In June, the store manager went to Dayuling to source tea. Passing by the 105K Truffle Tea Garden, I thought I’d check if the famous Snow Oolong tea trees were still alive, and I stumbled upon something fascinating!
That’s right! Just as the title says, “The Dayuling 105K Tea Garden has made a massive comeback!”. Not only are the tea trees doing great, but the spring harvest looks quite substantial. The manager took some photos and videos, and tea friends can check out the video at the link below:
Last week, I mentioned that after the Forestry Bureau took back the 104K and 105K tea gardens at the end of 2015, people went in to harvest them illegally in 2016 and 2017. Hearing that the tea trees at 104K had completely died off by 2018, I figured the 105K Snow Oolong was likely the same and stopped visiting. Passing by the other day, I realized the 105K tea trees hadn’t died at all. What’s more, the tea garden showed signs of management—the weeds were cleared, the trees were pruned, and the leaves were growing remarkably well.
According to what I’ve heard, it probably wasn’t harvested by the original farmers of the Truffle Tea Garden, but who actually did it remains a mystery to me.
Originally, the manager just wanted to take a look from the entrance, but after discovering the 105K grand comeback, I climbed to the highest point of the tea garden. Observing along the way, the survival rate is around 80%. While the yield isn’t as high as its prime, it still produces about 360 to 420 kg per season. With continued care, harvesting 600 kg for next year’s spring tea will be no problem at all.
For tea lovers who adore Dayuling 105K Snow Oolong, this is incredible news. As the highest human-managed tea garden in the world, sitting at an altitude of 2,560 meters, it used to command a price of NT$12,000 per 600 g back in the day.
Note 1: Apologies for the unclear audio in the video; at an altitude of 2,500 meters, the air is thin, and I was completely out of breath from climbing.
Note 2: If anyone knows who is harvesting it, please send a direct message. The manager really misses the taste of 105K Snow Oolong.
