Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Taiwan exported a purposely broken leaf (for ease of transport) green tea. I indicate purposely to clarify that the term broken is merely a description of the chopped tea and not in reference to an inferior quality tea, which is how it would be interpreted according to the British style grading scale used to grade black teas sourced from its then colonies. Japan and Southeast Asia were the primary destinations for this green tea. When exports halted at the end of World War II, the tea was stored in warehouses across Taiwan, more or less left alone until recent years. It is now highly sought after by coteries of high-end tea drinkers, given the fragmented and limited supply of well-aged Taiwanese tea. As such, there is no market-dictated range as with puer.

I did not detect the oft attributed notes of ginseng and camphor, rather a strong but soothing medicinal flavor that I will call "Chinese medicine" for lack of a better term. It has aged past that ginseng and camphor phase into a new one, complete with a pleasant earthiness. With the aged oolongs in the twenty to thirty year range, there can be an overpowering fruity sourness, a sour-patch-kids-like tartness that makes your teeth wince, but in this old green tea it is balanced and dissipates after the first few infusions.

Just as the vicissitudes of life make people more interesting (granted, more jaded as well), tea also undergoes its own journey through time and space. From a young lightly oxidized, very fresh very raw tea, it has aged into a complex, very intense--both in flavor and in qi--entity that bears little resemblance to how it began many decades ago. This is for the espresso drinkers out there.

On Brewing: Given the fineness of tea, it can clog the single hole filter of old Yixing clay pots. Thus, some people have taken to using modern syphon coffee makers to brew with good results (30sec or so infusion time). Personally, I prefer going the traditional brewing route, as you get more infusions, about 15, and are able to taste the difference between cups. For the first few rounds, don't linger for more than a few seconds after pouring in the hot water. Otherwise, the tea will be undrinkably strong; broken leaf tea doesn't need time to awaken unlike puer and oolongs. 1g of tea per 50mL (1.7 oz).