Jump to content
Chinese-Forums
  • Sign Up

A Taste of Taiwan Oolong


Recommended Posts

Posted

Thank you once again for sharing with us your tea experiences. :)

 

As someone who suffers from a peanut allergy the idea of peanut husk fertilisation has given me cause for thought. Wonder if it makes any impact on the tea?

Posted

Thank you for posting this great write-up. I'm always amazed with the amount of workers who work topless in Taiwan's food and drink industry.

 

I'd just like to point out that it's not the whole of southern Taiwan that's currently affected by dengue fever. It's mostly just in Tainan. However, I don't think there's much Tea production going on down here anyway.

Posted
Quote
As someone who suffers from a peanut allergy the idea of peanut husk fertilisation has given me cause for thought. Wonder if it makes any impact on the tea?

 

I doubt it, Shelly. I would think that whatever is taken in by the plant is changed as it helps the plant grow. But, as a used-to-be scientist, I cannot say for 100% sure. They also used ground up and composted bean hulls.

 

Quote
I'd just like to point out that it's not the whole of southern Taiwan that's currently affected by dengue fever. It's mostly just in Tainan.

 

Right, Milkybar. Seems that this year has been unusually hot and wet. Today's news gave the count as 15,280 documented cases. And it isn't only Taiwan. Thailand and Malaysia have been hard hit as well.

 

Glad that you both enjoyed the article.

Posted

Milkybar's comment about working topless got me to thinking. Here's a diagnostic quiz for you Old China Hands out there. (中国通)

 

What happened to this young man's back?

 

post-20301-0-77547700-1443093069_thumb.jpg

Posted

He has had little hot bowls put on his back, can't remember what its called, its a form of acupuncture I think.

  • Like 1
Posted

Right, Shelley. Bahuoguan  拔火罐。 You get the prize! Roddy has generously agreed to give the lucky winner a one-year free subscription to Chinese Forums.

 

post-20301-0-86825900-1443094057_thumb.jpg

  • Like 1
Posted

Very interesting!

The south part of Taiwan was in the grip of a Dengue Fever epidemic (13,000 cases since May at last count) so I didn’t go there

 

I've gotten a bad cold twice this past month but still no dengue in sight. Mosquitoes like me a lot, though. There was a huge outburst last year too, according to the news but I again I was left safe, same for all my friends. I really don't know anyone who got dengue. I don't think it's something that should scare people away from coming to the south, especially if it's only for a few days/weeks but if you think of it as safer...

Posted

@abcdefg, great post, as usual. I prefer green teas over oolongs (especially 太平猴魁 and 黃山毛峰),  but there is one type of oolong that I'm very fond of, and it's 金萱 jin xuan tea, also known as milky oolong (nothing to do with milk tea). It's very sweet, almost "creamy", but I can't find it in my country. I discovered it by chance, a friend of mine sent me a pack of it, she was from Fujian but chose to send me a Taiwanese tea, and it was a great discovery. Other oolongs like tieguanyin are easily found in my country, but I find them too strong to drink them on a regular basis.

  • Like 2
Posted

Kamille -- To be frank, I only had a total of ten days (8 full days on the ground) to spend and decided it would be more productive to concentrate on the upper half of the island. Plus the people showing me around had more contacts there. Maybe next time I can go to the south part. I've read that Kaohsiung 高雄 has really good eats and I love fresh seafood.

 

Geiko -- Thanks for your comments. Yes, I tried 金萱 for the first time on this trip and found it very tasty. Not sure I've had anything like it before.

 

What I understood from reading before the trip is that lots of Taiwan's teas were originally brought over from Fujian and then subtly changed and adapted to better suit the land and the climate. I didn't run into anything similar to 太平猴魁。It has such a distinctive leaf shape. Agree with you about the 黄山毛峰。It is one of my favorites too.

 

I did come across a very nice green tea that was made in the style of 西湖龙井  Xihu Longjing, with the same flat leaves. But it cost more than a good grade of original Longjing and I didn't buy any. Guess I might if I lived there.

  • Like 1
Posted
I've read that Kaohsiung has really good food.

 

That would be Tainan. But that's provided you like sweet food. That's like the only reason that would make me regret leaving Taipei: Southerners eat very sweet  :mrgreen:

  • Like 1
Posted

Then Tainan and Kaohsiung are both on my short list for next time!

 

Kunming food is pretty spicy and I found some of the Taiwan flavors kind of bland. Maybe the sweet southern style will be nice change.

Posted

Great post as usual! Looks like a wonderful trip. I've only visited Taiwan once, and only Taipei, so save for Maokong I wasn't able to explore the amazing tea producing areas of the island.. Hopefully next time.

Posted

Nice photos & write-up! To my surprise I'm starting to prefer oolong over puerh. And in fact 30-year old oolong does resemble puerh in lots of ways. But of course I'm not normally drinking very old stuff. Came back with a couple of kilos of oolong from Taiwan this summer and that's basically all I've been drinking since I came back.

 

Edit: funnily enough it happens to be puerh today though!

post-4446-0-91687200-1443118602_thumb.jpg

Posted

Nice work, abcdefg!

 

I like that picture, realmayo.

 

Now I want to go drink some tea. I'll be in my office all day today with a cuppa.

 

Warm regards,

Chris Two Times

Posted

Realmayo -- I'm impressed. Looks like a righteous set up for making a good cup of Pu'er tea.

 

Wish I had pushed harder and had a chance to try some 30-year old Oolong. Maybe that 5-year old tea I tried would be better after a couple more decades. What kinds of Oolong did you mostly bring back from your trip?

 

Balthazar -- Isn't Maokong where the Gondola is? Pretty sure that area is where 文山包种 originates. I saw the traditional brown paper wrapping process in a tea museum. If I understood right, that's where that tea gets its name, "the wrapped kind."

 

One of the problems with a compressed trip like this with lots of quick stops is that after a while things kind of run together in my mind despite snapshots and a notebook.

Join the conversation

You can post now and select your username and password later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Click here to reply. Select text to quote.

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...