Caopingtou Natural Farming "Fog Dragon" Black Tea - Summer 2019

This is a whole new tea production area we never met before. Welcome to Caopintou (草坪頭), an area more commonly known for its "Yushan tea" production.

Yushan is the sacred mountain of Taiwan. It is like Mount Fuji of Japan. The elevation of its peak is 3952 meters high, so you might be thinking "wow the tea here must be super good" right now. Sadly, no tea can survive elevation this high as we know so far, so the tea was grown way below Yushan at elevation of 1200 meters.

So why the tea from this region is called "Yushan tea" then? If you ever climbed Yushan before, you will know that Caopintou will be the place to pass by before reaching the entrance of Yushan trail. Naturally, when you are marketing a new tea, it is inevitable to use a famous name to go with it. "Yushan tea" was born under the trend of high mountain jade oolong back in 1980s, and eventually failed to take advantage of its own terroir to develop its own character in the red ocean of "jade oolong." Thus, "Yushan tea" region produces very little tea this day with most of its tea trees abandoned in the field. 

For this "Fog Dragon" we did not have to spend lots of effort doing the extra plucking because that is not required for black tea processing. Instead, what we were trying to do was controlling the withering and rolling timing properly in order for a perfect activation of fermentation. The result is a beautiful "small-varietal" black tea.

This is a sister tea of "Fog Phoenix" Oriental Beauty Oolong. By using identical material from same plantation, we processed another batch into a black tea. We hope the creation of this tea can make you experience the "consistency" of terroir. You will be able to notice that despite the taste is quite different, but the backbone of this "Fog Dragon" is identical to what "Fog Phoenix" carries. 

Harvest: Summer 2019 / 夏 貳零壹玖

Varietal: Qing Xin Oolong / 青心烏龍

Elevation: 1200 M / 壹仟貳佰 公尺

Region: Caopingtou / 草坪頭

Fermentation Level: 85% / 分之 捌拾伍

Roast Level: 0 / 無

 Still Savouring.......

 First aromas are sweet and fruity, very lovely and vibrant.

The taste is happily close to the smell, totally sweet and plump fruity floral body. It steeps very consistently with thickness & sweet spice flavors that are sure to delight anyones palate. Super easy to appreciate and really clarifies the mind.

 Processed along with "Fog Phoenix," we hope this will be another great "opportunitea" for people to identify the terroir of tea plantation. We know tea lovers often have frustration to learn certain aspects of tea with constant samples. Most of the tea are processed at different plantation and by different team, so to have material from the same plantation being harvested at the same time but processed into different types of tea is quite rare. Fortunately, under the assistance of Mr. Chang we are able to provide this opportunity to our supporters. This "Fog Dragon" is not only a tasty black tea, but also a great chance for people to feel the "consistence of tea terroir. An old dog knows you will enjoy this tea!