.JPG "Serving Tea — The Four Essentials of Tea Tasting in Duan Cha")
2025年10月15日
In Duan Cha, tea tasting is not a procedure—it is a journey through four resonant terrains: Unique Tea, Tasting, Aroma, and Environment.
Together they form what we call the Resonant Terrain of Tea (茶品韻境)—a multi-layered structure where flavor, breath, and atmosphere converge into a single act of perception.
Taiwan’s tea heritage began in the Qing Dynasty, when tea plants were introduced for cultivation.
Here, a native species—Camellia formosensis—was discovered and later hybridized with the large-leaf Burmese variety to create TTES No. 18 “Ruby.”
Its astonishing aroma announced Taiwan’s presence on the global tea map.
For generations, tea artisans and researchers refined countless cultivars, shaping what we now call Taiwan Unique Tea—a living intersection of climate, soil, and devotion.
Each leaf is a code of terroir, written by mountain air and human patience.
Oolong Tea — Chin-Shin & TTES No. 12 “Jinxuan”
To unlock the essence of high-mountain oolong, one must use boiling water above 100 °C.
The heat unfurls each semi-rolled leaf like breath expanding through the chest, revealing layer upon layer of sweetness, texture, and rhythm.
Black Tea — TTES No. 18 “Ruby”
After fifty years of selective cultivation, Taiwan gave birth to Ruby, a black tea renowned for its mint-cinnamon fragrance and ruby-amber hue.
Grown in Yuchi Township’s misty valleys, it embodies the island’s synthesis of craft and climate—a tea whose resonance lingers beyond the cup.
The soul of tea resides in three resonant dimensions:
the throat, the chest, and the breath.
The throat aroma—a deep lingering tone that remains after swallowing.
The chest aroma—a movement through the lungs, a wave that expands inward.
The breath aroma—the echo that returns when one exhales, signaling the tea’s endurance and sweetness.
Together they form a Resonant Terrain—a continuum of scent, body, and time.
Each inhalation becomes an act of reunion with nature, as though one were standing still amid the quiet pulse of the mountains.
Duan Cha selects tea from independent mountain gardens, untouched by nearby crops or pollution.
Surrounded by cedar, cypress, and bamboo forests, the gardens are irrigated by spring water and mountain rain.
Fireflies, pangolins, and rare birds inhabit the same slopes—a living proof that tea can coexist with wilderness.
Morning mist and afternoon fog create a rhythm of light and moisture; human interference is minimal.
This union of mountain, water, and silence forms what we call jing (境)—
the environment that shapes not only the growth of the leaves,
but also the state of mind of those who drink them.
To taste tea in Duan Cha is to enter a terrain where flavor becomes atmosphere, and atmosphere becomes language.
The Four Essentials—Unique Tea, Tasting, Aroma, and Environment—are not steps to follow, but senses to awaken.
This is the meaning of 茶品韻境:
a tea is never merely drunk—it is experienced as resonance.
