Note: Due to higher than usual demand for the kumquats, the Green Oolong and Dried Kumquat Slices bundle won't be available until the week of September 22.

In Taiwan, drinking tea represents an opportunity to break and indulge in life’s small delights, or xiao que xing 小確幸. On a weekday afternoon in Taipei, you might see students and office workers lining up at a bubble tea shop for a midday pick-me-up. Or maybe you’ll peek into the window of a cafe and see friends gathered over drinks and snacks.

At the Yun Hai office, our small delight is sharing a pot of tea and dried fruit. We’ve curated our favorite pairings, in the hopes that they, too, will bring a spot of joy to your day, whether you enjoy them in solitude or share them with others.

Choose from:

• Green Oolong with Dried Kumquat Slices: Our green oolong has a juicy character that carries the aromas of gardenia and fern, with notes of white asparagus and macadamia nut. Its tingly, dry quality tempers the caramel sweetness of our dried kumquat slices and brings out their balsam flavor.


• Milk Oolong with Dried Pearl Guava: Our milk oolong has a plush, velvety character that carries the aroma of seaweed shortbread, with notes of sweet cream, pear, and wildflowers. Its mildness complements the floral flavor of our dried pearl guava.


• Black Oolong with Dried Wax Apple: Our black oolong has a smooth and brothy character that carries the aromas of caramel and fresh soymilk, with notes of plum, cacao, and barley. Its tannins bring out the tart sweetness in our dried wax apple, highlighting its juicy herbaceous quality.

The Yun Hai Taiwanese Tea Collection represents an ongoing collaboration with farmers, roasters, and masters of tea. First up is BANGtea, who sources directly from tea masters producing Taiwanese oolongs so good that they sell out before they even make it to market in Taiwan.

These oolongs are loose leaf and ball-rolled; as you brew, you’ll notice them unfurl to reveal whole leaves, stems, and buds—an indication that the farmer has handpicked the youngest tip of the plant, and an affirmation of quality.

How to Drink It

See below for how we recommend brewing each tea, but truthfully, they’re all so good, you can’t go wrong. When starting with high quality tea, brewing can be as simple or as complex as the individual prefers, with a variety of different results, all enjoyable.

• Green Oolong: 5 g per 150 ml water, 205 degrees F, 45 seconds / for multiple brews
• Milk Oolong: 5g per 150ml water, 205 degrees F, 60 seconds / multiple brews
• Black Oolong: 5 g per 150 ml water, 210 degrees F, 50 seconds / for multiple brews

You could brew gong fu style, with a gaiwan or clay teapot. Or, go “grandpa style,” as BANGtea suggests, and toss some leaves into a beaker with hot water, no measuring. We love it as a cold brew, too: add 8-10g of this tea into a 16oz water bottle, and let it steep in the fridge overnight.

How to Taste It

While we are brewing-method agnostic and feel that great results can be achieved in many ways, we do feel strongly about using your senses to experience the tea in all of its stages.

Try:

• Rolling the leaves around in your hand to appreciate the color, shape, weight, and density.


• Smelling the leaves before and after brewing—dry and wet—for a completely different experience. We recommend putting your nose into the brewing vessel, breathing out hot air, and then inhaling. The heat from your body warms up the leaves and activates their flavor and scent compounds.


• Tasting the broth by rolling it around in your mouth before swallowing. Notice the parts of your mouth being activated. Is it juicy along the sides of the tongue? Chalky on the palate? Lingeringly sweet in the back of the throat?


• Tracking the flavors and smells as they develop throughout the drinking experience. How does the aroma linger while you drink (retronasal olfaction), and how does that smell impact the experience?


• Appreciating the color. We love to brew tea in clear glass to see both the leaves and the hue as they transform throughout the brewing process. The color of tea is expressed on a wide spectrum: the black oolong leaves have an inkiness to them from the oxidation, while the milk oolong offers just a wisp of flax in the first brew.

How Our Tea Is Made

All our oolongs are grown at an elevation of 1300m in the misty high mountains of Alishan, Taiwan.

After hand picking the tea leaves and buds, the producers wither the tea under the sun to dehydrate them and make them more pliable.

Then, they tumble the leaves in a large cylindrical basket to encourage oxidation. The agitation bruises the cell walls of the leaves and allows the amino acids, polyphenols, and enzymes to interact, causing the flavor of the tea to develop. To continue the oxidation process, they lay the leaves out on bamboo plates and periodically toss them by hand.

Once the desired level of oxidation is reached, the tea undergoes "kill green" 殺青, a critical step in the oolong-making process that halts flavor change by tumbling the leaves in high heat for a short period of time. They then roll and dry the leaves over the course of a few hours, targeting a 2% moisture content.

If the tea is meant to be unroasted, production stops here. If it’s meant to be roasted, the dried leaves are exposed to heat until their final flavor is achieved.

Tasting Notes and Usage

Green Oolong: gardenia, and fern on the nose with tasting notes of white asparagus and macadamia nut

Brewing: 5 g per 150 ml water, 205 degrees F, 45 seconds / for multiple brews

Dried Kumquat Slices: orange blossom, caramel, balsam

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Milk Oolong: butter cookies and toasted seaweed on the nose with tasting notes of sweet cream, pear, and wildflowers

Brewing: 5g per 150ml water, 205 degrees F, 60 seconds / multiple brews

Dried Pearl Guava: floral, spring notes

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Black Oolong: caramel and fresh soymilk on the nose with tasting notes of cacao, honey, and plum

Brewing Instructions: 5 g per 150 ml water, 210 degrees F, 50 seconds / for multiple brews

Dried Wax Apple: chewy, herbaceous apple

Ingredients and Instructions

Green Oolong: Qingxin 青心
Product of Taiwan

Dried Kumquat Slices: kumquat, sugar, maltose, kumquat juice

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Milk Oolong: Jinxuan 金萱 "milk oolong"
Product of Taiwan

Dried Pearl Guava: dried pearl guavas, sugar, salt

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Black Oolong: Jinxuan 金萱 "milk oolong"
Product of Taiwan

Dried Wax Apple: dried wax apples

About Yun Hai Selection

Yun Hai Selection is the house brand of Yun Hai Taiwanese Pantry.

Specifications and Dimensions

Total Package Weights
Green Oolong & Kumquat Slices: 12 oz / 340 g
Milk Oolong & Pearl Guava: 11.8 oz / 334 g
Black Oolong & Wax Apple: 10.4 oz / 294 g