Taiwan Tea Guy

I’ve mentioned in other posts about the benefits of setting up a space to have tea at home, and how preparing ‘gung-fu’ tea in a relaxing atmosphere is a great way to unwind at the end of a long day. However, it’s also very rewarding to enjoy your tea while camping in the mountains, hanging out at the beach, or having a picnic in a park. While the logistics of transporting teaware, kettle, etc. to a suitable outdoor location may seem daunting to some, it doesn’t have to be that complicated. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, looks like we dodged a bullet this time. The typhoon veered into Hong Kong and mainland China, leaving Taiwan with a couple of days of heavy thundershowers (which can be kind of fun to watch, actually). I’m sure they’ll be other storms this summer, so stay tuned!

Part of living in Taiwan means getting used to the weather - damp, cold winters and hot, humid summers. When June rolls around, it also means dealing with the yearly typhoon season, which runs from mid June through October. Since our first typhoon of the season is approaching from the Philippines, I thought I’d better put up some information here for reference. Read the rest of this entry »

When I meet Taiwanese people and we talk about tea, I often hear things like, ”Why do you drink tea - don’t foreigners all like coffee?”, “You’re so special because you know about tea,” or “You’re more ‘Chinese’ than us,” etc, etc.  Well, last week, I found out I’m not quite so special, and that I’m not the only foreigner in Taiwan who prefers tea to coffee. Down in Miaoli, there’s another ‘teaguy’ who’s even ‘more Chinese’ than I am, and his name is Aaron Fisher. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, A-Liang said he wanted to take me to dinner as a thank-you for my help at the tea show. Master Tsai had just returned from his month-long trip to China, and so we decided to go to his Tea Restaurant to eat. Read the rest of this entry »

Dragon Boat Festival was June 8th.  I hadn’t realized it was so early, so I wasn’t really prepared for it. Also, because it fell on a Sunday, there wasn’t a 3-day weekend to look forward to, so it was mostly just another Sunday for us. I took Keith down to Bitan, a recreation area on a river at the bottom of our mountain, to watch some races and take a look around. Read the rest of this entry »

We recently attended the 2008 Baojong Tea Festival in Pinling, Taipei County.  This year’s show wasn’t as big as last year’s but the events were spread out over two weekends. We ended only staying for an hour or so, and then going for a drive in the hills west of Pinling afterwards. Read the rest of this entry »

After spending all day making tea, then packing up the stuff and hauling it back to the shop, we were all pretty tired and ready for a break. So, naturally, we sat down and had some tea! Of course, TKY wasn’t our first choice, as we’d been chugging it all day, but A-Liang had some ‘Tou Deng’ TKY that he wanted to try. (Tou Deng is the title given to the tea that is judged the best of the best at a tea competition - see Tea Competition for more details). Read the rest of this entry »

The tea competition results came in just before our show at the Taipei Zoo, so we were able to take some of our better tea to that event. Aliang had 5 teas take 3rd place (more on that in a minute), and overall was quite happy with his showing. I didn’t get to go observe the testing with him, as I had to work, but he took a few photos for me. After our Zoo show, we went back to his shop (for tea, of course!) and he explained how the competion process works. Read the rest of this entry »

I talked a bit about tea roasting a while back (Tieh Kuan Yin Roasting), and now it’s time to catch up on that. One of the unique things about TKY is that it goes through multiple roastings, and its taste improves with age (usually). In preparing for a recent tea competition, A-Liang roasted, tested, and re-roasted about 40 different TKYs. During 2 different visits I got to taste the teas with him, and even lent a hand unloading the oven and remixing some of the tea, which I discuss below. Read the rest of this entry »