When I was young, it wasn’t very well looked upon for women to drink wine in Taiwan. But after I completed my studies, something clicked during a tasting of Gewurztraminer: I realized that wine wasn’t just about the alcohol! This revelation led me to London, where I earned my WSET Levels 2 and 3 and the WSET Diploma in 2016.
Tea has always been part of daily life in Taiwan; I never really thought about its diversity or complexity. When I was in Taiwan during the pandemic, I realized that people were still drinking tea every day but that the types of tea they were drinking were more varied than when I was a child. The menus at tea salons are much more sophisticated than they used to be. Even the places specialized in Bubble Tea—a Taiwanese invention!—serve up to forty different kinds of tea. Upon returning to Great Britain, I decided to study tea the same way I had studied wine.
Like everyone else, I witnessed the growing interest in NoLos. But why choose an alcohol-free alcohol when you can enjoy tea, a naturally alcohol-free product, and discover an exceptional diversity of varieties that even includes sparkling tea?
When it comes to tea, it’s about the raw material, the leaves. You can see them, smell them and even hear what they sound like. But there are many commonalities with wine: tea evolves as it is tasted, just like wine. The structure of tea on the palate is also important, even though its tannins and acidity levels are much more delicate. We also consider the finish. Whereas a wine tends to subside gradually, the finish of an excellent tea is generally very long. Tea ends with a slightly bitter note that is followed by a sweeter aftertaste that brings a certain energy and significantly prolongs the finish.
They are both agricultural products that are intimately tied to terroir. It is interesting to note that the world of tea begins where that of wine ends. The vine thrives in drier climates whereas tea thrives in humid tropical and subtropical climates. There is also a great diversity of varieties of tea, although they are fewer than the number of varietals that exist. Finally, we also speak of old tea plants in the same way we speak of old vines. Some of them, like the Big Red Robe cultivated in southern China, are protected.
Like wine, tea is appreciated by a great number of collectors who are willing to pay a very high price for the rarest of teas. For example, Oriental Beauty, which is grown in Taiwan, is an extremely rare tea whose intense aromas of honey originate with the enzymes that the plant creates to repel the small green leafhopper. It is a phenomenon that reminds me of the extraordinary sweet wines whose aromas derive from botrytis!
Cos d’Estournel evokes a meeting of East and West. The art of blending that renders such a level of excellence makes me think of an exceedingly rare black tea from Taiwan. Ruby 18 is grown in the Sun Moon Lake region under the influence of surrounding confluences, similar to the confluence of the Garonne and Dordogne Rivers that characterizes Bordeaux. Ruby 18 is sweet and round, with a malty, subtly menthol flavor and notes of tobacco, prune and raisins that recall the complexity of the great wines of Bordeaux.
