Taiwanese Sun-Moon Lake Black

[aaronlawson]

Hi TokyoB,
I bought it at Wang De Chuan in Taipei, Taiwan. They have a counter at the Taipei 101 building where you can try many teas. The guy at the counter (he was very young, like 19-20) was very knowledgeable about tea and was very proficient in foreign languages. The #18 from Upton is the same variety of tea, just not nearly as good as the one from Wang De Chuan, and much more expensive. I haven't found a source that has the same quality of the one I bought in Taiwan, unfortunately. This being said I have only tried the Upton offerings so I don't give up hope yet.

[shah82]

For those of you who are feeling adventurous and can read traditional chinese (I gave it a pretty good go with babelfish...)

http://www.dechuantea.com/index.htm

At first look, the price range *does* look expensive, but not horrendously so like you see with Korean tea. I suspect that you can talk them into sending you some of that fine stuff for not too much with some help...

[gingkoseto]

For those of you who are feeling adventurous and can read traditional chinese (I gave it a pretty good go with babelfish...)

http://www.dechuantea.com/index.htm

At first look, the price range *does* look expensive, but not horrendously so like you see with Korean tea. I suspect that you can talk them into sending you some of that fine stuff for not too much with some help...

Do they sell online? I didn't find shopping cart...

Their "honey fragrance red tea" somewhat sounds like oriental beauty. The price is not expensive for good oriental beauty (is the price per 600g?). I found myself more willing to buy expensive oolong than expensive black tea

[shah82]

Honey fragrance red tea is dang vague when it comes to Taiwan. They have a *ton* of fairly different teas with lots of honey scent.

[Janine]

The ruby tea is a hybrid of an assam that was brought to Taiwan by the Japanese (from Burma I think) and a native Taiwan plant

I personally love Tillerman Tea's version and also Red Circle's

[shah82]

http://www.lands.com.tw/e_profile01.php

I think the more sources we have from Taiwan, the better we'll do for taiwanese blacks. I suspect the truly good stuff rarely leaves to retail in the West.

[Janine]

Red Circle tea is now importing an organic, hand-picked and hand-rolled batch of #18 ... they are getting a small lot specifically made for them by monks in Taiwan. See an article on their Facebook page here:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=ho ... 022&ref=mf

[Margules]

Hmm...they have their profile set to private. Why on earth would a tea shop have their profile set to private?

[Janine]

Okay, I mistakenly posted something from their personal page and not their fan page ... here is a better URL

Red Circle Tea
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Red-Circl ... 1603868613

[Chip]

Since #18 from Wang De Chuan is mentioned, I would like to share some of my personal experience. I recently tried their #18 in Taiwan from a sample tasting at one of their shops. Also from my trip to Taiwan, I brought back some #18 tea from Assam tea farm which is near Sun-Moon Lake (wwwdotassamfarmdotcom.tw/). Personally I think Assam team farm's #18 is a lot better, a lot more smooth and tastes more "organic". I didn't try these 2 teas under the same brewing setting, so this might not be a fair comparison..

[shah82]

The top ruby tea is ~$60 per 75gms. Converting 8 yuan to 1 dollar

Ouch.

[cindyt]

The top ruby tea is ~$60 per 75gms. Converting 8 yuan to 1 dollar

Ouch.

Actually it is 32 yuan to 1 dollar (New Taiwan Dollar and not Chinese Yuan), so only ~$15 for 75g.

[shah82]

I was wondering about that...I typically hear Taiwan dollar and not Taiwan Yuan...

[TokyoB]

I was wondering about that...I typically hear Taiwan dollar and not Taiwan Yuan...

Sorry if this if off the topic of tea but....

The currency in Taiwan is the New Taiwan Dollar ("tai bi" in Mandarin) but the counter is "圓" or "yuan2". For those not familiar with Chinese (and Japanese too) there are many more counter words used than in English. An example of a counter word in English is "sheet" for paper. The Taiwanese also sometimes use a more colloquial counter for money which is "塊" or "kuai4".

In Mainland China the unit of currency is the "元" or "yuan2'". So there are two different words with two different, but similar, meanings but with the same pronunciation! And yes, Chinese is often this confusing, at least to me.

More details here:
http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.p ... &wdqb=yuan

Edit: Ok, this is getting confusing now. I just looked at the above mentioned Taiwanese site and see the following character used for price:元. Hmm....The above info was from a native Taiwanese person.

[cindyt]

Edit: Ok, this is getting confusing now. I just looked at the above mentioned Taiwanese site and see the following character used for price:元. Hmm....The above info was from a native Taiwanese person.

TokyoB, what you said is 100% correct. The only thing that maybe I can help clarify more is for "yuan2". 元 and 圓 are both used in Taiwan (traditional Chinese, with 圓 being the more formal one. For example, you'll see 圓 on the NT$100 bills. In daily life, 元 is used instead. And that's why you see it on the website above.

This is similar to the way numbers are in traditional Chinese. There is a formal way to write it, and an informal way. For example, one is "一" or "壹".

Yes "kuai4" is the colloquial term.