About Ali Shan Gui Hua Oolong
A wonderful collaboration between Osmanthus and Ali Shan tea.
This product was realized due to the many requests from our customers. Fresh osmanthus flowers and tea produced at 1500m in Ali Shan were mixed, allowing the tea leaves to absorb the sweet aroma of osmanthus.
This is entirely different from the mass-produced osmanthus tea found in souvenir shops.
It has a very fruity flavor, and immediately after drinking, the fresh peach scent spreads in your mouth.
Product Details
Ali Shan Gui Hua Oolong tea was sourced in response to numerous customer requests.
The name might seem complex at first glance, but it means osmanthus oolong made using oolong tea from Ali Shan, a mountain in Taiwan. Osmanthus refers to the flower of the sweet osmanthus tree.
Osmanthus oolong itself is not a particularly rare tea.
It is frequently seen in China and Taiwan. Especially, osmanthus fragrance is often added to make summer-plucked tea or low-quality tea from unnamed regions easier to sell, so osmanthus oolong can be seen all over Taiwan and China.
However, did you know there are various types of osmanthus oolong? Osmanthus oolong sprayed with fragrance can be obtained for around 1000 yen per 100g.
In contrast, the osmanthus oolong sold by HOJO is far more expensive. It is not just expensive for no reason, there is a reason for the high price.
Three Types of Osmanthus Oolong
The osmanthus oolong in the world can be classified into the following three types:
- The most common type is sprayed with fragrance. It is often seen at airports and shops aimed at tourists. Because the fragrance is added with a spray, cheap tea leaves are used. The fragrance is strong, but there is no depth when you drink it. It is essentially a flavored tea.
- The type that mixes or uses dried osmanthus flowers for fragrance. Osmanthus flowers are also sold dried. Although the scent does not become unpleasant when dried, it is clearly different from the scent of fresh flowers. Since fresh osmanthus is hard to obtain and wilts quickly, dried osmanthus is often used.
- The most premium type is made by mixing fresh osmanthus flowers with oolong tea, allowing the tea leaves to absorb the fresh floral aroma. HOJO's Ali Shan Gui Hua Oolong is this type. It has a sweet, refreshing aroma.
The osmanthus oolong sourced by HOJO uses Ali Shan tea as the base oolong tea. Ali Shan is a 1600m high mountain, but the tea gardens are distributed across a very wide area from the base to the top of the mountain.
Therefore, even tea from Ali Shan can vary in quality, with tea from several hundred meters, tea from 1000 meters, and tea from around 1500 meters each having different qualities.
Since HOJO insists on using fresh osmanthus flowers for fragrance, we also focus on the quality of the base oolong tea. We use spring tea produced in a tea garden at 1500m in Ali Shan.
The quality of the tea leaves can be judged by how quickly they open when brewed. High-quality tea leaves have many cells per unit area, making them elastic like rubber and quickly returning to their original shape when placed in hot water.
On the other hand, summer-plucked tea or low-altitude tea has large cells, fewer in number, and the cell walls are easily broken. When placed in hot water, the broken parts do not return to their original shape, so the leaves do not open easily.
One factor for a good quality osmanthus oolong is that the osmanthus does not overpower. Osmanthus oolong with an overwhelming osmanthus fragrance that overshadows the oolong tea quickly becomes tiring.
HOJO aims for a collaboration between high-quality oolong tea and fresh osmanthus flowers. In the case of Ali Shan Gui Hua Oolong, the osmanthus fragrance acts like a "backup dancer" for the main performer, which is the oolong tea.
The main character is the oolong tea, and the osmanthus subtly enhances it. It is a very fruity tea, and the fresh peach scent spreads in your mouth immediately after drinking.
