品 Phín. 2018 Summer Aged Black Tea
Notes & Flavors
Goji Berry, Date, Haw Flake, Forest Honey, Cocoa, Sandalwood
Deerland Grade / Quality Tea / a memorable tea for the enthusiast
It is balanced, delicate, and with several distinctive, outstanding characteristics.
Summer 2018
Cultivar. The 28th
NanTou - HengShan Region. 500 m
Oxidation Level. Almost Full
Roasting Degree. None
About this tea
"Same craft; Different hands" is a Taiwanese saying, a reminder that even a craft which looks simple and easily replicated can turn out remarkably differently depending on who's making it. Every maker brings their own sense of aesthetic, their own level of mastery, their own physical intuition, and those differences show up in the finest details.
Master Hsu, who crafted this black tea, specializes in oolong. What amazes us most is the sheer finesse of his roasting: even leaves that were poorly picked or harvested past their prime can be coaxed, through his roasting, into something quietly enjoyable.
Back when Taiwan's tea industry was built on exports, it was precisely this near-impossible knack for rescuing difficult batches, paired with the blending skills of the tea factories, that kept the industry thriving. Today, as single-cultivar teas have come into fashion, both crafts are increasingly hard to find successors for. It's difficult not to feel a certain sadness watching them gradually fade.
Black tea was never Master Hsu's specialty. But he's always been someone who likes to challenge himself, and once he starts studying a craft, he has trouble putting it down. In the summer of 2018, looking at the abundance of the 28th cultivar growing around him, an idea took hold, and with it began a season-long journey of experimentation.
How much time does it take, how many batches of fresh leaves must be sacrificed, how much sweat shed, and how many more white hairs must appear, before someone learns to craft a tea they've never truly mastered? We've never quite dared to ask.
But the Master Hsu we know is someone who can listen to vinyl records while tending the temperature of a roasting basket for twenty-one hours without shutting his eyes. So when he told us he was going to craft a black tea, we already knew it would be no ordinary one.
This tea is that tea, "Same craft; Different hands."
The liquor is mellow yet clean and sweet, carrying notes of goji berry, date, sandalwood, and nectar. The finish brings hints of forest honey and cocoa, leaving behind a sweetness that lingers on the lips.
There's something deeply reassuring in that. Whether in the early days of Taiwan's export-tea trade or today, as long as there are still hands capable of this kind of near-impossible craft, we believe Taiwanese tea will endure for generations to come.
The easiest way of brewing
this tea; Cold Brewing is not recommended
Hot Brewing
1. Place 4 g tea leaf in a pot with a capacity of 500 to 550 ml
2. Fill the pot with 90-95°C hot water and let the tea steep for 7-8 min.
3. Pour the tea out and enjoy it. The leaf can remain in the pot and need no filtered away. Add more 90°C hot water for more infusions
Tasting this tea
1. Fill boiled water into a pot with a capacity of 120 to 150 ml. Seal the pot with a lid and wait 90 sec. then empty the pot.
2. Place 6 g tea leaf in the empty pot and wait 90 sec.
The remaining heat and moisture inside the pot would extract the hydrated aroma out of the tea leaf. Open the lid and smell the hydrated Steam Note.
3. Fill the pot with 90-95°C hot water and let the tea steep for 45 sec.
Pour the tea out and taste the Tea Flavor thus enjoying the Tea Note at the same time.
4. Smell and observe the Post-Brew Note that is lasting at the bottom of the cup and the steeped leaf. Repeatedly make another infusion by pouring 90-95°C water into the pot.
*Second to Fourth Infusion: 30-40 sec.
*Fifth & After: 50 sec. and longer
Please use soft drinking water to brew the tea; the ideal calcium content should be lower than 30 mg/L
台灣橫山二八仔種 紅茶
戊戌狗年夏 茶
鹿野茶房評選：佳品。
香氣飽滿；茶湯細緻；小壺泡變化層次分明。可品可藏的師級作。
「同款著無同師傅」是一句臺語俚語，說的是看似一理通、能輕易複製的手藝活，卻因各個師傅不盡相同的美感、習慣和熟練度，做出來的作品在細緻處仍有顯著差距。華語裡另一句「內行看門道，外行看熱鬧」，指的也是相似的道理。
做這支紅茶的許師傅，其實平日專精製作烏龍茶。每每讓我們驚歎的是他細緻已極的焙火手路。那些即使採得粗、掉了季節的茶菁，到他手上、用炭火慢慢琢磨，無論味型或香型，居然還是能有個模樣。
早期台灣外銷茶的時代，靠的就是這種逆天的救場活，加上茶廠的拼配火候，才一路撐了起來。如今這兩門功夫隨著單品茶的流行越來越找不到傳人，令人不勝唏噓。
紅茶本不是許師傅的擅場，但他一向是個喜歡挑戰自己、一頭鑽進製茶研究就出不來的人。2018年夏天，他看著盛產的二八仔茶樹起心動念，開始了一整季的實驗旅程。
到底要花多少時間、蹂躪多少茶菁、流下多少熱汗和目油；終究又要多幾根白頭髮才能學會做好一種不熟悉的茶類？我們問不出口。但我們認識的許師傅，是一邊聽著黑膠、一邊調整焙籠溫度，可以21個小時不闔眼的狠人。當他說要做紅茶，就註定了那不會是一支普通的紅茶。
這就是那支紅茶，同款著無同師傅。
甘醇的茶湯裡有枸杞、椰棗、檀香混著花蜜的味道，尾調則浮出針葉樹蜜露和可可那令人忍不住舔嘴的焦甜。
想想真令人心安。不論是早期外銷茶的時代還是現代，有這種逆天手路在，台灣茶還是會百世流芳的吧。