PAIRING SET No.01｜Amber Glow & Honey Gold

PAIRING SET No.01｜佐餐茶系列

At ZEN ZEN THÉ, we approach tea the way a house approaches Champagne — building structure, acidity and length into something meant to be poured alongside food. Each Pairing Set is a complete proposal: two terroirs, two temperaments, two moments at the table. Both teas in this first set were awarded Gold at the UK Tea Academy Awards.

This is No.01.

THE REASON｜Everyone deserves something worth raising

At every table, there is someone drinking water or soda. Maybe they are driving. Maybe they cannot. Maybe they simply would rather not. Whatever the reason, the glass in their hand has no aroma, no structure — nothing that deserves to be lifted.

We wanted to change that.

THE BOTTLE｜A deliberate choice

750ml is the size of a wine bottle, and that is no accident.

It means opening something. Pouring into glasses. Sharing with the people around the table. We chose this format because we believe tea can do what wine does — carry structure, carry acidity, and hold its own through a meal.

THE CRAFT｜Three days, and six
These teas are not brewed. They are cold-extracted over days — three for Honey Gold, six for Amber Glow.

Low temperature takes time, but it is the only way to hold on to what the leaf actually is. After extraction, each tea is stabilised without heat, so the aromatics we waited days to capture are not undone in the final step.

Nothing else is added. No sugar, no flavouring — only tea and sparkling water.

"Amber Glow" Luye Red Oolong Tea Fizz

Imagined as a Rosé Champagne
Red oolong is a Taiwanese style: oxidised further than a classic oolong, closer in character to black tea, yet keeping the roundness oolong is known for. Ours is grown naturally in Luye, Taitung — on the island's warm eastern coast — then roasted slowly and rested at length.

Gold Medal, UK Tea Academy Awards 2023 — the only Gold awarded to a Taiwanese tea that year.

The palate opens with ripe fruit, brown sugar and something close to roasted sweet potato. Carbonation sharpens the acidity, giving it a distinctive back-and-forth: sweetness that lifts into acid, acid that settles back into sweetness.

"Honey Gold" Oriental Beauty Tea Fizz

Imagined as a Blanc de Noirs

Blanc de Noirs is a white wine made from black grapes — one material, taken somewhere unexpected. That is precisely where Oriental Beauty sits here.

Oriental Beauty is among Taiwan's most storied teas. Before harvest, the leaves are bitten by the tea green leafhopper; the plant's response to that bite is what produces the tea's honeyed aroma — a flavour that cannot exist without the insect. Tea artisan Blue chose a later, riper picking for this bottling.

Gold Medal, UK Tea Academy Awards 2024.

Citrus, ripe stone fruit, honey, and a fine thread of acidity. Carbonation lifts both sweetness and acid, leaving a long honeyed finish.

THE PAIRING｜From the first course to the last

• Amber Glow takes over when the food turns richer. Grilled meats, yakitori, smoked dishes — its fine bead and brisk acidity cut through fat and char, then reset the palate.

For anyone who cares how a meal comes together. And for anyone you would want to raise a glass with.