Lalashan Hongshui
There's something magic about this plot of land and the tea it produces. The field is small, a beautiful high elevation garden with wild grasses growing between the tea bushes. The hillside looks out over a vast expanse of Taiwan's mountainous country. And the farmer does a great service to his land by not adding any kind of amendment, allowing the tea to fend for itself and root deep into the earth. He says 'the bugs eat first, and then I get to have what's left'.
This is the same exact base tea as our teacher's Lalashan Hongshui that has been one of our all time, hall of fame teas here at Floating Leaves. We spent a week with the farmer -- a bearded, plump, joyous man we call Taiwan Santa Claus -- this last Spring. We were incredibly lucky to get a small amount of his GABA Oolong, AKA Lalashan Hongshui, directly from him!
However, because we got it from the farmer we got the chance to take care of the roasting end of it ourselves. We finished it at our shop in our dual bamboo basket roasters over a very low heat. This batch is more similar to the 2022 batch that we got, in that the flavor is lighter and more airy with juicier fruit tones rather than rich and caramely. It is deep and round with a beautiful, expansive qi that shows up very relaxing in the body. Smooth in the mouth with light stone fruit and sweet potato notes.
This garden in Lalashan produces the cleanest teas we've ever had, and we notice our body just opens up to accept the goodness of this tea.
Facts
- Harvest Location : Lalashan, Taoyuan, Taiwan
- Harvest Date : Spring 2024
- Roast Date : Sept 2024
- Cultivar : Jin Xuan
- Farming Method : Minimum intervention, unsprayed