Tea with a floral twist
In ancient China, there was a technique for producing floral teas known as “xun,” and in recent years a few young people have begun working to revive this nearly lost art.
One such group is at Eighty-Eightea Rinbansyo, but there is another, Dings Tea, situated in the tea growing heartland of Chiayi.
Whereas makers of Western blended teas largely create a floral accent by misting the tea leaves with essential oils and then mix in a scattering of petals and dried fruits for the aesthetic, “You can’t do that with Taiwanese teas because of the high humidity—fresh petals would go off too quickly, and fruit would attract bugs.” As he says this, Dings Tea boss Mitch Chung opens a jar of their own floral tea, which is visually almost indistinguishable from ordinary tea.
According to information Chung has found, traditional xun tea-making involved first sifting out the stems and calyces of the flowers to avoid them being mixed in with the tea and impacting the flavor, and then layering flowers and tea before heating them to blend the flavors. The high temperature helps release the scent of the flower petals, but it can also make the tea leaves go soggy and ruin the final product, and so when making xun tea, it is crucial to precisely control the temperature. After three to five cycles of heating, cooling and drying, the flower petals are then picked out of the tea by hand to finish the process.
Dings Tea produces three varieties: osmanthus, ginger flower, and magnolia figo. What springs to mind first for most people when they hear “floral tea” is probably jasmine tea, largely because in Taiwanese tea tradition, such teas have long been on the margins, or even the subject of rumors that only “second-rate” tea would need to be “spiked” with flowers.
In what some would consider a rebellious act, Chung has chosen to use the alpine oolong from his family’s tea garden, located in Taihe Village in Chiayi County’s Meishan Township, as the base for his flower teas. It was through these unique specialty teas that he was able to open a teahouse of his own and still carve out a niche for himself in downtown Chiayi City despite the area’s abundance of teahouses and cafes.
With notes of apricot, banana, and pineapple, osmanthus and magnolia figo are excellent fits for the creamy aroma of a jinxuan oolong, while the warm, spicy scent of ginger flowers makes for a great match with the refined elegance of a qingxin oolong.
Chung used to have a love‡hate relationship with his family’s tea garden. As a child, he couldn’t spend his vacations goofing around with his friends, instead being press-ganged into working with his family in the tea garden. “When I was testing into university, my first priority was to get into one as far away as possible from that place,” he says.
It wasn’t until the devastation of Typhoon Morakot almost a decade ago that he finally came home to take the reins of the garden. He chose a different path from that forged by his father, though, promoting a personal brand of tea, trying to revive a near-lost tea-making technique, and opening a small teahouse. For a while, their different attitudes led to clashes between father and son, but today, the little boy who couldn’t wait to escape the tea garden has finally embraced it wholeheartedly.
Blended teas are fun and flavorful, opening a door for young people into the wide world of tea. (photo by Chuang Kung-ju)
Drinking tea is not only about the flavor, but also a way to take some time out from the hustle and bustle of life.
Mitch Chung, a second-generation tea farmer, has set out to build his own brand through his small store Dings Tea.
Dings Tea combines an interior aesthetic blending East and West with a rarely seen style of tea that has made it a hotspot even among the masses of teahouses in Chiayi.