Steep Stories

Tag: Taiwan

  • The Ruckus over Ruan Zhi

    Ruan Zhi—or “soft stem”— is a particular cultivated variety (or cultivar) of tea plant originally hailing from China, before making its way to Taiwan, and then migrating further along to Thailand and Myanmar . . . I think? I say “I think?” because, well, information is not all that clear about the cultivar’s origins. As…

  • A Tie Guan Yin Flight from Taiwan

    Tie Guan Yin is one of the most interesting takes on oolong ever developed. Despite its ancient-sounding name—invoking the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Guan Yin— the “Iron Goddess of Mercy” only dates back to the 19th century. Hailing from Anxi county, in Fujian province, China, this complicated style of oolong originally began its life as a…

  • A Wild Mountain Tea Mystery

    Editor’s Note: The following article is inspired by real events. I say “inspired” because . . . well . . . obviously a lot of it is totally made up. It should be pretty obvious which bits are pure B.S. Anyway, enjoy. (This took weeks to put together.) ************************************************************************** Chances are, you’ve probably never heard…

  • Dong Ding Near-Death Experiences

    In 2009, Shiuwen Tai—the plucky owner of Floating Leaves Tea in Seattle—made her first trip to Dong Ding Mountain in Taiwan . . . . . . And almost died.

  • A Totem Tea Story

    The definition of the word “totem” is thus: “A natural object or animal believed by a particular society to have spiritual significance and adopted by it as an emblem.” It is derived from the Native American language, Ojibwe; the word, dodaem. The concept, however, is not limited to just Native American cultures and religious practices.…

  • Dark Tea from Taiwan

    In late 2013, I thought I tried the rarest, weirdest, most unheard-of tea unicorn out there—a heicha (dark tea) from Taiwan. After three years of palatial growth, though, I’m now convinced that it was a Yunnan grown puerh that was merely stored in Taiwan. Still unique, but not quite the unicorn I thought it was.…

  • A Bug-Bitten Beauty of a Black Tea

    NaNoTeaMo, Day 28: “A Bug-Bitten Black Beipu Beauty of a Tea” If you’ve spent any time around hardcore Taiwanese tea drinkers, you probably ran into the term “bug-bitten”. And probably thought of this. No? Just me? Anyway . . . “Bug-bitten” refers to teas that come from tea plants where pest involvement is encouraged. In…

  • A High Mountain Happy Accident

    The late Bob Ross used to close his show with the line, “There are no mistakes, only happy accidents.” His philosophy – if it can be called that – holds true for a lot of things. Oolong, for starters, was a happy accident. As legend has it, the style came about because a leaf picker…

  • An Excellent Different Beach House Tea Party

    The Road Trip Sextet, Part 4 – “An Excellent Different Beach House Tea Party” For Part 1, go HERE. For Part 2, go HERE. For Part 3, go HERE. I think I mentioned in the prior entry I only allowed myself one day at World Tea Expo this year. It wasn’t for lack of things…

  • My Day as a Warrior Tiger Monk

    I was first contacted by Temple Road Tea back in late-March. They were a relatively new outfit specializing in Taiwanese high mountain oolongs. The foremost oolong they wanted me to yack about was their Tiger Monk Roasted Oolong. My first inclination was to decline because…roasted oolongs weren’t really my thing. That and I really didn’t…