Last May 24th, we were graced with a beautiful full moon night in our little tea making village of Songboling, on the edge of the Baguashan ridge in Nantou County. Coincidentally, this was also a busy night in the village, not in the bars (there are none) or in other hangouts, but in the tea […]
It’s summer time and summer is conducive to taking a break from our routine. So we did! And, in the same spirit, this blog takes a break from its usual self-imposed subject matter of showcasing Taiwan by leaving the island for one short picture essay. Hong Kong is our destination. A city that never ceases […]
Of all the tea cultivars that are unique to Taiwan, none is more precious and intriguing as the wild indigenous mountain tea bush also known as Shan Cha (山茶). If you think that centuries-old wild tea trees with 30 cm leaves can only be found in the forests of Yunnan (not to forget India, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam), think again. You must add Taiwan to the list! This unique specimen is not only of great interest as a varietal tea, it is also important and revered as the father (or mother) plant to some of the most unique and distinctive tea hybrids of Taiwan.
I’ve been keeping a file of pictures on my computer for a while now, named: “Reminder to bring a tea kit next time”. Nearly all of the these pics are featured in today’s post. As the file’s name implies, these were taken as a visual reminder to bring the necessary wares to make tea and […]
Today we introduce a new category of postings called: Meet the tea makers. Most of our followers will have noticed that there is not so much space on our site devoted to long exposés on how such and such a tea tastes, or even worse, on how it should taste. We let our teas do […]
An entry full of pictures and very little words today. If it’s a rainy day in your neck of the woods like it has been for weeks here in central Taiwan, we’d like to cheer you up and show you how overcast days are probably the best moments to visit high mountain tea gardens here […]
Last April, I was in China for a short tea sourcing trip. The main purpose of this trip was to visit my father in law in Huangshan. He happens to own a tea garden and factory in the middle of one of the mythical tea terroirs of China. You might have heard of Huang Shan […]
After our blog entry about how Chinese made Yixing clay tea pots can find a justified place on a website dedicated to Taiwan’s teas and it’s uniquely rich tea culture, today, we are again exploring a cross-straight dilemma as we follow the same path to argue the case of allowing the intrusion of a Chinese […]
The reason we find Vintage Yixing teapots on a website dedicated to Taiwanese Teas and Tea Crafts has a story that starts in a classic fairy tell way: Not far away from our house lives an old man…
In our quest to secure reliable sources of organic and low pesticide teas, we’ve taken a logical but nonetheless bold step of acquiring tea gardens recently. Being able to fully control the source of your raw leaf material has become a key concern in order to ensure a quality supply of tea that meets our highest standards as well as the required conformity to certification norms. Very soon Taiwan Tea Crafts will be able to propose tailor made teas for which we will be 100% accountable and responsible for the end result… as I write this, part of me is scared shitless at this prospect. In any event, here’s the story of how we got to give a new lease on life to some abandoned tea fields in the hope of making not so bad tea with them. If all fails, at least it will have given me something to write about in the next weeks.
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