Saturday, October 10, 2009

2009 TOST - How "Honey Oolong" is made? (6/25/2009@Taitung)


In the morning of 6/25/2009, we are visiting TRES Taitung Branch. We are the first group of tea pros from US and Canada that ever visit this Branch.
Before we were guided to the class room for the briefing and introduction, Mr. Wu, the Director of Taitung Branch, led us to their pilot tea plant to check out the tea leaf that spreaded on the bamboo trays for indoor withering... This is a special arrangement, so that our members got chance to see the so called "Honey Oolong" processing two hours later, after our briefing and cupping that prepared by Director Wu's team.
Taitung Branch under Director Wu, currently is working very hard to help their local tea farmers (including Hualien, Taitung, and Pingtung Counties) to experiment the Organic Practice, and Non-Toxic Practice (*means not to use Pesticides) in their tea plantations. They believe the special insects, the legendary Green Leaf Hoppers, might help them to produce excellent green tea, black tea and oolongs in this tea district with a very unique Honey touch.
The farmers will not waste the long summer crop in this district. Pluck the tea leaves that got
bitten by Green Leaf Hoppers, most tea leaves will be in one young sprout with 2 tender leaves intact. Besides the tea leaf, have you found any difference that our tea master has done differently after the leaves were pan-fired?
I have brought up an issue and also discussed with our group members: Honey Green, Honey Black, or Honey Oolong...might mislead consumers to the traditional flavored teas that with Honey flavoring added to it. Actually, these are naturally processed without any flavoring added...the unique Honey touch is due to the raw leaves they plucked and also the craftsmanship in tea processing. After our trip back from Taiwan, I have tried to create a trade mark: "Paoli" (please refer to the picture attached in this post.) I am thinking to name these teas: Paoli Green, Paoli Black, Paoli Oolong...instead of Honey Green... Paoli is after the angel:
Jacobiasca formosana Paoli.
We hope more inputs and discussion for this topic to find the proper way to help those tea farmers promote their unique tea to the connoisseurs in the World. May I hear from you?

1 comment:

  1. So they hope to make sweet teas on the order of Oriental Beauty but processed in a different way. Fascinating. I'd like to sample those teas to see how honey-sweet they are.

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