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Taiwanese Emerald Lake Oolong Loose Leaf Oolong Tea

$34.00
$34.00
$0.68 per cup
Sale Sold out
Style

An amber rolled oolong from the monsoon-drenched mountains above the emerald waters of Pinglin.

This beautifully crafted tea has lovely roundness with a natural sweetness that is perfectly balanced with freshness and clarity.

Tasting Notes

Fresh, bright and green, yet rich and biscuity - like an aged champagne or, indeed a British digestive biscuit. Subtle notes of cedar wood. With this tea, aroma is one of the most important factors. A beautiful, vital part of the enjoyment of these unique leaves comes from the delicious aromas of the infused leaves. Once the tea has been poured, return to the leaf to experience the stunning, layered and complex perfume.

Origin

Ching Yuan Tea, Pinglin, Taiwan

Cost Per Cup

$0.68 per cup based on 3g of tea per 150ml of water and 3 infusions.
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Recommended Infusion Guide

  • Quantity

    Use 0.2 oz of leaf per 5.5 fl oz of water.

  • Temperature

    For the optimum infusion use 212°F water.

  • Time

    Infuse for 90 seconds, tasting regularly.

  • Infusions

    This tea can be infused at least three times. With each careful infusion, different subtleties of flavour are revealed. In a gaiwan, possibly six.

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More infusion tips

How to infuse your tea is very personal, and these are just our recommendations based on experience. Please experiment with these variables to your heart's delight. These are our recommendations, not hard and fast rules. The most delicious tea is the one you love.

Our guide uses a standard tea cup size (150ml/5.5 oz) as a measure, please adjust the quantity of leaf accordingly for less or more water. Our whole loose leaves are of such a high quality that you can infuse our teas at least twice, and the second infusion is often better than the first, with different flavours revealed as the leaf softens. If you prefer your tea stronger, add more leaf, don’t leave it for longer (this will just make it bitter).

Making oolong with a gaiwan

A gaiwan is the ultimate way to enjoy your oolong tea, using a high leaf-to-water ratio that extracts very quickly. Used in China since the Ming dynasty (over 900 years ago), gaiwans are unassuming but beautifully functional teapots that can be used to explore tea to its fullest – the following method can be used to make up to six infusions.

For small gaiwans (e.g. our Traditional Gaiwan) start with 2-4g of tea, for larger gaiwans (e.g. our Easy Pour Gaiwan) use 4-6g.

If you're using a rolled oolong (Tie Guan Yin, Waikato Oolong, 21st Century Breakfast or Golden Lily Milk Oolong) this next step will greatly improve your infusion. Using boiling water cover the leaf in your gaiwan and immediately strain and discard the liquid. This "wash" softens the surface of the rolled leaves and allows the water to better penetrate.

If you're using a traditional gaiwan and you don't want to burn your fingers, please fill the bowl just to where the sides begin to curve outwards towards the rim. If you're an experienced gaiwan handler you can fill the bowl higher – its just important to note that as the water level reaches close to the rim it gets very hot to handle.

With such a high leaf-to-water ratio the infusion is very quick; infuse you leaf for 5-10 seconds and strain completely into your cup or a jug. There's no need to reheat the water as you go, because the softened leaves will require lower temperatures to release their flavours - but you will need to extend the time to 10-20 seconds for later infusions. We recommend at least six infusions to allow the leaf to completely open out and reveal all its beauty.

For a more comprehensive guide to using a gaiwan (including a video), click here for our full guide.

Emerald Lake Oolong is named after its terroir, near the Emerald Reservoir. This incredible tea is organically grown and harvested by a small group of farmers in the Pinglin region, where the Beisshi River flows into the Xindian and down into the Emerald Reservoir. Its unique terroir is drenched by the northeast monsoons and the water coming from the surrounding mountains flows down through the tea into the rivers and reservoir, an essential water source for 2.5 million people in Taipei City.

For this reason there are very strict environmental and conservation regulations in the region. The tea farmers work organically to protect this precious environment and the water that flows through it and the people reliant on it.

"In our organic tea, we don't over-intervene; we allow everything to operate autonomously within a framework of chaos. Countless insects and animals freely inhabit and hibernate, while nameless wild grasses flourish and wither with the seasons. The intermingling of microorganisms in the soil creates a self-sufficient micro-ecosystem that provides the tea trees with wonderful flavour compounds and nutrients."

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Returns

The Rare Tea Lady believes that our teas are some of the greatest in the world, and that our range and service are second to none.

In the isolated case that you are not completely satisfied with any product you purchase from our website, please get in contact with our customer services team to discuss returning your order.*

In most instances, we will give you a full refund of the item's cost, excluding postage. We may ask you to return the item to us.** Customers in the UK & European Union have statutory rights not affected by this guarantee, but any bags of tea must remained sealed for this to be in effect.  Teaware and other non-tea physical products purchased by customers in the EU also carry a statutory 2-year legal guarantee of conformity - see the EU Legal Guarantee Notice below, and on the relevant product pages.

*We only accept returns/refunds for tea within 30 days of receipt, because it is impossible for us to know if the tea has been stored correctly.

**We will endeavour to ask for pictures instead of returning the item where possible - but if you have changed your mind and are outside of any statutory rights time period, return postage is payable by you.

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