Selecting Our Tea
At Taiwan Tea connection, we source our teas with our mission in mind - to introduce local tea drinkers to premium Taiwan oolong teas.
For this reason, we select only premium teas (not everyday teas, like those available in supermarkets). We purchase directly from local Taiwan tea makers. Generally the tea makers grow and harvest their own tea leaves.
Our collections represent well-known categories of oolong teas that a Taiwanese tea drinker would purchase in Taiwan. We try to offer teas that are distinct within each category so you can explore a range of taste and aroma profiles.
We use a multi-pronged approach to select our teas. We do extensive research to identify tea makers who consistently excelled in nationwide and local competitions. This provides a baseline standard for quality. We also identify tea makers by finding out what local residents, "the people in the know," are drinking. Tea communities are generally small with families who have lived there for generations. They are rich with inside information and well-kept secrets. Through local references, we are able to find a number of wonderful tea makers.
Price is another important factor we consider. The price of premium teas, like good wine, can go from a little pricey to eye-popping expensive.* With the goal of introducing our tea drinkers to good oolong tea, an acceptable price is important so that everyone can try our products. We select teas offering good price-to-value performance, and offer our loose tea leaves in 1 oz small packages for you to experiment.
To ensure that you enjoy the teas created by our Taiwan tea makers - tasting just the way these artisans intended - we also offer our 1 oz. tea packages in vacuum-sealed aluminum foils. This keeps the tea fresher than the air-tight bags in which teas are usually sold.
Last but not least, we select our teas based on extensive taste trials. Our nose and taste buds can be quite fickle instruments, and they are not easy to calibrate. To ensure that our evaluations are fair and representative, we tested our teas extensively, under different conditions, with different types of people - both tea drinkers and otherwise. Based on our results, we are confident that you can find one or more teas to enjoy from our collections.
* Note: Competition winning teas have been auctioned off for as much as $15,000 - $30,000 for 600 grams.