A legendary black tea with a smooth, sweet and intriguing flavour.
Flavour
Cinnamon, mint and malt sugar
Harvest
Ruby 18 cultivar; hand picked in small batches.; Certified Organic
Processing
Hand picked, natural withering for 12 hours in partial sunlight
Elevation
650 metres
Sweet, smooth and rich with a deeper and more complex character that develops as you drink it. This pure tea has a natural fragrance of cinnamon and mint, and a distinctive sweet malt flavour. Tea lovers claim it tastes like milk and sugar have already been added. With no astringency and a lingering pleasant taste, Black Ruby is considered one of the best black teas in the world.
Black Ruby is unique and versatile as it can be enjoyed with any meal at any time of the day. Foods with spices like cinnamon and mint would complement the flavour profile of the tea. A cinnamon bun or pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast, lamb with mint glaze for dinner, or pair with a decadent chocolate mousse served in a brandy snap basket to enhance the tea’s sweet malt flavours.
3g per 250 mls (1 cup)
First infusion: rinse leaves with 95oC water for 10 seconds and discard water; infuse for 3 minutes at 95oC
Additional infusions: gradually increase steeping time with each infusion
7g (2 tsps) in 100ml Gaiwan
First infusion: rinse leaves with 95oC water for 10 seconds and discard water; infuse 20-30 seconds at 95oC
Second and third infusions: infuse 20-30 seconds at 95oC
Additional infusions: double infusion time with each additional infusion
3g per 250mls (1 cup) of room temperature water
Brew in a tea flask at room temperature for up to 2 hours. Taste as it's brewing and strain the tea when you like the flavours.
This extraordinary tea is a hybrid cultivation of the Assam varietal and the native wild cultivar growing around Sun Moon Lake in the mountains of central Taiwan.
In the 1920s the Japanese planted the Assam varietal as an export revenue source. When wars broke out the tea plants were forgotten and grew wild. Local farmers re-cultivated the plants with assistance from the government. The Taiwan tea industry continued improvement of field research on tea and is fortunate to have retained a wild species, then come up with a Taiwanese descent known as Ruby 18.
Grown in a forested area of central Taiwan under natural conditions through organic cultivation, the quality of the terroir shows in the natural taste of this tea.
Sun Moon Lake’s terroir was deemed the most similar to the Assam tea gardens of India. Surrounded by mountains and lakes, the sub-tropical environment is favourable for producing black tea and the plants respond to the climatic conditions by producing thick tea leaves.
This Black Ruby comes from a rich ecological tea garden with a natural ecosystem. The farmer does not use pesticides, chemical fertilizers, growth hormones, herbicides or heavy metals, so the tea harmonises with nature that quietly nourishes the plants to grow.
