“It can consume an entire household with the enchanting scent of orchid.” – Tea Master Huang
The Eight Immortals Oolong Tea. Does it provide a life of immortality to you and seven loved ones? Unfortunately it doesn’t! But, what Eight Immortals Oolong does provide is an exceptional oolong tea experience rarely found in the Western world today. Officially our most premium oolong tea offering to date, Eight Immortals Oolong is a one of a kind experience with an equally intriguing backstory.
Eight Immortals Oolong is the creation of one of China’s most talented tea producers and dear friend of The Tea Spot, Master Huang. Tea Master Huang comes from a long line of tea masters that have been producing exquisite oolong teas in eastern Guangdong Province since the early 1800’s.
As an international award-winning tea master, Master Huang prides himself on his extraordinary ability to produce world-class oolong tea. Master Huang’s production skills and technique utilize recent innovations in tea technology, while still preserving traditional production methods of his tea-producing ancestors.
Additionally, Master Huang uses the most premium raw tea leaf material, cultivated from his high altitude, pesticide-free, small-scale tea garden. Huang’s tea garden is located in the Phoenix Mountain region, which is well-known for being an ideal microclimate for premium tea cultivation. The combination of mastery craftsmanship and exceptional natural growing conditions is what makes this Eight Immortals Oolong a truly unique and unforgettable tea selection.
The story behind this exquisite tea dates back to the 1600’s, in a tea field not far from Master Huang’s present-day farm. At that time, many various cultivars were all cultivated in the same field. Thirty or more different sub-species of Camellia Sinensis might all be growing within the same small tea garden. As the story goes, the Phoenix Mountain region was experiencing a particularly dry Summer season that year when a forest fire broke out that devastated much of the tea crop in the area. In one particular tea field, all but 8 individual trees were burnt to a crisp. These 8 surviving tea trees were all of the same cultivar; soon thereafter dubbed the Eight Immortals Cultivar.
This particular cultivar proved to have remarkable aromatic qualities that when steeped, as Tea Master Huang puts it, “can consume an entire household with the enchanting scent of orchid.”
It was later believed by the farmers of the region that this natural disaster, which brought to light the treasured 8 Immortals cultivar, was a true blessing from the 8 immortals themselves, a famous band of gods omnipresent in ancient Chinese mythology.
Master Huang he does not take this blessing from the Eight Immortals lightly. Huang treats tea cultivation and production as a process overseen by the immortals themselves. He executes each production batch with utmost precision and care, and feels blessed to provide us with this exceptional treat. On a sourcing trip, one member of The Tea Spot team spent several days on Master Huang’s farm observing his workmanship and even participating in the production process. We discovered that Huang’s Eight Immortals Oolong production process requires a 24 hour cycle of diligent processing, observing, and unbreakable focus in order to transform the raw leaf material into this highly aromatic and flavorful treasure.
Will you become the ninth immortal after steeping a fresh cup of Eight Immortals Oolong? Perhaps not. What we can guarantee, however, is a world-class tea experience provided by the union of exceptional environmental conditions, mastery craftsmanship, and a touch of divine intervention. Enjoy!