Ordinary Ginseng Oolong is made in China. The tea is compressed into dark little pyramid-shape pellets. It consists of tea dust made of tea leaves harvested in summer. Usually it gives artificial sweet taste and does not taste like made of quality tea leaves, though some people may tend to like this kind of tea. I’ve been requested by many customers to look for Ginseng Oolong, yet I was not motivated to seek for it. When I heard that there was a unique and exclusive Ginseng oolong in Taiwan, I was not motivated to taste. But I was surprised when I saw the tea sample. The appearance was completely different. It maintains the original shape of oolong tea leaf.

Tea is coated with genuine ginseng		Due to the high altitude, tea garden is even covered with snow at times despite Tawain is sub-tropical climate.

Shan-lin-xi tea garden is situated at 2000m. Dispite Tawain is under sub-tropical climate, once in a while there is snowing.

If you wish to learn more about "Oolong Process", please click here >>

(1) Water
In you are using tap water, it is necessary to filter the water using an activated carbon filter. If not, you wouldn’t be able to enjoy the authentic taste of tea. Chlorine is added to tap water in order to sanitize bacteria. This chlorinated water will also harm our body cells. Concerning about our health condition, it is very important to remove chlorine from drinking water. The most effective method in removing chlorine is to install an activated carbon filter. This type of filter is designed for removing organic substance. It will remove not only chlorine, but also other harmful substance such as contaminated pesticide. The activated carbon filter can be easily obtained from the common hardware shop in most countries. If activated carbon filter is not available, please place a charcoal inside the water and leave it for over night. The material composed of activated carbon filter is made of ground charcoal.  The difference is that activated carbon filter contains much finer particles and hence it has extremely large surface area for a better efficiency in filtration. We do not suggest RO water (reversed osmosis water) or distilled water. This water carries no mineral, the taste and flavor of tea tends to be very unstable, unless you have very superior quality tea and tea equipment.
It is also advisable not to use fresh tap water. The intensity of after taste becomes stronger if water is kept overnight. Keeping water with stones or inside clay jar will increase the content of minerals. However, you need to confirm whether or not the water kept inside particular jar or with stone is suitable with your tea or tea equipment (such as teapot). If water jar carries certain minerals like copper or zinc, it will rather spoil the taste and flavor of tea. For this, you need to confirm with experiment on try and error basis.
For boiling water, please do not use aluminum or copper kettle. It spoils the taste of water. We suggest using kettle made of iron, stainless steel, tin or glass. 

In the long run, you may observe a thick layer of scale accumulated inside your kettle. Our mother usually taught us to wash and remove it with citric acid. But please do not even try to remove the scale. Scale consists of minerals that exist in the water. The mineral composition is reflected from the water you used. If you remove the scale, the mineral ion balance between scale and water is destroyed. This balance is called buffer effect in science. The flavor and taste will seriously run out and you won’t be able to get previous taste and flavor for a long time. It is also important to stick to the same type of water whenever brewing tea. If source of water is changed, it carries different type of minerals. It will affect the mineral ion balance too.

Go to further information about suitable water for brewing tea >>
(2) Quantity of tea leaves

To determine the quantity of tea leaves to be used, we divide the volume of water by 5. For example: the volume of teapot = 200ml; 200ml/50 =4g. You need to measure 4g of tea leaves for 200ml of water.

(3) Temperature
It is important to use boiling water. Please do not stop as soon as water is boiled. It is advisable to keep boiling for about 30 seconds to 1 minute.

(4) Brewing time
Pour the hot water into the tea pot, and brew for 30 second. For second and third brewing, use the same temperature as first brewing. The brewing time for 2nd brewing is about 20 seconds. For 3rd and 4th brewing, prolong the brewing time for additional 10 seconds. If you brew correctly, you can brew up to 6 times.

In order to enjoy oolong tea, always ensure that the water temperature is very hot. Use boiling water and rinse tea pot with boiling water to keep it hot.