We are not certain how long the tea plants for our Formosa Red, Native Cultivar have been in existence. The varietal had grown wild in Taiwan and largely ignored until the colonial Japanese administration identified it as a potential candidate for black tea production in the early 1900s. Thereafter, the cultivar was planted in the hills surrounding Nantou County’s Sun Moon Lake in Yuchih Village, Taiwan.

Our Formosa Red, Native Cultivar comes to us from a third generation grower. It was harvested in early April 2015 after this crop was bitten by aphids. As a result, the crop has the sweetest honey aroma we’ve ever tasted. Each leaf is hand-picked in the morning before a two day period of wilting, rolling and enzymatic oxidation that produced the beautiful red orange liquor of this tea.

We found this tea to be remarkably non-astringent, even when forgotten and left to over brew. The brewed result is sweet and wonderfully floral, with the nose of more aromatic Formosa oolongs backed by layers of honey, caramelized sugar of stone fruit cobblers,and molasses. It’s pretty delicious.

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