Azusa Tea Club (10/22/2011) - Taiwan Tea's Next

We have organized a tea meet up by Azusa Tea Club at Kuanshi, Hsinchu on 10/22/2011. The topic is "Taiwan Tea's Next" and we open this forum to local Taiwan tea elite to join with our 2011 TOST members for the discussion after visiting three tea museums in the area that used to play very important role in Taiwan's tea history. Many local tea entrepreurs have not eyewitnessed those "good old days" and hard to imagine how those "giant" tea factories were used to operate... from the photos, the films, and from the layout of old sites... it is a great opportunity for them to meet up with our visiting tea professionals...and together we can share our viewpoints on what will be our Next. Professor Lynn Lin and Mr. CS Lou, two of our advisors for Taiwan Tea Institute got chance to hear us out and also share their opinions. Marketing and production must be working well together for Taiwan tea. We do hope these members of TOST will turn out to be Ambassadors of Taiwan Tea in the Northern America. Azusa Tea Club via meetup.com can truly help orgainze some meaningful events like this one.

Azusa Tea Club (11/19/2011) - Cupping & Tasting "Yilan Charm"

11/19/2011 at Baldwin Park, Ca.
We were cupping and tasting three Oolongs from Yilan, Taiwan.
I have picked a good name "Yilan Charm" for fine Taiwan oolongs grown and made our of this tea district. The Jade Oolong we select from the Chinsin Oolong cultivar., the Milk Oolong, which is Jin Suang cultivar and the baked Amber Oolong is Chinsin Oolong cultivar.
Karen helped us to prepare the three samples for our cupping and learning about these teas.
And, at the sit down session, we used our new glass cups to taste each tea that was infused with Q-Teapot made by ForLife Design.
We do enjoy a wonderful afternoon with great Yilan Charm.

(*for more details about these 3 Yilan Charm: please refer to our another link )

Cupping 3 Oriental Beauty (11/11/2011)

Ready for the cupping on three Oriental Beauty - almost can tell the difference from the dry leaf. Yet, what will be your choice? when considering the cost of each tea...Tea business is that much challenge and also fun in dealing. Easy to pick better tea...but not necessary will be the right tea for your market and your customers...

Be patient...3 grams, 150 ml of rolling boiled water, and set for 5 minutes....

It is time for the journey of finding the specialty note in cup and also in the wet leaf...apparently these are not from the summer crop...

Have one more closer shot....

Thanks to my tea friend, Mo accompanies me for this cupping from Northern California...

Mo Sardella the one on the right looks promising. nice looking wet leaf...wish I could taste with you!

Thomas Shu Mo - actually the middle one has my attention...yet these 3 all fail to offer the Honey touch I am looking for...and the wet leaf of each just proves the answer to me. Oriental Beauty should have a precise remark on the season, and also on the fresh leaf that selected for the tea to be processed. These will be okay to be marketed as White Tip Oolongs, yet definitely not Oriental Beauty or PON FON CHA.