Eighteen

Notes of cinnamon, abbada date, and eucalyptus. Red tea from Taiwan・April 2018・紅玉，十八號・Organic Eighteen, aka Red Jade, is the 18th cultivar developed by Taiwan’s Tea Research & Extension Station (TRES), an organization dedicated to research and development of tea and new tea cultivars. TRES has developed twenty five original cultivars through hybridization. Each cultivar harmonizes the hybrid’s component qualities vis-à-vis Taiwan’s unique terroir. Eighteen is a hybrid of a native Taiwanese wild cultivar and a Burmese large leaf Assamica. This tea gets its florality and sweetness from its Taiwanese lineage, and its richness and intensity from its Assamica lineage. Today there are many producers of Eighteen – and Sun Moon Lake is now known as a tea production region as well as a scenic area. This tea is from a new producer we met on our sourcing trip in 2018, one whose skilled craftsmanship creates beautifully-shaped, very consistently sized leaves, and a tea with both clarity and de