阿里山茶

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buy tea, Drink, 茶葉， 品質, Oolong, Taiwan, Taiwan Tea Competition, Tea, Tea quality, 台灣茶產地介紹, 喝茶的樂趣

阿里山產茶區座落於北回歸線南北兩側，海拔高度由1200公尺至1600公尺以上，除了有高山茶的茶韻味外，這樣的條件 “北回歸線南北兩側” 讓阿里山茶 有了其他茶區沒有的獨特味道。

北回歸線北側 : 山區常有濃霧，猶其是午後兩三點後高山霧氣籠罩，導致茶葉成長緩慢，葉片生長厚實、芽心呈紫色。茶葉酯質含量高、葉脈肥厚，入口茶湯溫柔滑順香氣清雅，猶如阿里山的少女一般神秘、迷人！

       

　　

座落於北回歸線南側:　陽光充足，茶區氣候與施用有機肥料，製成的烏龍茶帶油光、圓潤、緊實，茶湯入口茶湯渾厚有力，好像阿里山的青年般熱情、強壯！

　

同一個產區座落的茶區影響茶葉香氣變化除了，陽光、溼度、我想是最主要的是喝茶的人是否有細細的品味，親愛的茶友們您喜歡哪一種阿里山茶呢？

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My unique experience of design and produce our tea ceremony table

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Business, Furniture design, interior design, slab table, Taiwan, Tea, Tea Shop Design, Teak, teak wood table, Tree, Wood, Wood Finish

I’ve been thinking of a design for a tea table. One idea is that it should be made out of wood slabs. For sustainable reasons, I didn’t want to cut down a new tree, so I began my design by searching reclaimed wood. Functionally, a tea table needs to seat a minimum of 8 people for tea tasting. There should be a dishwasher under the table top, a storage area for tea ware and space for tea plates that hooks into a drainage system.

My childhood guitar teacher has a building material business. In his warehouse, he had cut piles of wood to be used as wood flooring material. Also inside are huge piles of wood logs, 14 of which are from Teak trees that had been laying there for more than 20 years. I just can’t believe how lucky I am to find this tree laying there waiting for me. Although this particular  tree is not in any way perfect, it is really ideal for what I am looking for.  A 3-meter (118 inches) long Teak tree ended up costing ONLY $400.  Somebody’s junk is my precious stone! How incredible that is!

Our town was a major wood harvesting area during the occupation by Japan. The Japanese would cut down trees thousands of years old and shipped them to Japan to build temples and houses. They had built an entire transportation system and factories to do so. As a result, there are still numerous old wood production factories here. I probably would have never known such productions existed had my guitar teacher not tell me. There is a factory in the middle of a rice field that looked like it had been there for centuries. Even the workers there are all in their 50s. Here in Taiwan, you talk and negotiate right when you first meet. I simply asked him to cut the wood I selected into 3 pieces… 50 dollars, done!

This cutting machine must be the coolest old machine I have ever seen. They hefted the tree on to a train, where it was secured and measured into the thickness that I requested. The cutter then drives the train over a huge chain saw. I was extremely nervous, because even though I designed hundreds of furniture before, I had never had my own tree cut to measurements. I was worried if the cut is not in the right place, I would have ruined this beautiful tree. I didn’t have a lot of time to think long on this.  The workers were there, measurements were made and in 10 minutes my tree was in 3 pieces.

The left over slabs I’m saving for a later day to make something else out of it.. stay tuned…  J

This is why I really appreciate small mom and pop shops. There are still so many highly skilled wood finishers in our town. We found this shop that as it turns out knew my college professor really well. I had majored in Forestry. Our professors are pretty well known in Taiwan. They have been associated with many workers in the field. This old Master must be 70 years old or so and he is still doing wood finish for a living. He quickly decided how we should assemble these 3 pieces together and how to fill the imperfections.

The production time is 2 weeks!
Each slab had to be fastened together, then the finisher will sand, stain, and apply the finish coats. A natural lacquer was applied on top to give a subtle but rich sheen.

I also had a local metal shop made the table legs and storage components. It was a lot of visiting shops and discussing design ideas. There were very minimal detailed drawings that had to be done since I was able to work around the workers’ skill set. Their experiences had taught me a different way to doing design and I love the way it came out!