Many British and European people are locked down during this Christmas. However, this is the time to remind us many things which we’ve forgotten for many years.
Among our top interests, is the healthy lifestyle and back to the nature. Living in the city and buried in daily noises, it is the most peaceful moment to re-think how we are going to live and what lifestyle we are going to sustain in the new year as a long-term commitment.
This is, for sure, a healthiest Christmas for many of us, not only because we fully understand how important the immunity can protect us from deadly diseases, especially Covid-19. While restaurants and bars are shut, many of us have no choices but staying at home. Purchasing organic and reliable food and drink in farmers’ markets becomes the priority for conscious people who are awake to spend the most money and effort in finding good food and drink from trustworthy producers.
Many years living in the modern industrialised world created so many illusions in fancy but materialised products, which never did we realise those traditional handcrafted luxuries are potentially going to quiet down very soon. In some of the London farmers’ markets, we’ve been very delighted by seeing more new faces consulting us, about the single origin teas from our independent small farmers who keep their traditional family methods in cultivating, harvesting, processing, and storing (post-production fermentation) each season throughout decades or centuries.
Taiwan is a small island in east Asia. There are more than a thousand mountains over 3,000 meters from the sea level. The concentration of the extremely various micro-environment in this island provides the richest eco-system for plants, including tea trees. Based on solid academic field study of over 1,300 tea farms across Taiwan, the brand of Formosan Farms presents only the best and healthiest single origin teas, which are representing the most famous speciality teas in east Asia.
Formosa has been an ancient name of Taiwan, when the Dutch saw this island as the most beautiful heaven on earth in the 16th century.
It is! The most beautiful island on earth produces so many different plants from the sea levels to the high mountains. For the plants of tea trees, there are very different kinds of varieties, growing in their own indigenous regions, with the most suitable climate and soil conditions. Each variety of tea trees has its own outstanding taste when being made into the teas, with its most suitable levels of fermentation (0%~100%). However, even from the same region and the same variety of tea tree, the differences of the local soil quality, the sun hours, the landscape condition, and many other micro-climate issues can create distinct tastes and powers from two individual tea plantations.
Therefore, it is very important to “看茶製茶” (meaning, look the tea and make the tea according to that local and current specific quality). Farmers based on their full knowledge and experiences on site, with decades or centuries of their family traditions, to make the tea according to the seasonality and micro-climate during that year. Only following this strict manner can a tea begin made to keep the most power from the soil and then connect to your teacup. This is what we believe to provide the most health benefits from the plants, and to connect your soul to soil.
Definitely this is the healthiest Christmas time for most of us on earth. We wish you Merry Christmas and a new long-lasting healthy lifestyle in 2021!
To give the wholehearted wish, we are delighted to offer our long-term supportive fans during this challenging winter. With the free shipping to UK, Euro-zone, USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Hongkong, an order of the Winter Collection of Formosan Farms Four Seasons will get additional premium quality loose leaves of Taiwan Oolong (75 grams, market value £30, offers ending on 28th February, 2021) from the famous home of Kung-Fu tea at Sung-Bo-Ling, Nantou, Taiwan. Enjoy a peaceful and healthy Christmas season in such an anxious and turbulent world!
