Dear Friends,

Irene, Yuan and I would like to wish your family and you a Happy and Healthy New “Tiger” Year!

The Chinese letter on the right is a “Spring” written upside down. The pronunciation of the verb for “something being put upside down” and the “arrive” is similar in Chinese. So an upside down Spring means “the Spring has arrived”.

The unusually harsh winter in Taiwan (oh, yes, nearly all Northern Hemisphere) may set up a stage of great Spring teas in 2010. Let’s hope there is no surprise (no news is good news scenario) in early Spring.

2009 Xi-Zi Hao and some fabulous aged pu-erhs will arrive in about 4 weeks from now. The harvest activities in Yunnan in 2008 was very slow due to the collapse in market demand. That gave tea trees in many area a good recovering period. Maybe that contributed to the wonderful quality of 2009 Xi-Zi Hao I tried in Taiwan – many of them honey-packed, floral and organic mushroom-y fragrance, lot of juice and even jelly like, and sensational body feeling.

So, stay with us, and let’s have fun together!

Guang