Place of Origin
Yuchi, Nantou County, Taiwan

Month and Year of Picking
May 2016

Tasting Notes
An unusually delightful tasting profile of mint, eucalyptus, and hints of fragrant cinnamon

Sourcing Notes
This naturally sweet, aromatic brew has a flavour unlike any other black tea, following cool mint with subtle notes of cinnamon and eucalyptus. Known as Ruby Black, the cultivar used also goes by the decidedly less romantic name, TTES #18. Tea in Taiwan is a serious business and innovative approaches to tea, along with new cultivars are under constant research. The TTES stands for ‘Taiwan Tea Experiment Station’, a government funded project that has brought us some delicious results over the past few decades. This particular experiment, TTES#18, or Hong Yu, is a cultivar that combines the full-bodied character of an Assam with delectable minty notes and hints of cinnamon.

Taiwan’s tea technology is matched only by their unique soil and climate conditions, both of which mean that Taiwanese teas are some of the most sought after in the world. Ruby Black comes from the big tea county of Nantou, and is grown near Sun Moon Lake, a picturesque tourist attraction and the largest body of water in Taiwan.

Taiwan is best known for its fantastic oolongs, but it produces plenty of world-class green and black teas. This is a distinctive, but popular black tea that makes a great starting point for exploring Taiwan’s homegrown cultivars.

Nutty / Spiced