equals frequent trips to this:
Taiwan has so much awesome tea. I can't help but spend my whole morning drinking it, and have been averaging about six cups per morning (see above breakdown). If I have to visit the bathroom every thirty minutes or so, that is just the price I have to pay.
My favorite (see first picture) would be:
東方美人茶
(oriental beauty)
and is the tea I
most frequently drink. It is a highly fermented oolong tea that gets its
special flavor from little insects that live on the tea leaves and leave their
egg sacks in a paste that is actually brewed with the tea leaves. It may sound
a little gross, but the lovely flavors of honey and chocolate that can
accompany the tea make for fine drinking.
Second in line is:
高山烏龍茶
(high mountain oolong)
and is lighter in
nature but also incredibly enjoyable to drink. I would almost say that it has a
sweet grassy
flavor, and I rarely go a day without having a couple cups.
There is definitely
an abundance of amazing loose leaf teas, but you can also find great teas in
bag form as well. One of the first that I found after arriving in Taipei was a
chrysanthemum pu'er tea (last picture), and I have been drinking it with some
regularity ever since. Anyone familiar with pu'er teas, knows that they are
very dark and rich in flavor, and can definitely pack a large caffeinated
punch. The process in making pu'er tea is quite interesting and I'd recommend
checking out the wikipedia
page about it.
My coworker Dan and
I went to a tea shop today that is filled with enormous bins of different kinds
of tea, so I have a feeling that my Taiwan tea experience is only
beginning...
