Harvest Location: Yuchi Township, Nantou County, Taiwan
Harvest Date: Spring 2021
Cultivar: Camellia Sinensis Formasica
Flavor: The taste is rich,clean,round and smooth. A caramelized sugars is enhanced with elegant floral and soft woody flavours.
 
We’re thrilled to introduce rare gem—Master Cho’s ‘Drought’ Ruby 18!
 
Most of Master Cho’s wild teas are shaped by the natural interactions between tea plants and insects, particularly bug bites. However, during the prolonged drought of 2021, the extreme climate conditions created something entirely different—a batch of tea untouched by insect activity.
 
This makes ‘Drought’ Ruby 18 one of the rarest teas Master Cho has produced in recent years. The yield was small, but the flavor is exceptional—a strikingly cool mint character, a luxuriously smooth texture, and no harshness associated with chemically fertilized teas. The drought-driven environmental changes brought out a unique expression of terroir, creating a tea unlike any other.
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Master Cho spent his childhood in Nantou County, the birthplace of Taiwanese oolong tea, and there he grew up close to the tea that was so familiar to him, naturally learning how to make tea. After graduating from university, he worked as a tour guide, but noticed that the tea sold as souvenirs was completely different from the tea he knew, so he traveled around the mountains to see it for himself. However, he was shocked by the cultivation environment, where pesticides had been used for many years, and decided to spread the real Taiwanese tea.