Red Lily

Notes of sugar cane, adzuki bean, and orange blossom.

Red tea from Taiwan・April 2020・金萱紅・Unsprayed

This Alishan garden, at 1400m, was a pioneer of high mountain tea craft, and played a critical role in developing the region’s reputation for some of the finest teas in Taiwan.

Red Lily is made from the Jin Xuan cultivar, a hybrid developed by the Taiwanese Tea Research and Extension Station as a hardy, high-yielding green oolong, well suited to low elevations. As lower elevation generally produce uninspiring, lackluster teas, Jin Xuan is typically considered a tier below oolongs made from the qing xin (green heart) cultivar.

Good tea making, however, is cultivar-agnostic. A skilled tea maker can transform even the lowliest varieties into something breathtakingly delicious and aromatic. Red Lily is one such transformation.

Hand-picked in April 2020, these leaves underwent a long, gradual oxidation, pushing beyond the prescribed boundaries of an oolong. The result is a red tea thick with depth, texture and range, without the loss of the innate creaminess of the high mountain cultivar.

Brew: 5 grams・150 ml・203° F・1 min

This tea brews with remarkable range. Our suggested brew parameters yield a tea that balances the floral aromatics with deeper chocolate notes. Decreasing temperature will highlight the tea’s sweet and aromatic character, while increasing temperature yields a thick, deep tea that brings to mind Assam and Yunnan reds.