After being shortlisted for two years, Hualien’s Junjie Lin Tea Garden finally won the U.K.’s Great Taste Awards’ highest honor, the Great Taste Golden Fork Award, for their green honey Darjeeling tea.
Silvija Davidson, food critic and convener of the jury, referred to tea farmer Lin Jun-jie’s (林俊傑) entry as the “honey champagne of the tea world.” She described the taste of the tea as elegant, floral, fruity, and balanced, with a pleasant aftertaste and no bitterness or excess tannin. Davidson believes the tea will be popular in the British market.
Lin said that, based on his previous experiences, the jury seemed to prefer teas with a more distinctive floral aroma. To enhance the floral aroma of this variety, he combined summer and autumn tea leaves and changed the ratio of sun-withering and hand-stirring.
Lin explained that participating in the Great British Food Awards has helped to expand product sales outside of Taiwan. He said foreign manufacturers interested in high-end tea products have sought him out, and that he just sold a batch of top-quality green honey Darjeeling tea that will be launched in the U.K. in October.
The Great Taste Awards are one of the largest international food and beverage awards in the U.K. This year, more than 13,000 products from 115 countries were submitted to the competition, with only 1.9% of the products earning their highest three-star “Exquisite” rating. Of the 112 products submitted from Taiwan, only four were given this rating, two of which were Lin’s teas.