Ruby #18 is one of my favorite cultivars. I found out about it when I was in Taiwan 8 years ago. It was given to me at a tea shop in Taipei and I was pleased by how complex the tea was. I had never tasted a black tea with wintergreen notes in the finish.
Ruby #18 is a cultivar created by the Taiwanese Tea Research and Extension Station in 19
99. The intent was to create a cultivar that would be used to produce black tea. The TTRES crossed a strand of Camellia Sinensis that was growing wild in the hills around Sun Moon Lake in Yu Chi County, with an Assamica varietal native to Burma. The most impressive thing about this tea, in my opinion, is the wintergreen finish. Since it was created with an assamica strand of tea, you definitely get some nice tannic qualities showing though.
After 5 years of searching, we're now offering this tea and we couldn't be more excited