Podcasts about shiuwen

Shiuwen, John and Noah compare grades of porcelain in gongfu tea cups, and investigate what each cup does to a tea.

We're back!! In the first episode of season three, Johnny and Shiuwen will be experimenting with the harnessing of intention to brew a better (or worse) pot of tea.

This episode we just sit back and drink an epic puer tea harvested from 1000 year old tea tree.

John's second time to switch places with Shiuwen and show off all his tea brewing techniques that we've been working on this whole season!

The long awaited follow up to 'Techniques for Identifying Stale Tea', this episode is all about the tools and techniques we use to push staleness out of an older tea.

Recently we've been talking a lot about the 'opening movement' of tea brewing: Pouring water into the pot and the many details contained therein that effect the final brew. This episode we delve into the less obvious 'middle movement', or waiting for the tea to be brewed. This may seem straightforward, and is easily overlooked because the brewer is not doing any active process to the tea. BUT, as our tea classes keep repeating ad nauseum, there are infinite details in every aspect of tea brewing.

This episode we compare two high mountain oolongs, one grown with agrochemicals and one from an organic tea garden. Shiuwen teaches John, and the listeners, the tricks for picking up on agrochemicals in your cup.

More on water flow. We learned last time on the Waterfall vs Whirlpool episode that the way you choose to pour water into a pot of tea changes the outcome. This time we are exploring more fine details on how to improve the quality of your water flow.

Today we talk about a tea tool that goes by many names : sharing pitcher, fairness cup, gongdao bei, cha hai. It is used with the best intentions, to make sure everyone is drinking the same taste at the same time. But is it necessary to brew a good pot of tea?   

When we talk about the parameters of tea brewing, it's not uncommon to think of water temperature, amount of tea and timing. But there is a hidden parameter that we all must execute to pull out a good cup of tea from the leaves, and that's the way we pour water into the pot. 

Most teas undergo an acclimation period after shipping, especially long distances (like when we get new products in from farmers and roasters in Taiwan). This quick episode John and Shiuwen taste a roasted oolong that is in jet lag mode.

Shiuwen tells the story of how a new tea took some getting used to, and how she approaches unknown variables in tea brewing. We don't have any sample available for this episode, but we hope you'll practice these ideas when you next run into a new tea that doesn't make sense at first brew.

This episode John brewed a pot of tea for us! This is the first in a series of John brewing, on the other side of the table. To join the class and learn from these episodes, you can brew this tea (Dong Ding Traditional A, available on our website) and answer Shiuwen's guiding questions from your own experience.

This episode is all about using smelling cups to explore more deeply into the scent. We also identify the meaning of Cha Qi, and how Cha Qi manifests in the scent.   To join the class and learn from these episodes, you can drink this exact tea and answer Shiuwen's guiding questions from your own experience. Find the teas on our website here => https://floatingleaves.us/cart/update?updates%5B39731915817167%5D=1&updates%5B39651322429647%5D=1

Oolong tea does not go bad, but it does go stale if stored improperly, or for a very long time. In this episode, we taste the same Tie Guanyin oolong tea, one stored properly and one improperly. John and Shiuwen identify the staleness of tea through drinking.   To join the class and learn from these episodes, please place an order and leave a comment to let us know you'd like some stale tea to practice with. Otherwise, if you have a bag of tea you've left open for quite some time you can also practice these techniques and answer Shiuwen's guiding questions.  

Oolong tea does not go bad, but it does go stale if stored improperly or for a very long time. In this episode, Shiuwen offers John a few techniques to smell from the dry leaf if a tea is stale.   To join the class and learn from these episodes, please place an order and leave a comment to let us know you'd like some stale tea to practice with. Otherwise, if you have a bag of tea you've left open for quite some time you can us that to practice these techniques and answer Shiuwen's guiding questions.

With higher grade teas, we are looking for more complexity in the scent. Not only how flavorful or how many notes it has, but also where the scent is felt in the body. This episode Shiuwen and John compare two oolongs to isolate the sensation of scent reaching deeper inside of the nostrils.   To join the class and learn from these episodes, you can drink this exact tea and answer Shiuwen's guiding questions from your own experience. Find the teas on our website here => https://floatingleaves.us/cart/update?updates%5B39651321872591%5D=1&updates%5B40287149392079%5D=1 The Tea : Nantou Four Seasons, Smooth Water Baozhong

This episode Shiuwen and John explore the third main parameter of tea brewing : timing. How long does the water need to sit on the leaves? #NoFear #MakeMistakes   To join the class and learn from these episodes, you can drink this exact tea and answer Shiuwen's guiding questions from your own experience. Find the teas on our website here => https://floatingleaves.us/cart/update?updates%5B39651320299727%5D=1 (Note : For this episode, any Taiwanese tea from our shop will get the point across.) The Tea : Ruby 18

This episode we soak four black teas to see if they 'break' or not. A good tea will still show a sense of structure and movement, even if it's brewed to the point of unpleasantness. We are using two of our own black teas and two tea bag teas.   To join the class and learn from these videos, you can drink these exact teas and answer Shiuwen's guiding questions from your own experience. If you buy these two teas, leave us a message in your order notes and we'll send the teabags for free ;) Find the teas on our website here => https://floatingleaves.us/cart/update?updates%5B39651320201423%5D=1&updates%5B39651320299727%5D=1   The Teas : Ruby 18, House Black, 2x Tea Bag from Grocery Store

This class we will be exploring different leaf-to-water ratios to see if there is really such a thing as proper recipes. To join the class and learn from these episodes, you can drink these exact teas and answer Shiuwen's guiding questions from your own experience. Find the tea on our website here => https://floatingleaves.us/cart/update?updates%5B39651321970895%5D=1 The Tea : Charcoal Dong Ding

In this tea class, Shiuwen guides John to notice the various places in the mouth and body where roasted oolong can produce unique sensations and textures. To join the class and learn from these episodes, you can drink these exact teas and answer Shiuwen's guiding questions from your own experience. These teas will be used in the next episode as well. Find the teas on our website here => https://floatingleaves.us/cart/update?updates%5B39651321970895%5D=1&updates%5B40528029647055%5D=1   The Teas : House Oolong Charcoal Dong Ding

Shiuwen offers a tea class on the ‘correct' brewing temperature for oolong tea. Is it ok to boil green oolong?   To join the class and learn from these videos, you can drink these exact teas and answer Shiuwen's guiding questions from your own experience. Find the teas on our website here https://floatingleaves.us/products/secret-garden-alishan-high-mountain   The Tea : Secret Garden Alishan High Mountain Oolong

Shiuwen of Floating Leaves offers a tea class on the defining characteristics that make green oolong more basic or more premium. Focus is on experiential learning. To join the class and learn from these episodes, you can drink these exact teas and answer Shiuwen's guiding questions from your own experience. Find the teas on our website here => https://floatingleaves.us/cart/39651321807055:1,41098440343759:1 The Teas : Jin Xuan Secret Garden Alishan High Mountain Oolong

Shiuwen invites special guests, some "random middle school boys", for a holiday special episode! T   his is also the last episode of our retroactively named Season 1. We will be taking a short break, and will see you again in 2022!   Find our teas : https://floatingleaves.com

Long time tea friend of Floating Leaves, the infamous Steve, joins Shiuwen and Noah to drink some teas that struck us by surprise!   The Teas :   Sun Solstice Oolong   Charcoal Roast Ruby 18   Lalashan Hong Shui   Find our teas at https://floatingleaves.com

When it comes to self-care, nothing beats pausing for a beautiful cup of tea—and so today's show is dedicated to the fine art of brewing said cup. I've got a bonafide expert, Shiuwen Tai, sharing her beautiful insights.  But first, I spend a little time sharing about something I love—jigsaw puzzles! Utterly pointless, right? But perhaps…that is the point! Puzzlers know nothing unkinks your neck and clears your mind better than putting together a sunset sky, or a still life, or some other serene, beautiful image. And what goes together better than puzzling along with a great cup of tea? Shiuwen's store, Floating Leaves, is a Seattle institution when it comes to tea. Here's what I learned in our informative chat: What oolong tea actually is The caffeine content in tea and why some (not all) can give you the jitters Chinese medicine and tea All about matcha—and how to make a matcha latte! (See below) We really dug into how to make a perfect cup, and why good quality tea is important. I even learned things about how picking tea is so critical to a great cup. I hope you enjoy! Sent with love,   Suzanne's Matcha Latte recipe ¾ tsp Ceremonial grade matcha powder 1 cup of oatmilk Sweetener ¼ cup boiling water Boil water. Heat oat milk in a small pot. Pull out a small bowl and find your smallest whisk. (A really small one is best!) Mix matcha powder with water in the small bowl, whisking it for at least 20 seconds so it's very foamy. Pour it in a cup and add sweetener. When oatmilk heats to a frothy head on the stove, turn it off and pour it on top of matcha in cup. Voila! As good as a Peet's or a Starbucks! RESOURCES Puzzle Storage System How to Use Jigsaw Puzzles to Actually Keep Your Sanity Self-Care Course Shiuwen's Online store, Floating Leaves FOR US Customers  For Non-US Customers,  Floating Leaves Tea Podcast Facebook Group MORE ABOUT SHIUWEN Shiuwen Tai grew up in Taiwan, where tea was simply a part of daily life. It was a way to bring friends together. She opened Floating Leaves Tea when she moved to Seattle, and tea developed a deeper significance for her—a connection to her home culture. Now she sees her position as a sort of bridge between East and West, sharing the simultaneously practical and abstract way the people of Taiwan see tea with an American audience.

Shiuwen sits down to answer some of John's questions about tea tasting: What it means for a tea to be 'open' or, conversely, 'bound up'.    The Tea    1998 Iron Cask Aged Dong Ding (brewed 3X's)   Find our teas at https://floatingleaves.com  

Founder of Embrace the Moon School for Taichi and Qigong, Kim Ivy, joins Shiuwen for some potent teas.    Learn more about Kim's Taichi and Qigong dojo at https://embracethemoon.com/

Shiuwen chooses and shares two teas that represent her two friends Timothy and Lewis, Floating Leafers from the early days.   Find Timothy's work at https://timothysiciliano.com/   The Teas Wild Pinglin Baozhong Laughing Buddha (Yunnan High Mountain Oolong)

Shiuwen invites our friend and budding tea connoisseur Matt for an oolong introduction.   Link to full video episode : https://youtu.be/3QabhFyAPsY   The Teas Competition Style Baozhong Dong Ding Traditional A

Welcome to Floating Leaves, your local loofah emporium! Buy a loofah for your teapot, for your friends' teapots and even for your enemy's teapot. It's good for you!! *Also, Shiuwen wanted to make sure we made this correction : She did not give a liter of blood, but rather a PINT of blood.

This session we drank a new batch of Charcoal Dong Ding that I brought back from Taiwan. It was roasted in a special way to produce a very unique feel for Dong Ding tea. WE LOVE IT! We're going to be keeping aside some for ourselves to age. And after this session Shiuwen wants to keep even more!!

When I got back to the states Shiuwen told me I was brewing tea really strong! During my time in Taiwan I really changed up my brewing, and I think it tastes great. Today we drank the King of Teas, Charcoal Dong Ding, and it was strong enough to stand a spoon up in it.

This was a laid back session. Shiuwen got a chance to brew the new Homestyle Red Oolong for the first time. We are both really excited about this tea! As the name indicates, it's not a fancy tea per se, but it's a satisfying whole body experience. Now available on the dot com site only!

Shiuwen received her Lala Shan in the mail, so this session we decided to drink that tea! New crop of Lala Shan Hong Shui. 

We took some time to explore three of the four high mountain oolongs I've chosen for the website, since Shiuwen's Big Box of Goodies arrived in Seattle recently. We drank Alishan, Shan Lin Xi and the Traditional High Mountain, a tea that I was able to see be processed start to finish. We are both really happy with this season's high mountains! All very fragrant, balanced and comfortable in the body. Looking forward to the Lishan arriving in Seattle so we can drink that one together, too!

The night before we recorded this episode, I went to go visit our teacher for the first time since arriving in Taiwan. That's the real fuel for why I'm here, to study tea roasting. It's the guiding principle that has kept us on track through lots of craziness. It was a great session, and I got a chance to unpack it a bit with Shiuwen on this podcast. Enjoy!

Thank you all so much for your support! We love you :) We're getting ready for Noah to head out in a couple of days, and we're so excited!! The next episode will be recorded long distance, with Shiuwen in Seattle and Noah in Taiwan. We've got to figure out how to do that, so expect some glitches. But it will happen.

Revisiting an oolong that we got three or more years ago in this session. It's not been an easy tea to brew, but Shiuwen was ready for the challenge! Yunnan grown high mountain oolong, harvested from Tie Guanyin cultivar bushes, and charcoal roasted by a master in Taiwan.

This was a powerful session. After listening, we want to invite you to check out this video from the Plum Village Zen Community https://youtu.be/AxsCainXGMQ After watching, if you want to try Shiuwen's challenge from the end of the episode, please feel free to reach out to let us know how it goes for you. We always love to hear from you! Enjoy!  

Once more! we are working with two unknown oolongs for a little blind tasting challenge to see if we can get out of our own preconceptions. This time Shiuwen picked the teas, and it was a blind session for me! (Noah) This was a really fun session to see what we know and what we don't know. 

Just two roasted teas! This session we tasted two roasted oolongs which I chose and placed on the table without telling Shiuwen what they are. We wanted to have a grounded session focused on the sensations of these teas in our mouths and noses. Flavor, texture and aroma. Also, I'm a little obsessed with chili at the moment ;)

We dedicated this episode to brewing Special Reserve Alishan again since the first time we recorded it there were two other teas involved. It deserves it's own session! This pot of tea really guided Shiuwen to explore more deeply her intentions for tea and other things in 2021. The idea : Be softer to generate more energy.

This episode was so much fun to record! It's the debut of a new line-up of high mountain oolongs that we're SUPER excited to share. Enjoy :) Also, it's Shiuwen's birthday on the day this comes out. Happy Birthday Shiuwen!!

This episode we drank from two batches of Charcoal Dong Ding. And within the session, Shiuwen noticed the tea was taking us somewhere. The name of the episode is an homage to Red Pine, local author and translator of the Pacific Northwest, who asked Shiuwen the same question. This episode felt like we were sharing tea with him. Which prompts me to ask again... Who says you can't travel?

This episode was full of GABA in epic proportions. We drank TWO Lo-Shan Hongshui oolongs, the last of the previous crop and the first of this new crop. Both are excellent for different reasons, and by the end Shiuwen was giggling like a crazy tea lady! So much fun!

A week ago, we did a session that ended in me (Noah) drinking two mystery teas in order to get out of my own head while drinking the tea. This week, I chose a tea for Shiuwen to brew, but she was not privy to the name of the tea. It was really fun! So mind opening to taste tea like this. It helps us get closer to the tea and see what it is objectively doing!

After last week's episode, we have been doing a lot of thinking. This episode we drank a special batch of Charcoal Dong Ding, and Shiuwen reflected on some of the ideas that have been going through her head. 

We just got new Spring Alishan and Shan Lin Xi high mountain oolongs in! The teas are tasting good and we're looking forward to how they will open up. We drank a LOT of new teas today. By the end of the episode, Shiuwen was listing her favorite flavor of baked goods XD

This episode we broke out the new Charcoal Dong Ding! Shiuwen took the tea and used our 'fundamentals of tea' practice to section up and analyze the parts like mouthfeel, spreading, throat sensation, scent and so forth. Then we talked a little bit on the name, Singing Brook, that the roaster gave to the tea and explained how it feels to us. This is a strong tea! Soft tea, but strong tea. We got a little crazy by the end. Enjoy!!

New Lalashan Hongshui! We got new tea from Mr Zhan, and Shiuwen is considering it her mother's day gift!! This was a fun session with a beautiful tea. This also marks the end of our Fundamental Structures episodes. We will reference the ideas from those episodes, of course, pretty much every time we drink a tea. We are still systematically covering the structures of tea on our live sessions, so join us there if you want to study them! Happy Tea Drinking!

As far as we've planned, this is the last installment of the Fundamentals Structures episodes. If you haven't yet, I recommend you start from the 'nose and mouth' episodes and follow along chronologically to get the most out of it.  This episode we compared the scent structure of two heavily roasted oolongs; Da Hong Pao and Charcoal Alishan. Shiuwen got into the subject of how to go deeper with your tea practice if you have a very busy schedule.  May the Fourth be with you!

This episode we compared the throat sensation of old, reliable Dong Ding Traditional with the soft, complex spreading sensation of the Loshan Hong Shui. This part of tea tasting is endlessly fascinating. To use Shiuwen's words, "I hope you get to see a whole universe of movement in your throat, with your tea".

We're having a lot of fun with this format! This episode we compared our heavily roasted House Oolong with a Da Hong Pao grown in Dong Ding, Taiwan and roasted heavily with charcoal. Also, Shiuwen was a little tea drunk after we did a High Mountain blind tasting the same day, so there's lots of good, crazy laughter to cheer you up!

This episode we sat down with the new winter crop of Shan Lin Xi high mountain oolong. This session we focused on the balance of the broth, texture and development in the mouth. Shiuwen then brewed the Spring season's version to compare. Also, we'll be in California (Los Angeles and San Diego) and Las Vegas to teach some oolong appreciating classes in February. More details coming as we nail down dates in the next week. Hope to see some of you there!

Happy Thanksgiving to all you USA people. I'm going to pick up my turkey today! This episode we drank a Lishan High Mountain Oolong two ways. One in glazed porcelain and one in clay. Shiuwen had noticed that in clay the broth feels more concentrated, so we thought it was a good opportunity to discuss the properties of a balanced tea broth and do a little experiment.

This episode we revisited the Yunnan grown Tie Guan Yin from an episode a few months back "Slapped with the Enlightenment Stick". This time around it went a little more smoothly, but it still wasn't all rainbows and butterflies. Shiuwen got really into the topic of revisiting the same tea again and again, because this TGY was a tea that she has studied a lot. And her challenge for all listeners is to consciously drink the same tea every day for a week.

This week we pretty much just told stories about Mr and Mrs Su, the tea farmer couple who live on Dong Ding Plateau. We compared two batches of Dong Ding Traditional A, including the new roast that Mrs Su did for us in August. It's a fun episode, and Shiuwen got a chance to talk more about what she likes about a good Dong Ding oolong.

This week when I was doing my editing, I thought this may be one of the best episodes so far. We drank a 1970s Aged Baozhong, and it got Shiuwen deep on the subject of how teas are structured. And really, we dove into the overall fundamentals of tea drinking. It sounds weird at first, but tea drinking is something that you learn, study and practice. Also, I am trying to get our podcast to the approximate volume of other podcast recordings. So if you generally turn your sound way up for this show, maybe turn it back to regular volume. And let me know if you have any feedback in that department.

Sorry for the break, the anniversary sale knocked me out (lots of tea to pack). We recorded this episode before Shiuwen left for Asia; it's us drinking Smooth Water (Nangang) Baozhong. Shiuwen talks about her experience comparing Nangang and Wenshan Baozhong with the (very proud) farmer of this tea, but not before going off on an illuminating tangent about what it's like being a woman in the men's world of Taiwanese tea business. We were already a little tea drunk when we recorded this, so it's a fun one!

One more Tie Guan Yin episode for you! In this one Shiuwen and Noah discuss what makes a True Bush or Traditional Tie Guan Yin. This is one of our favorite teas, and it set in motion a very information packed session. Hope you enjoy it!

This week we were joined by our adopted Cousin Jake for a giggly session. We drink a modern variation on Muzha Tie Guan Yin, and Shiuwen goes into detail about what goes into making Muzha TGY. Next week we'll release another Cousin Jake episode where we shared an aged Muzha TGY.

This session was illuminating, challenging and beautiful. Shiuwen and Noah each take a turn brewing a formidable oolong (Tie Guan Yin grown in Yunnan by a Taiwanese farmer). In the second half of the episode, we took a moment to look inward and examine our reactions to the difficulty we had brewing this tea. This really shows how deep a tea session can go. I hope this is something you all can learn from!

In this episode, Shiuwen and Noah drink an excellent old bush Tie Guan Yin from Anxi, charcoal roasted by a brilliant tea teacher in Taiwan. Shiuwen tells the story of how this tea showed her her own ignorance about fragrant style Tie Guan Yin, and how it helped her to see her ego.

Shiuwen is joined by our good tea friend Kate (k8star_p) to drink 1966 Aged Beipu oolong. There's a little history, stories are told, and very old tea is enjoyed. We hope this can help open the door to aged oolong for you.

This episode Shiuwen drinks high mountain oolong with Mandy and Adrian (The Bubbly Couple). It was supposed to be blind tasting for them, but Shiuwen accidentally made it a double blind tasting! So for the first five minutes, nobody knew what they were actually drinking. This is the first of two sessions featuring new Spring harvest high mountain oolong.

Shiuwen and Noah drink a newly roasted Charcoal Dong Ding. As the tea develops, each infusion has something new to show us. This tea is a great teacher!

Introducing Chef Lee! Shiuwen and Noah drink Taiwanese Charcoal roasted Da Hong Pao with our friend and local gastronome in training Chef Lee.

In this episode Shiuwen and Shiuwen drink a very fresh batch of Dong Ding oolong. We talk about the feeling of when an oolong tea is "open", similar to letting a wine breathe or setting steak to cure. Dong Ding is one of our very favorite teas, and it was really fun to see how much it had changed since it first arrived.

Episode two! Shiuwen shares a two year old roasted oolong, made from the Budda Hand cultivar with our friends Mandy and Adrian, nicknamed the "Bubbly Couple". By the end everybody is tea drunk, as we contemplate the origins of Buddha's Hands...

Our first episode! Shiuwen sits down with our bubbly tea friends Mandy and Adrian for a pot of Crimson Lishan (Lishan High Mountain Black Tea).

Today we welcome back to Talking Tea Shiuwen Tai of Seattle’s Floating Leaves tea to chat about one of our favorite teas, Taiwan’s celebrated Dong Ding oolong. Shiuwen believes that Dong Ding represents everything that Taiwan has to offer in terms of producing tea, and we chat about the qualities that make Dong Ding unique in this capacity. We discuss three basic styles of Dong Ding – traditional, fragrant and charcoal roasted – and together we taste and compare both a traditional and a charcoal roasted Dong Ding. Shiuwen points out that Dong Ding is a very “physical” tea, and we talk about the tea’s physical sensations as well as its flavors and aromas. We discuss the impact of Dong Ding’s terroir (particularly its soil) and oxidation levels, and Shiuwen tells us about a continuing controversy over Dong Ding’s cultivar.  When we move from tasting a traditional Dong Ding to a charcoal roasted Dong Ding, Shiuwen chats with us about the effects of charcoal roasting, both for Dong Ding and for oolongs in general, and how a good charcoal master can focus and amplify the complexity and beauty of a tea.   More info on Floating Leaves, including its online store, shop hours and classes, can be found at the Floating Leaves website, http://www.floatingleavestea.com, and at its Instagram feed.    Talking Tea is produced and hosted by Ken Cohen. You can follow Ken on Twitter @kensvoiceken.    more about Talking Tea  Sign up for our email list to get updates on new episodes and events.   The views and opinions expressed by guests on Talking Tea are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of Talking Tea or its staff.   This podcast features music from “Japanese Flowers” (https://soundcloud.com/mpgiii/japanese-flowers) by mpgiiiBEATS (https://soundcloud.com/mpgiii) available under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). Adapted from original. Photo of charcoal Dong Ding by Payton, available under a Creative Commons CC BY 2.0 license. 

We're continuing our exploration of Taiwanese oolongs this week with a focus on one of the most celebrated of Taiwanese teas, Baozhong. Shiuwen Tai, of Seattle's Floating Leaves Tea, gave us such a fantastic and comprehensive intro to Taiwanese oolongs in our last episode that we had to invite her back to give us some more in-depth knowledge, and we asked Shiuwen to talk about Baozhong because, well, it's one of our favorite oolongs. Shiuwen chats with us about Baozhong's history, from its origins in China to its later cultivation in Taiwan, and how this history along with Taiwanese innovations in growing and processing Baozhong give it the distinctive flavor and bouquet it's known for today. We also talk about the birth of floral teas in Taiwan, about aged Baozhongs and aged oolongs in general, and about how a tea maker's skill can create an experience for the drinker that, in Shiuwen's words, is "almost beyond imagination."   In the photo above, Shiuwen visits the Baozhong fields of Farmer Chen, in Taiwan's Wen Shan district.   More info on Floating Leaves, including its online store, shop hours and classes, can be found at the Floating Leaves website, http://www.floatingleavestea.com, and on its Facebook page. Shiuwen's blog is at http://www.floatingleavestea.blogspot.com.   For more information on Talking Tea and updates on new episodes, visit our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/talkingtea. To inquire about being a guest or having your organization featured, please email us at talkingteapodcasts@gmail.com. Have something in mind you'd like to hear discussed on Talking Tea? Leave us a comment on Facebook or on our Libsyn episode page, or email us.    Talking Tea is produced and hosted by Ken Cohen. You can follow Ken on Twitter @Kensvoiceken.         This podcast features music from "Japanese Flowers" (https://soundcloud.com/mpgiii/japanese-flowers) by mpgiiiBEATS (https://soundcloud.com/mpgiii) available under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). Adapted from original.   Photo of Shiuwen Tai in Farmer Chen's Baozhong fields, courtesy of Shiuwen Tai. 

This week on Talking Tea we begin exploring the spectrum of Taiwanese oolongs with Shiuwen Tai of Seattle's Floating Leaves Tea. Shiuwen chats with us via Skype about the history of tea in Taiwan, and how Taiwan's tea production has been influenced by its relationships with both China and Japan. We discuss some of the factors that go into forming the unique flavor profiles of oolong teas from Taiwan, including aged oolongs, why mouthfeel and texture are important in evaluating tea, and then take a closer look at two oolongs: Alishan, a high mountain Taiwanese oolong (the photo shows an Alishan tea garden), and the famous Tieguanyin.  Shiuwen also gives us tips on best brewing practices,  and shares her perspectives on how "science, art, love and patience" come together to create exceptional Taiwanese oolongs.  More info on Floating Leaves, including its online store, shop hours and classes, can be found at the Floating Leaves website, http://www.floatingleavestea.com, and on its Facebook page. Shiuwen's blog is at http://www.floatingleavestea.blogspot.com.   For more information on Talking Tea and updates on new episodes, visit our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/talkingtea. To inquire about being a guest or having your organization featured, please email us at talkingteapodcasts@gmail.com. Have something in mind you'd like to hear discussed on Talking Tea? Leave us a comment on Facebook or on our Libsyn episode page, or email us.    Talking Tea is produced and hosted by Ken Cohen. You can follow Ken on Twitter @Kensvoiceken.         This podcast features music from "Japanese Flowers" (https://soundcloud.com/mpgiii/japanese-flowers) by mpgiiiBEATS (https://soundcloud.com/mpgiii) available under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). Adapted from original.   Photo of an Alishan tea farm  by Wm Jas, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license. Cropped from original.