Songboling Certified Organic 209 Pigeon Oriental Beauty Oolong Tea

Mingjian Township again demonstrates its endless potential for providing interesting material and terroir in the Taiwanese tea world. We had contact with the owner of this plantation back in 2022, but did not begin to work with them until the summer of 2023.

When we first tried the tea, we had no clue what this varietal was. The farmer did not want to reveal too many details either, only saying it was a varietal that nobody else has. The tea certainly tastes very differently from all the other teas we had before, except bearing a slight resemblance to an ancient varietal we worked on before - the "White Fur Monkey." Still, we had no clue what this varietal was, until the very first time of processing, when an answer was finally given.

"Oh, this is 209," the first clue was revealed to us by the son of the owner of the factory we were collaborating with. We had never heard of any varietal that has a name with three numeric digits, then his father came back shortly after. The moment he saw the material, he uttered the same response. "This is 209 for sure. People used to grow this varietal, but that was a long time ago." Now, what is this mysterious 2-0-9?

As it turned out after research, our original guess was not far from the answer. This varietal is the sister varietal of TTES #14, 15, 16, and 17. All these four published varietals were an experiment of using "White Fur Monkey" as part of a breeding project, and this "209" was also part of this "White Fur Monkey" breeding project, but was never officially publsihed to the market. However, some farmers who participated in this project successfully retained some of the tea trees in their own plantations, and thus the tea you are seeing here is still extant.

With its abundant "white fur" characteristics and the deeper rhythm despite being a newly developed varietal, an Oriental Beauty Oolong processing style can best develop its uniqueness with that rich taste buried deep in the plant cells. This 209 Oriental Beauty Oolong has a refined flavor of wild cacao that we have never experienced with any other teas, bringing a tropical sensation to a relaxing afternoon.

Harvest: See Options / 見選項

Varietal: 72-209 Pigeon / 柒貳-貳零玖

Elevation: 300 M / 卅佰公尺

Region: Mingjina Township Songboling / 名間鄉松柏嶺

Fermentation Level: 75% / 分之柒拾伍

Roast Level: See Options / 見選項

Still Savouring.......