2023/24 Global Awards & 2023 UK Enterprise Award- Best Artisan Probiotic Kombucha Tea
Sourced from Taiwan with AGRA BOUTIQUE
Sourcing the Best
Where possible I like to visit the place where the ingredients originate from. It is a great opportunity to meet the farmers. The people who dedicate their lives, to hard but a very the worthy cause.
Single Origin Tea
Formosan Farms include many independent tea farms in Taiwan under Agra Boutique Social Enterprise. All of these eco-friendly farms are committed to sustainable farming and produce single origin tea.
This wild mountain tea farm is so very still, as the silence is deafening. It is so beautiful, like time has stopped. The farm was started over 180 years ago by the current farmers' ancestors. It has been 5 generations since the first tea plant was planted. It was sourced from the edge of a cliff to this location. It was then built into this amazing forest of tea.
Wild Mountain Tea Farm
Wild/ Native Mountain Tea farm used to serve the Japanese Royal family for over 100 years. The tea was often used as a medicine to protect their health. There are huge fragrant lemon trees all over the farm, oranges, and wild pineapples.The lemons and lime tree have been planed near the tea. The condition of the plans give the farmers an indication of the tea tree health.
As you can see in the pictures, there are many tall thin trees. These trees protect the tea trees from the hot burning sun. There is a huge 500-year-old camphor tree. It feels like whole farm is being guarded by it. It is said the unique flavour of the wild mountain tea is heavily influenced by the camphor tree.
Flowering Tea Trees
The wild mountain tea was flowering when I visited the farm. It only happens once a year. The smell, feels like you have travelled back to ancient times.
The flowers produce tea seeds, which are made into cooking oil for the farmers. The flowers produce only a small amount of oil, which the famers keep as it is so rare and precious.
Beautiful Mulberry Leaf
These leaves are lush, deep green, and the smell is intoxicating, I could have stayed there all day, in fact all year, in this angelic place.
Hibiscus/ Roselle
I use two different types of hibiscus to produce the unique taste. One is from Jamaica, and better well known called Sorel. The second I use is Roselle Hibiscus from Taiwan which is a different taste to the Jamaican Hibiscus.
Mr Mulberry: best friend this winter!
This amazing man produces Mulberry leaf tea.I visited the farm two times. I spent a few hours picking fresh mulberries. Fresh, the taste is unforgettable like no other berry i have ever eaten, such an seductive and moreish taste. There are fields of mulberry trees, the mulberry leaves are mostly dried for tea. Some is fed to silk worms to produce silk. The bi- product of this is processed to produce silk worm tea. We use these two products to produce exceptional kombucha. This beautifully intoxicating farm is in one of the many beautiful mountain regions of Taiwan. He prefers for us to not advertise his farm, so we will call him Mr T. He is committed to his farm and helping others. Whilst I was there, he had a young man helping on the farm. I would love to have an opportunity to live and work somewhere like this.