Orange Tea Balls
This tea is a special one. Fresh-picked oranges are hollowed out and their pulp is mixed with a high-quality Honey Fragrance Black tea. The mixture is then placed back in the smooth intact peel of the orange and processed in the traditional Hakka way to create this unique tea creation. The series of steaming, sun drying, and baking that this tea goes through creates a tea ball that can be aged or drunk right away, and has a flavor profile like no other tea!
Roasted nut up front, moving to a slightly sour clear mid mouth, with an uplifting sweet orange oil finish, this tea is like no other we have ever had! Finished in December 2022, this tea has had some age to mellow its flavors and meld them into a fascinating experience.
These are living teas and will only get better with age. If you do plan on aging it make sure the area you store it in is dry with no strong odors. Throwing it in a ziplock bag would be a good idea as well but don't forget to let the balls breath every once in a while!
We have separated these tea balls based on size. The large ones are better for aging while the smaller ones are better for drinking now. The cost has also gone up. These tasty and rare teas have been discovered and the market for them is growing quickly. When we first found them we were the first tea company to bring them to market. The demand has risen a lot since then!
**Like all our teas, there are no artificial added flavors, colors or chemicals in this tea. All flavors are completely natural and agrochemical-free!**
Elevation: 300m
Status: Agrochemical free garden
Cultivar: Big Leaf Oolong and Organic Valencia Orange
Season: Winter 2022
Method: Traditional Hakka Dried Fruit Tea Processing
Region: Rueishuei, Hualien
Recommend Brewing Style: ~100C water, 5-10g of tea and peel
You can treat it like a puer, or a black tea, or even a pour over coffee. Water-to-tea ratio is also up to you. You can include the orange husk or just chip out the tea. It seems drinking it with the peel is a much better experience as the fruity sweet sour taste is more pronounced. Treat it like a puer with short steeps also seems to work well.
***While this tea is legally preserved for export, it may fall under gray areas for some bureaucrats/zealots. If it does get confiscated unjustly at customs please rest assured that we will refund the money to you. We will take that risk upon ourselves!***
For more information on how to break and brew these teas please see the video below.
