So delicious, my favorite rock style tea so far!
This offering from Smacha Tea is from Fujian using Wuyi Rock Tea varietals but is made about 150 miles south of the actual area called Wuyi Shan. Smacha calls it a Rock style tea, which is a med/high fermented and med/roasted strip style Oolong Tea. Phoenix Tea is similar in some respects but is from Guangdong Provence which is south of Fujian. Also, the tea is made from other varietals of Camellia Sinensis med/fermented but not generally roasted.
These tea trees were planted in 1955 during an "everybody is employed" phase of Mao's regime. Over 2,000 workers toiled for several years to clear a mountaintop across from the Da Jin Buddhist Monastery in Fujian, about a mile high, in the rich red soil. After clearing and planting, national priorities changed and the newly planted tea gardens where abandoned for over 50 years, virtually forgotten. The gardens were leased five years ago by a wealthy Taiwanese hotelier who pledged to bring them back to active production. The tea trees were by that time over 10 feet tall and their root systems were deep and strong. They were cut back almost to the ground and the resulting growth produced very impressive results. The tea is processed in both a rolled "High Mountain" style as well as a "Twisted Leaf" Wuyishan style. A new state of the art processing facility was completed three years ago. The complexity, strength, flavors, and aromas are brought to their peak by a team of Taiwanese Tea Masters with over 150 years of tea making experience.
(At this point the Rock Tea Style is only available in Smacha's brick and mortar store but I am told it will soon be for sale online. I will update this post or create a new one as soon as this happens so my newbie friends can try it too!
At that time I will discuss the parameters I've tried so far and my thoughts for future steeps.)
