Taiwan Origin Teas

 

Black Teas:

Line #	Name
145	Black BT Origin: Lung Tan, Toa Yuan Hsien, Taiwan Case Weight: 66 lbs Kosher: Yes A flat, flaky leaf with a dark cup and light liquor. This tea has become popular in recent years due to its low caffeine level, which is half that of regular black tea. It is an excellent tea base for heavily scented teas, such as cinnamon orange spice varieties.

 

 

Oolong Teas:

Line #	Name
27567	Oolong Fanciest Origin: O mei, Hsin Chu Hsien, Taiwan Case Weight: 5 lbs Kosher: Yes Often referred to as the "Champagne of Teas," Oolong is often the personal choice of professional tea tasters. Fancy Oolong is hand picked once a year, when the flavor is at its finest. Mostly grown in the Omei area of the Hsinchu county, the leaves are naturally curly and the tender sprouts are picked during the peak of summer. This tea is a compromise between black and green tea. The leaves are only partly oxidized and turn a greenish brown. The term "Fancy" refers to the best grade produced and is distinguished by its delicate peach pit flavor while the "restaurant" type produces a heavy, flat, dark cup, more like a low grade China black. Oolong, although not much lower in caffeine, is considerably lower in acid content than black tea. The better grades have a crisp, dry, greenish brown leaf with silver tips. The common grades have a dark brown to black appearance with cruder, shorter leaves. Oolong Fanciest is truly spectacular. It is silver tipped and its oxidation level of about 40% makes the taste incredible. This tea provides many infusions and each have a different flavor profile.
27568	Oolong Choicest Origin: O mei, Hsin Chu Hsien, Taiwan Case Weight: 22 lbs Kosher: Yes Extra large, silver tipped leaf
24270	Oolong Standard Origin: O mei, Hsin Chu Hsien, Taiwan Case Weight: 55 lbs Kosher: Yes Large coarse leaf creates a full mellow cup. Chinese restaurant style.
450	Green Dragon Oolong Origin: Luku Township, Taiwan Case Weight: 11 lbs Kosher: Yes This very lightly oxidized Oolong (less than 10%) is so sweet and floral you would think that it was perfume instead of tea. The cup is slightly buttery and nutty with a smooth finish and medium bodied mouth feel.

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Country Statistics
Area: 13,900 sq.miles (36,140 sq.km)
Capital: Taipei
Main Cities: Kaohsiung, Taichung, Tainan, Keelung
Languages: Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese
Religions: Buddhist, Taoist, Christian, Confucian
Map of Taiwan

Overview of Taiwan's Tea Production

Known in the trade as Formosa, this island country is located in a sub-tropic climate with ample sunlight, appropriate temperatures and proper rain and moisture throughout the year to make this an ideal tea growing environment with a production season from April through November. Taiwan produces tea in black, green, pouchong, flower scented and is best known for its superior Oolongs.

Tea is cultivated mostly from plants originally from the Fukien province of China. Introduced to the island by immigrant workers, tea started as a "frontier activity" in the late seventeenth century. It was not until the Treaty of Tientsin concluded the first Opium War and the opening of four Taiwanese ports to international trade in 1860 that tea became a commercially viable export. During the last part of the 1800s, tea planting, production and export grew exponentially. By 1902, tea accounted for 85% of all of Taiwan's export trade.

Recent years have seen a marked decline in the number of acres under tea. In 1972 the country showed its largest peak in production with 31,400 tons with 106,000 acres dedicated to tea. Currently there are 52,000 acres given over to the cultivation of tea, producing over 22,000 tons per year. Production per acre has gone up because of new practices in planting, picking and processing.

Taiwan's modern tea industry continues to restructure itself. Besides the obvious loss of land to more urban development, the industry continues to suffer a shortage of labor as the workforce looks for more opportunities in the urban economy. The bright spot in all this is that oolong teas are the only type of production that can be economically viable on a small scale. Taiwan's 6,000 family-owned farms can continue Oolong production without suffering from a loss of volume as will be more likely with the larger commercial farms.