Luye Red Oolong
This one's a sweet one!
Luye red oolong is a bit of a hybrid tea - it undergoes a short fermentation process to increase its sweetness like a red tea, but is the rolled and roasted like an oolong tea.
The combination of two different tea types' production methods creates a distinct flavor that isn't quite like a red tea, and isn't like a classic oolong. It has the front sweetness and easy-drinking qualities of a red tea, but with the complex aftertaste of an oolong.
Notes of honey and a smooth mouth feel round of a fantastic drinking experience. This is a great tea for old tea friends looking for something new, and beginners that want something easy to enjoy.
High Mountain Teas
This tea comes from high altitude mountains in Taiwan, where the altitude's effects on weather, sunlight, and fog create cleaner, crisper tasting teas.
I love tradition - it's one of the reasons I got into tea in the first place - but sometimes, tradition also means old things are done forever, and nothing new gets made. Taiwanese oolongs have a long tradition - but it tends to be the same mountains, the same tea names, again and again.
Then, I found out that younger tea makers in Luye had experimented and brought to life a new type of tea - red oolong. By combining the methods from red tea and oolong making, they had created something new, which I took one sip and new it would be a great tea for tea friends abroad.
This tea has great honey sweetness along with the classic "oolong" aftertaste. It's a good tea for all seasons - not too heavy, not too light - and the type of tea I would break out to serve guests who had never tried high quality tea before.
If you like oolong, this is an unusual tea that will be right up your alley!
OUR TEA PEOPLE
We will be working directly with Jayme and Uncle Liu, a third-generation tea family with farms in Dong Ding and Qilai Mountain!
Jayme and I at her family's tea farm on Dong Ding Shan. Jayme's family's teas are featured in Michelin Star restaurants across Europe.
Uncle Liu is one of the last people in all of Taiwan who still does traditional charcoal roasting, using only pure Longan tree charcoal to make small batches of maximum 6 kg at a time.
VALUE AND QUALITY
Want the best value? This tea comes in 100g and 200g sizes - check the drop-down menu above!
Jesse's Teahouse started because Jesse realized the quality and value of the tea directly from the tea markets and mountains in Asia was so much higher than what could be easily found in the States -- and around the world.
Jesse contacted his tea friends, they shipped their best teas to him, and he sends them to you. That's it!
These teas are high quality and can be re-steeped multiple times! Each serving makes between 4-8 cups of tea, so at around $.50 a cup, you get top quality Chinese teas at a price that you can enjoy every day.
NOT JUST TEA, TEA CULTURE
Jesse believes the key to making good tea is to help his Chinese tea friends share not just their best teas, but the best ways to make the teas.
That's why each box comes also comes with info that tells you:
- Tea Origin
- Steep Temperature
- Steep Time
- Directions for both teapot steeping and gaiwan steeping
Don't Forget Your Tea Pets!
In Chinese Gongfu Tea Tradition, Tea Pets accompany you at teatime and you "raise" them by feeding them tea! Check out the tea pets at the bottom of this page.