High Mountain Blue Hills

At 1700 meters, the High Mountain tea leaves have a bluish appearance. My friend Mrs. So's husband, Mr. So, had set up the plantation high up at Long Feng Xia (Dragon Phoenix Peak) at San Lin She some years ago. He had since given up management to other tea masters he had trained and went and opened a tea shop in China, during those gold rush days in the late 90s. He's now back and I suspect the crafty mainland Chinese took him for everything he had.

Anyway, our High Mountain oolongs have already been harvested and now being processed. I debated this year if I should get the 2000 meter batch from yesterday's farm or continue with my 1700 meter farm with Mr. So. I thought about how hard Mrs. So has worked, raising three kids on her own, harvesting and making tea by herself, and taking care of the elderly uncle (the master of Tung Ting who founded the village and died at 96 years old), her elderly mother and husband's mother.....she literally doesn't stop working from morning to night. Along the way, she had time to win a tea competition or two.
Friendship won the day. The High Mountain Oolong this year, folks, will be from Mr. So. You can all taste the fresh leaves from the 2000 meter farm and that's it.

I think the High Mountain Oolongs deserve to be so expensive based on danger alone. It was so dangerous getting up to the top of the mountain on those blind foggy curves, that Darius giggled all the way and tried to come up with a new name out of sheer nerousness: "Perilous Taiwan Oolong", "Extremely Scary Cliffs Oolong", " Very Steep and Slippery Slopes Oolong", etc. The leaves have a sweet intoxicating quality that is beyond compare. When you drink High Mountain Oolong, you are drinking the bamboo, the mountain springs, the piercingly cold rain water, the relentless fog , and the beautiful people who made these teas.