Spring Harvest Taiwan 2014

This spring in Taiwan it was raining for the high mountain tea harvest in the highest elevations. Li Shan proper and Li Shan's Da Yu Ling had rain throughout most of the harvest season.

Rainy weather is not suitable for picking and processing tea. Not because people don't want to stand in the rain and pick tea, but because for the most part, the results are subpar; too bitter. Some farmers went ahead and picked tea anyway, but we haven't been able to find any that we are satisfied with. For the most part we will not be buying high mountain tea from Taiwan this spring.

At harvest time, rain is a constant threat, especially in the Spring. Spring tea starts growing in the coldest part of winter, thus it grows very slowly. Slow growing tea results in a thicker leaf. Conditions are ideal and the result is high quality tea. The main threat to spring tea is that at harvest time, there is more chance of rain.

Some of our farming friends that have more experience decided not to pick this spring, instead they will wait until the rains stop and use the leaf to make high mountain black tea. Many of you have tried our Li Shan black tea. It is exceptionally sweet, fragrant, and delicious. Sweeter than most black tea, people often do not believe that it is just tea with no sweetener added. If you want to try some amazing black tea, we wholeheartedly recommend our Li Shan Black 2008 and 2009.