cost performance and non-mass production. (成本太貴,不能量產).  
To me, tea is an honest product, plain in nature, easy to access and always affordable to consumers at large; and most of all, good for health and thought.  As a tea maker, I am proud of being able offer those merits to the societies at large.  After all, all businesses are local, different teas serve different local options or demands."

Saturday, August 29, 2015

Oolong service in a mixer of TUF Abt: event (8.29.2015)


Another CommuniTea Service done over the weekend...
Just want to demonstrate that the way of Oolong Serving always can be modified to fit the occasion.
Josephine and I feel that in the mixer when participants are busy networking... stemware might be better fit... Just to see the result!
In this event, we serve Formosa Bonita: Ruby 18