Yuchi Organic Ruby 18 "Agate Pond" Black Tea - Summer 2018

After more than three years since our launch, Taiwan Sourcing finally has its own Ruby 18 from Yuchi. Yuchi is the most renown place for harvesting Ruby 18 varietal, and we unfortunately could not find a place to produce a perfect Yuchi black tea in the past three years - until now.

We already have several Ruby 18 in the black tea collection, but since our mission is to collect the terroir of different regions, it would be irresponsible to be satisfied with what we already have. Tea is a sensitive plant that can respond and reflect the region it is grown in, and Ruby 18 is certainly no exception despite its "universality" in the tea market. Luckily due to a chance meeting we were able to get to know the Yeh family and work with them to produce this wonderful tea!

We headed for Yuchi one sunny morning, and by the time we arrived the tea leaves had already gone through more than 24 hours of withering. The material was fiercely "bug-bitten", but not by the famous grasshopper. Instead it was bitten by stink bugs (another commonly seen tea eater although not as famous as little grasshopper)! The tea looked like it was dying and was begging to stop the withering process. Normally this is where most of the tea farmers will stop the withering. However we chose to wait a bit longer before sending it to the rolling machine. We were "keeping our eye on the marshmallow" for the best result possible.

Thanks to family Yeh's generosity and great cooperation, the tea ended up with a surprisingly pleasant result. A result that was greatly beyond our expectations. This Ruby 18 not only carries a different terroir from all our previous Ruby 18, it also has a enchanting structure of its own, let alone its unique bug-bitten profile. We think it will be a beautiful conclusion to our black tea exploration of 2018.

Harvest Season: Summer 2018 / 夏 貳零壹捌

Varietal: #18 Ruby /  紅玉 拾捌號

Elevation: 640 M / 陸佰肆拾 公尺

Region: Yuchi / 魚池

Fermentation Level: 85 % / 分之 捌拾伍

Roast Level: 0 / 無

Rinsed leaves have the aroma of berry, bergamot, with a floral and malty sweetness. There is a slight but pleasant cooling aspect that brings to mind licorice and a subtle minty. The flavor is robust and the leaves hold up to many infusions.

  Dry leaf aroma in preheated vessel is orange chocolate and licorice, really a curious/fun smell in tea. The wet leaf has pungent sweetness. Really soothing and yet also arousing. The taste is quite smooth and sweet at the same time as retaining the same complexity as the aroma. A very nice breakfast or lunch kind of tea.

 Frost Elephant was a black that really captured an old dog's ideology of a perfect large leaf varietal black tea, but so far we don't have another opportunity yet to process this varietal again, so it became a pinnacle for us. Nevertheless, we were so fortunate to create that similar profile on this Ruby 18. It is different from any Ruby 18 we had been carrying so far in a pleasant way. Due to our improved processing mindset and superb raw material thanks to family Yeh, this is a black tea an old dog will remember for a very long time.