Taiwan, the Paradise of Camellia sinensis !

(Tea bushes grow happily and vigorously in n Meishan, Jiayi)

(Jin Shuan, Gin Suan)

(Si-Ji-Chun, Evergreen, Four Season Spring)

(Ruby 18)

(Chin Sin Oolong)

(Chin Sin Dah Pan)

(Tsui Yu)

Opening Ceremony of 2010 TOST at TTMA office back on 10/17/2010, there were 6 plants set on display to greet our tea professionals from Northern America. These are the major Cultivars that flourish happily in tea gardens around the country. What many may not realize is that these cultivars work with Terroir to provide the unique aroma, fragrance, flavor as the backbone of each fine Taiwan Oolong.

A few members asked me whether there is any easy way to tell the difference among these bushes. I just smiled...and replied, "...be their friends, and you will get to know them well, and very soon you will be able to identify each of these cultivars..."

Guess what? Our members did spend a good whole week to hands on study Taiwan teas on the tea fields, at the tea plants, in the tea shops,...they have heard so much about these cultivars in different occasions along the trip, and they learned about why farmers prefer to select one over another for particular reason; or tea masters insist to use the leaf plucked from one specific cultivar to make a specialty tea... Oh yes, cultivars play such an important role in Taiwan tea's quality. And the air, the water, the soils,...the unique environment in Taiwan's mountains and hills that offer our tea bushes to posses the unsurpassed "terroir".

We should also not forget our Senbai (TeaCha, teachers) in Taiwan tea industry,... their experience, knowledge, craftsmanship and wisdom passed on generation to generation.

Over the Christmas and New Year breaks, I thought of having all these key ingredients that make Taiwan tea so marvelous, to be included in my new Hakka lyrics for this tea song to praise for the nature's best plants that grow in Taiwan --

Taiwan, the Paradise of Camellia sinensis !

台灣--茶樹介天堂 (用 鄧雨賢「望春風」曲)

台灣實在好地方 茶樹介天堂
好山好水好氣候 好茶滿山頭
紅茶綠茶烏龍茶 各有老茶客
代代茶人恁打拼 台茶基礎正

青心烏龍好種草 茶甘香氣高
金萱翠玉四季春 滿奈多人種
紅玉十八新品種 滋味當出眾
青心大冇若著涎 膨風茶盡展

台灣實在好地方 茶樹介天堂
好山好水好氣候 好茶出風頭
包種半球老凍頂 東方美人夯
代代茶人愛煞猛 保住好名聲

(*You will have to wait for the video of actual singing...

coming soon in World Tea Expo 2011 at Las Vegas!)