Discover the Oolong Triad of "Yilan Charm" !

"Yilan Charm" - an isolated Taiwan Oolong tea district that will gradually gain its popularity...
In old days, before the World's 5th longest Hsuehshan Tunnel was finally completed on 6/16/2006, usually it will take like forever to drive from Taipei City to Yilan County on the Northeastern Taiwan. "9 Turns 18 Bends" along the roadway, very scary and most people will try to avoid. Now, less than 45 minutes of driving...we can visit this beautiful region.
Many tea farmers here are actually from my home town, Hsinchu County. They climbed over the mountain to settle down at the new homeland yet continue to grow tea and have their tea gardens...Carry on the Hakka heritage...which includes Hakka Tea Mountain Love Songs, of course. The soil, the climate, plus no air pollution... the tea from this tea district quietly enjoyed by domestic tea lovers...or used to be sold at different names. We started to visit this tea region since TOST 2008, and we've made good friendship with tea farmers here ever since. Yilan Charm, is what I am going to use for the tea from this region...and I am going to share with the tea World how simple and pure their teas are.

Jade Oolong - sku#60458
Cultivar: Chinsin Oolong
Lightly oxidized about 12%-15%
Crop: Spring, 2011
Lusciously floral fragrant (osmanthus, jasmine, orchid...mixed)
Taste: very similar to a fine Wenshan Pouchong with natural sweet finish, yet this one has richer body plus aroma seems to be better sealed.


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Amber Oolong - sku#80452
Cultivar: Chinsin Oolong
Lightly oxidized about 25%-35%
Crop: Spring, 2011
Floral fragrant with smoothly toasty aroma.
Taste: Very nutty and balanced...soothing and pleasant. A mastery baking job with good tea base. I find the third and forth infusions of this tea are still very enjoyable.


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Milk Oolong - sku#60459
Cultivar: Jin Suang Oolong
Lightly oxidized about 12%-15%
Crop: Spring, 2011
Lusciously floral fragrant with a milk note.
Taste: The special cultivar plus the excellent soil condition, this tea offers a very refreshing and delightful cup, and the natural milky flavor could be picked up in the taste., definitely not any modification in the process. For those tea lovers who are in pursuit of natural Milk Oolong, this one is recommended.


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Give another look on these 3 Oolongs...

Personal Tea Service

This is my new toy... bought it at the LA Tea Fest last weekend.
I thought I could introduce it to some tea room owners...if they are thinking to have their customers to do the hands on tea infusion, instead of get serving from the kitchen...

Compact enough. Easy to serve.
Originally, this is a coffee set...so there comes a small creamer holder.
I decided to add a mesh-filter to the set, so it could be converted to a personal tea set.
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The creamer will be used to vessel the dry leaf first., and after the leaf poured in teapot, it will be a resting place for the mesh-filter. The leaf will be pre-measured with one table spoon...
Suggest customers to pour hot water in the tea cup, and then pour in teapot. This way, the tea
will be just enough for one tea cup to serve, no extra tea remains in the teapot and not to worry about over-steeping.

What do you think?

First Annual Los Angeles International Tea Festival (2011-8-13)

Having a very mixed feeling after the First Los Angeles International Tea Festival...

This tea event is a great success for its First year.

The reason this event is successful, per my personal observation:

1.) Location:

Little Tokyo is a very International community, the regular tourists plus the public transportation is well linked around...make it an easy accessed place to have event. JANM is a great museum that have good exhibition and also good facility to offer our tea exhibitors an excellent supports.

2.) Timing:

The Ni Sei Week in Little Tokyo is happening on the same weekend, this is a great and exciting pulling power for our attendees. Plus, we have taken the new internet media...with Group On and MeetUp, two excellent tools... Our attendees were able to get reached with full information. The attendees are very well categorized, they know tea very well...

3.) Supports:

JANM - museum's Board Directors are very helpful to give us the best supports on almost everything. Chado Tea Room is taking a great lead for this event. The local tea vendors, almost all are stepping up to make this event possible and repectful. The tea society of Southern California is amazingly alive...they help to mobilize the attendees for this tea events.

4.) Team Efforts:

A bunch of non-professional staff is pulling together to plan and run a professional tea festival...The volunteers are excellent... Together we accomplish the mission...I have to congrats to our core team - Devan, Reena, Faith and Tak.