Tea to Tea

Drinking this while catching up on tasting notes. This is a tea we picked up in Taiwan, and I’m drinking it Western-style out of an 8-oz mug I also bought in Taiwan. The lychee aroma and flavor here is so head-and-shoulders better than any other lychee tea I’ve ever had that I’m almost at a loss for words.* The moment you open the wrapper, a spot-on scent of perfectly ripe and juicy lychee wafts up. Even my partner, who thinks most tea smells and tastes like stump water, was into this. I bought this in sachet form – my guess is that’s the only format it was available in – so I liberated the leaves and brewed them up in with a wide metal steeper. I’m now on my third steep and about to go for a fourth. The ripe, juicy lychee flavor is still going strong. It was definitely the strongest in the first steep, being the most prominent note in the cup, whereas in later steeps it’s more like half-lychee, half-base tea notes. The base tea itself is a medium oolong with some nice heft. It’s sweet and a bit floral, with almost a buckwheat note that somehow complements the lychee rather than clashing.

*Not that all the other lychee teas I’ve had have been bad, there have been some very tasty ones! The flavoring on this one is just exquisite.

We went to Yong Kang Street a few times, exploring different parts of it. One time, we went into Tea to Tea, a prepared-tea shop that had some loose leaf as well (a pretty common setup, think Ten Ren if you’ve been to one in the U.S.). After the unfortunate start with the bottled Ruby 18, I assumed that this leaf would be of similar quality and intended to have sugar added. So I was pleasantly surprised when I tried to order it with boba and 30% sugar and was told that neither was an option; that this was one of a few teas on the menu that could only be customized as hot or cold, no sweetener and no toppings. I ordered it iced and waited the requisite time for them to brew it fresh. And it was a noticeable improvement over the bottled tea: super smooth, a little woody, with a much more pronounced cinnamon note. They gave me the leaves in a special little to-go container so I could rebrew them, so I cold brewed them overnight when I got back to the hotel for a really lovely second brew.