Ali Shan, mr. Don Yu

ALI SHAN OOLONG ORGANIC TAIWAN,
APRIL 2022

Taiwan. Oolong tea (wu long) 15% oxidation.
Harvested in April 2022, Taiwan. Premium Selection.

This very fresh Oolong tea is one of the most appreciated in its family, especially in the subcategory of 15% oxidized teas. Ali Shan organic This tea was selected during our trip to Taiwan in May 2018.

Ali Shan is considered one of the areas where some of the best oolongs in Taiwan are produced. It was therefore a destination of our trip also because it is characterized by breathtaking mountain landscapes with steep slopes like most mountains in Taiwan. Mister Don Yu's Ali Shan tea has a great value: that of his passion for the land, for its future, and that of future generations. Mr. Don Yu told us that he worked for many years on a tea farm, and having gained a certain experience, he also taught his colleagues how to grow and work the tea plants at their best. The intensive use of pesticides and fertilizers for a long time eventually led him to become seriously ill. This event definitely changed his way of seeing his work and that of those around him. He realized that just as he had become ill, so was the land, increasingly impoverished and squeezed to the bone. For about 20 years, Mr. Don Yu has been an organic farmer. There are not many like him, especially in Ali Shan, but the number is increasing, especially because the market demands it. His high mountain Taiwanese tea, grown in fields where no synthetic chemical pesticides and fertilizers have been used for more than 20 years, is different from all those we have tasted. It is a lively tea. A living tea, as our friends from Tea Sage Hut explained to us, and we feel this characteristic in its fresh and invigorating taste, both for our throat and our spirit. Its notes are floral, orchid-like, with a slight hint of mint, almost forest-like. Here we find the full vitality that these leaves convey.

• Cultivar: plants grown from seeds
• Altitude: 1800-2000m
• 15% oxidation
• Harvest: spring 2022
• Recommended infusion method: Gong Fu Cha
• 6-7 infusions

Ali Shan is a mountain on the island of Taiwan, among the most visited by tourists for its cypress forests, where we also find tea plantations at altitudes ranging from 1500 to 2000 meters. This type of oolong tea is part of the "Gao shan", high mountain teas. These are teas that grow between fog and sun, with very high thermal excursions between night and day, all ideal characteristics for the development of chemical components that will give the plant a very aromatic character. They are harvested twice a year: spring and winter. Its characteristic leaves, almost enclosed in small nuggets, a shape due to the processing received, unfold once infused, giving a taste of orchid, persistent up to the 5th infusion. An oolong tea that is definitely elegant and never tiresome. This oolong tea is part of a special range of teas that we have chosen to have with us for their other qualitative profile, for their freshness, product traceability, and direct contact with those who harvested it: the Premium Selection, pride of the online tea shop Terza Luna.