Oolong Tea Competition in Taiwan

This is a very typical wall that filled up with all sorts of awards from many many tea contests.  It could be popularly seen in farmers' places while visiting every Taiwan's tea district.

Do you know the first tea contest in Taiwan actually started by Lugu Farmers' Association back in 1976?  History has it!   (*Nowadays, there are more than 4000 various contests in different levels, styles, and tea varieties every year. )

If you want to learn more about Taiwan Oolong, do visit this recently renovated 'Tea Culture Museum in Lugu' and enjoy the best Classic Tung-Ting at its origin.

On 10/26/2015, we were there with our 2015 TOST friends.  Our hearty appreciation to Director Lin's hospitality.

A dream to come true...

Enjoy so much on this 2014 Labor Day Long Weekend... 
So many good things, good time with family and friends.  And the visit to Reagan Library is the most impressive one.
How about you?

I'm still dreaming of delivering a talk on Taiwan Oolong with standing ovation... Or, having fine Oolong in White House with our President...hahahah

A tea song dedicated to the young couple...

"Where does one find good tea?
Unbroken sweat from the pores of their skin;
Gardening, plucking, withering, fluffing, panning,
rolling and baking;  
The graceful look, charming aroma, distinguished taste, lingering finish... all shown in their tea."

The following story to share with you...while you enjoy a cup of Taiwan Oolong.

Although it is often said, Good Oolong is to be encountered, not to be made as desired. Yet, we have met one couple in Reili, Alishan... A typical young tea farmer in Taiwan, who seems to have different approach.

With their endless efforts to follow the wisdom and discipline from their father, step by step... from Gardening, Leaf Plucking, Solar and Indoor Withering, Fluffing and Tumbling to manage the oxidation, Panning, Rolling, Baking...They do it all with their hearts and enormous efforts ...Every season, anxiously to present the tea they made with graceful look, charming aroma, distinguished taste and lingering finish for each cup infused.

They have tried to improve their tea garden with modern dripping irrigation system and adding new cultivars; got ISO22000 certified for their tea factory; and attend seminars in TRES to learn new techniques for making new Brandy Oolong and Classic Tung-Ting. They also are generous to open their facility for our TOST members to hands on study. I was speechless while Hung-Cheng calmly told me in our scouting trip back on March 2011, right at his tea garden with heavy spring rain pouring ... "How much rain we will get... is up to mother nature, but the sweat...all depends on how much effort I want to devote..." He did inspire me to write down that "兩人汗水滴落間" in my lyrics.

It is easy to say, yet definitely not easy to accomplish what they have done. I truly respect the young couple and will like to dedicate this song to them, Mr. & Mrs. Wang.

Please enjoy a YouTube film of this song...

Tea Cozy, keeps your tea warm, makes your room cozy, and your heart happy!

 These grass-woven Tea Cozies that we bought at a small Hakka village in Taiwan on our way to visit tea gardens in Miaoli during March 2010. A few aged ladies were making these tea cozies to support their families and raise their grand children while their parents working at the cities.... In Taiwanese, they called these tea cozy, 茶壽, what a great imagination for a tea cozy. We were told the idea was originally from the Bird's Nest...and now it become an energy saving warmer for our tea, and makes our room cozy. When we are relaying our orders to those ladies...from our friends and our fellow tea colleagues...we know we are also making many families happy! We sure will like to keep this handcraft to be preserved and will also further introduce it to the upcoming World Tea Expo. Josephine and I plan to have one as the raffle drawing prize.
If your tea rooms or your tea shops plan to get one, we will be more than happy to serve. Every piece is different in size, weight, and the fabrics also varies. >

Julie Huang's tea presentation in HK (6/15/2010)

My niece, Julie Huang currently lives in Hong Kong. Her daughter's school invites her to make a presentation about her tea family story...so...Julie sent me a S.O.S for some photos from old days that linked to her father, Jackson Huang and her grandpa - Ebisu Huang, the founder of ABC TEA and Sha Keng Tea Manufactory in Hsinchu, Taiwan. These are very precious photos and bring back many glorious memories of our family tea business.

Pictures say it all...

On 7/3/2009, Josephine and I traveled down to southern Taiwan to visit a couple who's working on Organic tea plantation. (It is a remarkable story about this couple - Big Elephant, Mr. and Mrs. Yang, we took a lot of pictures on their "future" tea gardens...and hard to believe that we were simply 3 month late to eyewitness their USDA Certified Organic Tea plantation. We will take our time to re-arange the photos and work on a details report on this couple.)

On the way back to Taipei, we stopped by the house of Mr. Liu (father of Mrs. Yang, also a passionate tea farmer moved down from Lugu, Nantou County to live at Pingtung) to have teas. We saw two photos hanged on the wall, which indeed are very interesting. Jospehine and I both agreed that these two pictures are telling a great story...

Who will feel comfortable to let a 20 Month old boy to hands on playing with the fresh plucked tea leaves, if these tea leaves were not organically grown?

Grandpa was leading his grandson to smell the leaf's fragrance during the indoor withering...boys...here comes another new Tea Master! (Look how seriously he is...)

Join the Thomas Club

In many of my tea presentations over the last two decades, I often share this story with my audience. (One couple, also my long time good friends, like my story so much, and they decided to include this story in thier first tea book.)
It was back on my first Englsih class at the junior high in Taiwan. My teacher insisted that every student in his class got to have a western first name for the conversation practices. I don't want to jump into a quick-pick, but seems that whichever I like someone else already took it. At the dinner table, I consulted it with my eldest brother, Jackson. He suggested that since our family's legacy in the tea business goes back in generations, maybe I can try to look for certain name of tea man of significance.

Looks what I have found:

• Thomas garway - the first English coffee house proprietor to offer tea.
  
• Thomas Rawlinson - Founder of Mitre tavern, eventually to become Davidson, Newman & Co.
• Thomas Twining - Proprietor of "Tom's", the first retail outlet for tea to welcome women.
  
• Thomas Lipton - The irascible Irishman who founded Lipton Teas.
  
• Thomas Sullivan - The serendipitious inventor of the tea bag.

The list is getting longer...and I made my decision that I want to join the "Thomas Club", a wishful thinking: one day I will have my footprint on the map of tea.