Hand-picked Natural Farming Ruby Black Tea, Showcasing Classic Taiwan Fragrance

Organic Tea Garden Jan 1, 1970By Sophie Bennett 0 views

Sun Moon Lake Ruby Black Tea. Amber-bright red like jade. Unique Taiwan fragrance. Sun Moon Lake Ruby Black Tea (Taiwan Tea No. 18) is the star black tea of the tea district in Yuchi Township, Nantou County, and belongs to the large-leaf variety. Yuchi Township is surrounded by mountains with rolling gentle hills, the soil is slightly acidic red soil, the altitude is about 700

Sun Moon Lake Ruby Black Tea. Amber-bright red like jade. Unique Taiwan fragrance.

Sun Moon Lake Ruby Black Tea (Taiwan Tea No. 18) is the star black tea of the tea district in Yuchi Township, Nantou County, and belongs to the large-leaf variety. Yuchi Township is surrounded by mountains with rolling gentle hills, the soil is slightly acidic red soil, the altitude is about 700~800 m, the average annual temperature is 19°C, dry in winter and moist in summer, and both the environment and climate are very suitable for the growth of large-leaf tea trees. Ruby Black Tea was bred through 50 years of effort by the Yuchi Township Branch of the Taiwan Tea Research and Extension Station, from the resilient native wild tea tree of Taiwan and the full-bodied large-leaf tea tree of Myanmar. The tea liquor is bright and vivid red, and a golden-yellow ring often forms along the upper rim of the cup, giving off a natural, faint special varietal fragrance of mint and cinnamon. Under different terroir conditions, notes of brown sugar or ripe fruit may sometimes also appear, with rich layers. It has a high content of tea polyphenols, which after full fermentation are transformed into theaflavins and thearubigins. The tea liquor is mellow and full on entry with a slight astringency, gradually melting away and turning sweet and smooth, carrying the aroma originating from Taiwan's wild mountain tea.

This hand-picked natural farming Ruby Black Tea is grown using natural farming methods, without the use of pesticides, chemical fertilizers, or herbicides, and insists on hand-picking the tea leaves of one bud and two leaves to ensure the quality of the tea, because machine picking easily mixes old leaves, tea stems, and impurities into the tea leaves, and tea made this way will affect the flavor of the tea. From planting to making the tea, Ruby Black Tea is completed through the joint efforts of the producer's whole family. Based on the subtle changes in the tea trees' growth each season, following "making tea by observing the tea" and rigorous traditional procedures, from tea tree growth, harvesting, withering, rolling, fermentation to drying, the best-flavored Ruby Black Tea is produced.

2019 Black Tea Competition Tea King. Two generations of growing and making tea

In the 2019 Yuchi Township Farmers' Association black tea competition, the fifth-grade tea producer Huang Lishan won the Tea King award for Taiwan Tea No. 21 on her own, and Taiwan Tea No. 18 and Assam black tea also respectively won 2 first prizes and 2 gold quality awards.

Huang Lishan is the second generation of a tea-growing and tea-making family. The tea garden is now managed jointly by the family. Her father, Papa Huang, has grown and made tea for more than sixty years. Her mother, Mama Huang, began picking tea at the age of nine, and her hand-picking movements are still skilled. Her older brother once served as a tea-making master at the Sun Moon Old Tea Factory for more than thirty years.

⟦NL> In 2009, Huang Lishan decided to switch to organic cultivation. In the first year of conversion, the yield dropped by forty percent, but after years of effort, the yield recovered, the tea trees became healthier, and the tea quality became better. Like Mama Huang, Huang Lishan still insists on hand-picking one bud and two leaves, and when making tea, she also tastes while making it according to the condition of the tea leaves, so as to obtain black tea with a Tea King flavor.

Producer Huang Lishan hand-picking fresh one bud and two leaves of tea.