Steepster AMA: Meet Nick and Andy of Eco-Cha

Yes, Taiwan uses the gongfu style method of brewing tea.
However, just as in mainland China and elsewhere, tea can be prepared in virtually any type of vessel. A new popular style in Taiwan is cold brew tea – simply using room temperature or chilled water to brew tea. It’s great for traveling or just being on the run. Single mug brew is also common here in Taiwan.

Well, the politics around tea that exist have not been an issue that has directly affected the world of tea that we know, other than in a broad economic sense. Basically, the popularisation of Taiwan teas has created a proliferation of Taiwan style tea production in many other Asian countries. This has affected the industry here in the sense these teas are being imported back into Taiwan from abroad and being falsely advertised and sold as Taiwan tea. As a result, the quality and verification of the source of tea has been compromised. We are not directly affected in this way because we source from privately run sources that we know and trust based on many years of established connections.

Less political and more about industry trends that have an effect check this blog post on ’Recent Trends in the Taiwan tea industry http://eco-cha.com/blogs/tea-culture/8959697-a-brief-background-of-recent-trends-in-the-taiwan-tea-industry

Interesting. That reminds me of something similar that went on with Darjeeling teas back about ten or fifteen years ago. Thanks for sharing, truly interesting info!
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2006-07-15/news/27433288_1_darjeeling-tea-association-organic-darjeeling-basudeb-banerjee

Hi Jason,

You’re doing it! Steepster is an amazing platform for tea lovers to share and explore. As a tea company, it’s great for us to be able to connect with tea drinkers here, and for tea drinkers to be able to connect with us.

So thanks to you and everybody at Steepster for all the work you do for the tea community!

Eco-Cha offers flights of Taiwan teas that we feel make a great starter kit.

To start I would recommend the 5 Pack or the 3 Pack.

The ‘Taiwan Tea Tour 5 Pack’ covers a complete flavor and elevation spectrum. You will experience the difference between unroasted, lightly roasted, and heavily roasted Taiwan Oolong tea as well as tea from from multiple different mountains at both high and lower elevation. This is a very complete pack of the Taiwan tea experience including Traditional Dong Ding Oolong, High Mountain Shan Lin Xi Oolong, High Mountain Concubine Oolong, Jin Xuan (Milk) Oolong, Tsui Yu Oolong.
You can get the 5 Pack here: http://eco-cha.com/collections/gift-packs/products/eco-cha-gift-packs-flights#tab-3

Our ‘Intro to Oolong 3 Pack’ is great introduction to Taiwan Oolong tea and to the varying characters of unroasted, lightly roasted, and heavily roasted flavors. From green, fresh, and floral to honey and dried fruit, to chicory, toasted, and nutty, this pack contains a wonderful flavor spectrum. This pack contains 1 tea from each of our roast spectrums: Traditional Dong Ding Oolong (heavily roasted), High Mountain Concubine Oolong (lightly roasted), Jin Xuan (Milk) Oolong (unroasted).

As far as tea and tea culture – this platform (Steepster) as well as several others are great resources that have only recently come into being. Search around here and read what people have to say about Taiwanese teas.

For Taiwan tea culture specifically we’ve got a Tea Culture section on our blog here: http://eco-cha.com/blogs/tea-culture
You’ll find information on the Taiwan tea industry, stories from tea country, and
lots of other Taiwan tea culture info. A part of our mission is to open a window into Taiwanese tea culture, so if there’s anything you would like to learn about let us know and we’ll do our best to write about it! Feel free to write us anytime at hello (at) eco-cha.com

Jamie -
As we currently only source teas that are produced in Taiwan, we don’t carry any Pu-er tea – since almost all Pu-er comes from China. While we are committed to maintaining our standards of quality and transparency to source, we are always open to new avenues of providing what we determine to be artisan tea. We have met Taiwanese tea merchants who manage tea farms in the Pu-er tea producing regions, and if the opportunity to reliably source quality Pu-er tea arises, we would be more than happy to offer this popular tea type.

Hi Jason,

Thanks so much for arranging this, it was great!

You can find us at www.eco-cha.com
Sign up to our newsletter at http://eepurl.com/NzNCX
or email us anytime at hello (at) eco-cha.com
Find us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/ecocha

For more Taiwan tea culture discussion you can check out our blog at: http://eco-cha.com/blogs/tea-culture

We check in here at Steepster often as well, so we’ll respond to questions and comments on our tea selections here: http://steepster.com/companies/eco-cha-artisan-teas

Thanks again everyone and have a great evening!

Thanks for the kind words and the links!

thanks for joining us this evening. It’s been great reading your responses!

Very cool! It has been interesting to learn more about the Taiwanese black tea, since that is where my interests lie. The scope of tea culture in Taiwan sounds amazing as well – I want someone to deliver me hot tea!! :)

Uniquity – we can’t deliver it hot unfortunately, but we can deliver some nice Taiwanese black teas almost hot…you just need to add the hot water!

Thanks again everybody for the great conversation!