Good morning, dear tea friends! We’ve been experiencing a heatwave all this week in New England, with temps in the mid 90s. Even with the AC on full blast, I’m feeling very drained and foggy. The good news is that a cool front is sweeping in tonight with a line of thunderstorms that will bring relief from the oppressive heat. As I was out walking the other day, I was thinking how blessed I am to live in a place with changing weather. Ok, on to tea…

My morning cuppa is a lightly oxidized Oolong from Thailand called Ruan Zhi Thai Oolong.

Tea cultivation and production in the high mountains of Thailand was started and established in the 1980s by Chinese immigrants. What began as small economic activity has grown to a strong community of independent tea gardens.

This tea is plucked from Taiwanese bushes that were brought over for Oolong tea production and the whole leaves are carefully rolled in the tradition of Taiwanese tea crafting.

The tea came in a beautiful stylized packet with colorful images of flowers and birds. Does anyone know what kind of bird that is?

As you can see from the photo of the dry leaf, the leaf is tightly rolled into large spiral-shaped pellets. After a 3 minute steeping in 190F water, the pellets unfurled to reveal finely plucked, well intact enormous leaf sets.

I’m not sure about the percentage of oxidation for this tea but I would guess around the same level as a Jade or Spring Dragon Formosa (Taiwan) Oolong, in the teens, as it is created in that style.

The pale jade tea liquor has a light floral fragrance with a very rich, buttery flavor. Notes of orchid gently dance across my tongue and linger into the finish. This tea is light yet richly flavored all at the same time. It would taste excellent iced, especially on a hot, steamy day like today.

I’ve decided to sip my tea hot so I can show off my new teabowl. A lovely shade of seagreen with washes of reddish brown on the rim, it’s covered in light speckles that glitter in the sunlight falling on the inside of the bowl.

To beat the heat today, I’m going to catch a movie this afternoon in an air-conditioned theater. How about you? Tomorrow will be a much nicer day to spend outside, a perfect day to have a picnic with my grandkids.

As always, thanks for visiting and have a wonderful week!

“You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself.” 

~Alan Alda