Lucky Chow

(calm music) - In Taiwan, tea is a crop, a universal pastime, a cultural tradition, and for some, a way of life.

(upbeat music) (calm music) The country's tea farms produce 90% of the world's oolong, the fined, semi-oxidized Chinese variety whose flavor bridges the gap between green tea and black tea.

In the suburbs, just 30 minutes outside of Taipei City, sits Maokong, a tea growing region and center of tea culture.

These days, it is known for producing the island's famous Tieguanyin, or iron goddess tea.

I'm here to meet with David Tsay, a tea master and an organic agriculture advocate.

David is going to give me the entire field to cup experience, from picking the tender leaves to making tea from scratch.

Ah.

Its not good if you pick it like this.

What about this leaf?

You dont want this.

You want to be picking these.

So you pick the top?

Yes like this.

- They actually harvest twice a year in the spring and in the fall.

I have to find tea leaves that have like a three pronged look to them.

It'll taste sweeter and better.

Anything that's large, even though it's still tender, stays on.

I would love to be a tea farmer if David would hire me.

(bright music) Thats not right.

Thats okay.

Okay.

- The leaves are softening up as I'm doing this and just really frying it up, drying it in this giant wok.

And I have to move faster and faster as the wok heats up so that the leaves don't burn.

Ah.

- Touch, very hot.

- Hot.

So you wanna mold it, mold it, roll it.

- Slowly.

- Slowly.

- Smoothly.

Like tai chi.

- Oh, moving it around.

After spending time in the hot sun, I was ready for a giant glass of ice tea.

Instead, I was given thimble sized glasses of freshly brewed hot tea, which slowly revealed a range of flavors.

It turned out that the small doses were just what I needed to get ready for the tea drenched meal we were about to experience.

So the first thing to do is really to observe and smell the tea.

- You can feel and drink the tea you feel on your body.

You smell it.

- And it really cools the body down, you know, especially after you've been in the heat.

It's kind of counterintuitive, but you know, drinking a hot beverage when you're hot cools you down, temperature wise.

And this tea, it elevates the spirit.

(bright music) That's so beautiful.

This is really made from the surroundings, you know, all the wild foraged vegetables, and every dish is inflected with tea.

Master Tsay explained to me the phenomenon of the beauty of this natural world, and his desire to preserve it for future generations, to really be at harmony with nature and to respect everything that is around us.

And so that's why he prefers vegetarianism and local foods.

- Yeah.

- So all of this vegetarian food actually resembles meat.

So, you know, when you sit down for a feast here, you might be looking at that and like eyeing the drumsticks.

But that's actually a tofu or bean curd, wrapped with sugar cane as the drumstick.

And then here, the spare rib soup is actually made of wheat.

And is it tofu again?

- Yes.

- Tofu.

And then it's stewed with the Tieguanyin tea leaves.

This is a noodle tossed with tea oil.

Again, here, you have wheat gluten or seitan, but it resembles tripe, which is very popular to the Taiwanese.

So I think his philosophy is, you think you're eating meat, but once you try how delicious this vegetarian version of it is, maybe you'll convert.

This is incredible.

It's really savory actually, because there's celery, mushrooms, and you can really taste the bamboo, actually.

The steaming of the rice in this bamboo gives the rice a special flavor.

And it's flavored with tea as well.

- Yes.

Delicious?

- Mm.

And in this environment, in this setting where the tea comes from, I feel like this is magical and I'm transported somewhere.

You know, it really touches your spirit, - Yeah.

- Tea does.

(calm music) Back in Taipei, I'm going to pay a visit to Elaine Hsieh, a teacher and practitioner of everything having to do with tea.

Shes going to demonstrate Gongfu, a ceremonial style of brewing tea so that each layer of tea can be enjoyed over multiple flushes of water.

It's a way to reveal the wide variety of tasting notes inherent in any tea over time, particularly with aged teas.

- So I'm just going to take the loan from the jar directly, which has been stored here for many, many years.

- Mm.

Well I'm so excited to taste it.

- It's going to be lovely.

You can take a close look.

You can just see the shape.

Just see the size.

Just see the color.

And for the aged oolong, it doesn't come with a very tight shape.

Somehow, it's more like spread out.

- What are the benefits of aging tea?

- You can taste the time in the tea.

- So how long can tea last and stay fresh?

- The tea has to be good quality.

So you can age it for like a long time.

Just like wine, if it's a good wine, you can age it for like 20, 30 years.

And every year, it can come differently.

And same as tea too.

The quality has to be good to be capable of stores.

So for appreciating the old oolong, you'll feel the like, waking up process.

Like for the first one, it has been sleeping for such a long time and so you can feel it's like flower, like blossoming slowly.

So that's a very enjoyable process.

(calm music) - How do you wake up the tea?

- See, so first of all, you need to heat up the pot.

So once you heat up the pot, create a comfortable home, create comfortable home and very like, you know, with a good heart, good intention.

And then you slowly put the tea just inside the pot.

So now you do this.

The reason we do this, 'cause there will be like, you know, like little dust and dirt, you know, since it's been such a long time.

See, when I pour this, so all this debris will come off to the tail and it's easier to pour.

- I see.

- So you enjoy them in different stages.

- Hmm.

- This is called dry aroma.

- Right.

So it hasn't quite woken up yet.

- It hasn't quite opened up yet.

- It's not yet robust.

- It's not.

It's not revived yet.

- Mm.

Okay.

- Yeah.

- Let's revive it.

- But you can have like a sense of, you know, how it's gonna be like, and your imagination starts to run.

- Yeah.

- Yes, it's going to be very different.

You'll feel this extremely mature guy and then, you know, evolve, turning into this young person.

So entire process is like magic.

(calm music) Alright, so we have to wait until the water is super boiled.

(calm music continues) I enjoy the process.

The process is like waking up your memory.

So it's not just about aroma, it's just not about taste, it's about that, you know, history and imagination and how far it can take you.

- It's all about patience, too.

- It's about patience.

- And it slows you down.

- Yes.

And you can see the color.

- Mhm.

- Definitely reminds you of like, I don't know, marinated plum.

- Or even a light coffee.

- Yes, I think coffee, too.

So welcome to have this 1987 home stored oolong.

- Wow.

What a treat!

- Just remember, it's the first wash, so it's slowly waking up.

- Wow.

This taste, I wasn't expecting it at all.

It doesn't taste like what I would think tea tastes like.

- I think it's the dryness that's leading to like, the sweet aftertaste and that lingering after that.

So you have to be very patient with this tea as well.

You have to be like, wait, and feel that aroma like, rolling on the bottom of your throat, like slowly swelling up.

The second wash will be very different.

The youthness quality will start to come out.

Did you feel this, feel like you can feel that it starts to warm up?

- Mhm.

- It starts really warming.

- I feel warm all over, and I feel like my digestion is being aided, actually.

- Mm.

Yeah.

It has this energy of time.

The caffeine kind of just fades away.

So it's perfect for before sleep.

- Oh, really?

- And it will help you with the sleeping too.

- So older teas have less caffeine.

- Yes.

You can say that.

And it has this calming energy that would just calm you down, would calm your mind down, calm your body down.

- You're right.

The flavor is more intense.

- Yes.

- And the aftertaste.

- The aftertaste, yes.

- It's sweet, but yet bitter.

- Yes, yes, yes.

- So when is the best time to enjoy this tea ceremony?

Every like, evening by myself and then like in the afternoon with my friends who I can share tea with.

I think people need to start to pick up the memory of brewing tea, like how fun it can be, how meditative it can be, how peaceful it can be.

It can be this, you know, stress reliever.

You can try the third one.

- It feels springy.

More floral.

- Yes.

- Alive.

- Uh huh.

- You would think that the first wash would be the most intense.

- Oh, yes.

- Right.

- It'd be like the most fun.

- And the flavor would dilute, - Yeah.

- As you add more water.

But in fact, it's not the case at all.

(bright music) When did you start working with tea as a career?

- I think it's like seven, six years ago, I was in this auction house.

I was working as a kind of like, being in charge of the whiskey collection.

- Uh huh.

- However I always found beverage and I just thought about like my dad's passion about tea.

I feel like in the market, like people know so much about like, alcohol, but however, tea, the knowledge of tea is kind of just not very known.

- To see you adding water to the pot, is there a technical specialty?

Is there a special way to brew it?

- I think you have to know the tea very well.

Yeah, because it's so subtle.

It's like during the different wash, it changes so little and so subtly, so you have to know it very well.

And then second of all, definitely those utensils are so important.

- Is it meant to be enjoyed alone, or is tea more of a social activity?

- That's the good part of it is, you can have it both ways.

You can either enjoy yourself, or you can enjoy it with your company.

(bright music continues) You as a brewer, you have to focus on the other person and you kind of do this with this tea for her.

So that interaction can be intimate.

- Yeah, I feel like this is a real gift and an act of service and act of love and a way of welcoming me here to your space because it really involves so much attention on your part.

- Yes.

Yes.

- And all I have to do is sit here and enjoy this beautiful tea that you're serving.

- Yeah, yeah.

And it's definitely with no stress.

It's water.

So water is always like, flowing like a river.

So it's like, relaxing.

And I just found this great way of interaction.

I made so many friends here.

(bright music continues) (bright music) - Taiwan's (indistinct) may be famous for its tea production, but tea ceramicist, Emilio Del Pozo, takes his love for Taiwan's soil to another level by making pots and cups out of local clay that he forges for in his backyard, in the mountains of Taipei.

- I think there's kind of a trend towards like handmade crafts, I think in the world now because of like globalization that people are missing something, which is kind of a connection to handmade crafts.

I can show you here, one of the basic tests that I do when I'm out looking for a wild clay.

So the test I do is I roll a little snake and if you can roll it around your finger, that means it's a good chance of working well.

- So in this case, it cracked.

- It cracked.

- So that means it's not workable or?

- Yeah.

And there's something I've learned to do with clays that are less workable.

But if they have other desirable characteristics and I wanna continue to use them is, I can add other clays to them.

- What type of tea are your pots perfected for?

- I will use them for almost any tea.

A lot of people will use one teapot for only one kind of tea, like oolong or green tea - Hmm.

'Cause they don't want to mix up the flavors?

- Yeah.

They don't wanna contaminate the flavors.

- Contaminate the flavors.

- Yeah.

- How interesting.

(calm music) - My first experience with tea was in China, when I was studying Chinese medicine.

I had gone there and I went to Nanjing and it was like more than 20 years ago.

And I saw people with glass jars with tea leaves in it.

And I was so intrigued 'cause nearly everyone on the street had one.

That got me into seeking out tea.

So on that trip, I brought back a lot of tea.

And then of course, coming back to Taiwan, I was really curious about what Taiwanese tea was like.

And I really love all the different flavors and different kinds of tea.

It was a lot of fun for me 'cause it's something that we don't have in our culture to such an extent.

And it's in Taiwan or in China, - Where are you from?

- I'm from California, from San Diego.

- There's definitely tea in California, but not as steeped in culture, I suppose, as it is in Asia.

- That's a big difference between the United States and Taiwan, for example, is Taiwan has a lot of old culture and also because people came from China to Taiwan before the cultural revolution.

So there's a lot of cultural elements that are preserved in Taiwan.

- Do you think it's harder to work on a wheel or hand build?

- I think it depends on what you've learned and what you study.

Like if you've studied hand building for a long time, you might have trouble on the wheel, and also vice versa.

(calm music continues) - Are handmade teapots a dying tradition, here in Taiwan?

- When I first came here about 20 years ago, there was kind of a resurgence of kind of traditional crafts.

You can still probably see handmade ceramics in most places.

You can find it, but it's not as popular as it once was.

I feel like people, when they make tea, they're also practicing patience and paying attention to what they're doing.

People prepare the tea table and make a nice atmosphere for their guests and to create a special moment of sharing tea and enjoying the aroma and the flavor.

- How would you describe, you know, Taiwanese tea culture and the characters that you love about it?

- One is the aesthetics, like the tea table and the tea ware and the kind of serene atmosphere that's created around a tea session.

And then the other one is the people.

It's been one of the ways where I've connected most with Taiwanese people is from the shared love of drinking tea.

- Mm.

- And people have been so kind and generous to me and just sharing their enthusiasm and their love of tea.

Yeah, I've really appreciated people's kindness and generosity.

I always feel so welcomed by people sharing tea.

That's one of the ways I think people traditionally kind of show graciousness to a guest is offering tea.

And I feel like Taiwanese are so good at that.

When they do that, they just make you feel like family.

(calm music continues) (bright music) - In Taiwan, bubble tea shops are seemingly everywhere.

But Odd One Out, a serious tea shop masquerading as a bubble tea spot, brews its teas with tea presses to simulate the four brews of traditional Gongfu style tea.

And they really stand out.

I'm here to meet Taiwanese American co-founder, Patrick Sun, at their Taipei flagship location to learn more about their next level bubble teas.

Hi!

- Hi.

- In a world of a lot of bubble tea in Taiwan, we wanted to stand out, and by standing out, that means we have to reinvent kind of how we use our tea, how we source our tea, how we create our concoctions.

So Odd One Out now is supposed to stand out in all the bubble tea.

Here, what we have is, it's a green jasmine and many people would associate a green jasmine to like a jasmine green tea.

- Mm.

- But actually, this is not a green tea.

- Oh.

- This is a Baozhong.

It's a type of oolong tea that is curled.

- Oh.

- And what we do is, this tea, when they're processing it, they actually incorporate fresh jasmine blossoms while they are mixing it up.

- That's why it smells so fragrant.

- Right.

- Yeah.

- So it captures all of that scent into this tea.

And then they pick out the flowers and then they curl it and they lightly roast it.

And this one is our jade oolong, and this one also has a very creamy profile to it.

It's very light, but it's very fragrant.

So the interesting thing of red oolong is, this is an oolong tea that's trying to become a black tea.

So the specs are a lot smaller.

It's also a round shape.

And this is a southern Taiwan tea.

It's a lower altitude.

Some say it's bug bitten.

And when the bug bites the tea leaves, they're very, very tiny bugs, but when they bite the tea leaves, the tea creates a self-defense mechanism.

- Oh.

- And through that process, it kind of oxidizes itself.

So it creates this really interesting aroma.

- Fascinating.

- Similar to coffee where you have kind of this breath of, you know, different flavors, different types of roasting, different types of aromas that's just really interesting.

It's really moving.

Oolong is the primary tea that Taiwan produces.

And it is probably the most popular category in Taiwan.

There's so many different types of oolong teas.

So when we drink this tea, we realize this is a flavor that we never had in a boba tea cup.

- Uh huh.

- Right?

And we realize a lot of boba tea out there, it's just flared with a lot of sweetness.

And sometimes it's just to cover up the low quality tea that is typically in a bubble tea cup.

But we try to change that idea.

We try to change the narrative and really focus on the tea.

So all of our sugars, we actually handcraft, make it not as sweet, but just enough to give you a little bit of that sweet sensation.

But really it's to highlight and focus the main point, which is tea.

When we just drink tea, we realized some of these flavors aren't existing in the bubble tea.

- Mm.

- That got us really intrigued.

That got us really interested, and try to create something special.

Try to create something new, try to introduce and entice customers to actually tea.

(upbeat music) So we made an apron for you, - Amazing.

- That we designed.

And we did this really, you know, odd curl on the end.

- This is really one of my dreams come true.

I get to play in a boba shop.

- You are, today, tea-rista.

So here, we have a red oolong.

It's like an espresso machine, but what it's doing is, it's producing tea.

- Huh.

- And it actually imitates the four stages of a tea brewing process.

So in the traditional Gongfu style tea, you have the first, second, third, fourth flush.

You'll notice that when I put the tea in and I press the setting, it actually puts water into this bin and it stops.

And what it's doing, it's steeping during this period of time.

And after the first flush, it then uses pressure to push out a little more tea and add a little more water for the second flush.

So what it's trying to do is, it's imitating a Gongfu style tea, minimizing from a 15 to 20 minute full expression into a two to three minute expression.

And our teas are very high quality, so they're much more delicate, a little more sensitive.

And it requires us to do it fresh, every single order.

There's this one element that makes boba tea, boba tea, which is the tapioca pearls.

And at our shop, in Taiwan, we don't sell the tapioca pearls by itself, but we actually create a topping here.

And this is called the silk boba.

- Oh.

- It has a profile of a boba because there's also a little bit of tapioca in here, but there's also other components, like konjac and there's also locust bean gum to give a really fun, chewy texture.

And boba, what makes it really unique is that, - The QQ.

- The QQ.

The QQ, the chewy texture.

- Uh huh.

- So this is why bubble tea is bubble tea is 'cause of these toppings.

So Taiwan is like the mecca for boba.

It was created here, it was founded here, and everyone understands it in Taiwan.

So we wanted to do this in Taiwan primarily because we have all the talent here, and everyone really understands the product.

And it was also in the middle of COVID that Taiwan was just the safest place to be, and most logical place to be at the time.

And the final is, we have this cream and this cream cap.

What we do is we take heavy cream with condensed milk, a little bit of sea salt, Himalayan sea salt, and we blend it into this beautiful cream cap.

- That looks like an iced latte.

I would've never guessed it would be tea.

Amazing.

Can I try it?

- Yeah, absolutely.

- This is incredible.

It's so creamy, actually.

- It is creamy, right?

- Yeah.

But it doesn't dilute the fragrant tea.

You know, I can taste the tea.

- Tea is really special, and a lot of the tea that you consume in America, they're fragranced.

They add a lot of additional components and elements into it to flavor, to entice you to enjoy it.

But actually, they're just chemical flavors.

Here, you're just tasting tea leaves that are touched by sunlight.

What we're trying to do here is, really celebrate the whole process of the tea and tell the story of the unique parts of the tea.

Many times, when you drink a pure tea or you drink a tea that is maybe produced in a ceremonial way, you could actually taste the journey of how this tea was grown.

You could try a tea that is from different parts of the mountain.

One is from the east side, one is from the west side, and it has a different profile.

- Yeah.

- So that, for us, was very interesting.

And what we hope the world will look like is, you know, eventually customers just drinking a cup of tea.

That's what we hope, and that's part of the Taiwanese culture.

(bright music)