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I have a very special, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it surprise. We have exactly 9 bags of a one-of-a-kind white tea crafted by our friend Mr. Chen, who has been farming and making tea in Alishan for over 40 years.
We first tasted an early version of this tea back in 2023 and brought a small pouch home just for ourselves. To be honest, we don’t often find ourselves craving white teas, but this one kept blowing us away every time we brewed it. When we visited Mr. Chen again last year, we spent hours learning about his unique process, drooling over his roasting machines (I may or may not have started doing the mental math on how to ship one back to the US 😆), and falling even more in love with this tea.
Mr. Chen crafts this using winter dongpian (winter sprout) leaves that are allowed to fully oxidize and are simply dried—no kill-green step, no rolling, and zero roasting. It’s expensive stuff, but we think it’s well worth it. If you’re a white tea drinker or just an adventurous sipper looking for something completely singular, grab one of these few bags and please let me know what you think!