WINTER HARVEST 2025 REVEAL
Hi everyone!
Winter harvest teas are starting to arrive! We were lucky to be able to join the harvest in Taiwan a few weeks ago and had a blast continuing to learn from our tea masters the techniques used to craft these incredible oolongs. We even participated hands-on in lightly oxidizing the winter harvest green oolong and roasting the black oolong. Two of my favorites!
I’ll make sure to include more photos below!
-Sam
🍵 winter tea collection
Welcome to the winter harvest, personally my favorite tea season of the year! The oolongs produced during the winter are always smooth and deeply flavorful. This year is no exception. I’m delighted to bring you 3 teas today, the start of the winter collection, with more to come :)
☀️ A Sunny Day for Harvest!
We arrived in Shanlinxi a few days earlier than anticipated, accelerating our schedule due to predicted rain, ensuring the tea could be harvested on time. The harvest began promptly at 5:30 AM under clear blue skies, welcoming a beautiful sunrise atop the mountain. The first load of fresh tea leaves was rushed down the mountain around noon to begin the initial processing step: withering. Nearly twelve hours later, the newly-pliable and oxidized leaves were finally ready for fixing, a crucial step used to stabilize the delicate flavor profile before moving on to the final drying and rolling processes. While the entire crafting journey is complex, we were fortunate to enjoy excellent, clear weather throughout the critical phases of production for this season's batch.
🫛unroasted green oolong
Every year, I look forward to the winter harvest green oolong, a pristine, unroasted tea that offers one of the most exceptional experiences in Taiwanese tea. Lightly oxidized to preserve its vibrant freshness, this oolong is deeply vegetal and smooth—it honestly reminds me of my favorite vegetable, the artichoke. While the aroma is light and ethereal, steeping it yields a richly flavored broth that is juicy and activates the salivary glands. Notes of butter lettuce and artichoke hearts define its core, resolving into a gentle, natural sweetness and a lovely, lingering aftertaste reminiscent of sweet peas. When I think of Taiwanese oolongs, this is the tea that jumps into my mind!
Tasting notes: butter lettuce, artichoke heart, sweet pea
🥃LIMITED release: winter harvest Tieguanyin
Often known as “Iron Goddess” in English, this oolong is the product of Tieguanyin Masters and will be heading to competition this December! We were very lucky to be able to snag a small preview batch! Compared to a traditional heavy roast tieguanyin, this one has a lighter profile and has been roasted for approximately 50 hours in total—a slow, multi-stage process requiring constant care. This special style of tea was in active production for over a month, involving several 6-10 hour roasts with a full 7-10 days of rest in between each session. This lengthy rest is incredibly important, allowing the leaves to cool and relax before continuing, and is exactly what develops the renowned fruity, almost caramelized flavor of a masterfully crafted Tieguanyin.
Tieguanyin also happens to be a particularly intriguing oolong cultivar. To fully appreciate its unique qualities, it should be brewed at 212F. This high temperature allows the leaves to fully open, revealing a vibrant fruitiness alongside the distinctive, robust flavor and aroma associated with the cultivar. Each brew reveals new layers—we find that the true complexity begins to open up on the third steep, and will continue to offer new dimensions for 9 or more steeps. I highly recommend taking your time with this very special tea, ideally using a gaiwan or traditional teapot for brewing.
Note: This tea will only be sold in 25g bags, as I have a limited quantity.
Tasting notes: fruity, roasty, and everything tasty
🍑 summer harvest bug bitten black tea
Words don’t do it justice—you have to experience its aroma to believe it. Harvested once a year in summer, this exceptional tea exudes rich honey and tropical fruit notes that are nothing short of enchanting. This year’s harvest had prime weather that resulted in one of the smoothest broths we’ve experienced with this style to date.
Crafted from a blend of three prized oolong cultivars—tieguanyin, jinxuan, and qingxin—only leaves bitten by tea jassids are selected for this unique brew. Due to the limited yield of bug-bitten leaves from a single cultivar, our skilled farmer expertly blends the three, creating a truly unique tea experience. This batch was fermented for ~30 hours before it was sent to roast.
In order to to fully appreciate its depth of flavor and because the tieguanyin cultivar is included, you should brew it hot at 212℉ to unlock its flavors and let the leaves unfurl. Prefer a more aromatic cup? Use fewer leaves. Craving a bold, hearty broth? Add more leaves. Incredibly, this black tea can be steeped 6+ times.
Tasting notes: red guava, medjool date, black sugar
