The store manager visited Lishan, HuaGung, and the Cuiluan Tribe on May 8th and 9th. Most tea plantations around the Cuiluan Tribe (below 1,600 meters) have already finished harvesting. From the tribe up to the Cuiluan Church is about halfway done, while anything above the church up to HuaGung remains unharvested. Harvesting in Cuiluan is expected to last until mid-May, while HuaGung will likely kick off around mid-May. The highest peaks—HuaGung, Tianchi, and the Water Source—won’t be harvested until around June.
▼ The store manager feels that this year’s spring tea from the HuaGung and Cuiluan tea regions is “not bad,” with virtually no frost damage and a seemingly abundant yield.
Due to the severe pandemic situation, and considering the manager is from northern Taiwan, it didn’t feel appropriate to go inside the tea factories to chat over tea. Instead, conversations and checks on the tea trees took place outside the factories, followed by collecting a few samples. For the Cuiluan Tribe area, these are mainly from the three days of May 5th, 6th, and 7th.
The harvest for the remaining tea plantations will depend heavily on weather conditions. The manager is quite looking forward to this year’s spring tea from HuaGung and Cuiluan.
▼ As a side note, the manager visited Lishan, HuaGung, and Cuiluan on the 8th and 9th. It rained on the morning of the 8th, yet some tea farmers still ventured out to harvest in the rain. Upon closer inspection, some leaves were overmature “overgrown leaves.” This combination of “rain-soaked leaves + overgrown leaves” is destined to become lower-grade market stock. The plantation owners knew this quality wasn’t ideal, but between weather pressures and labor shortages, they simply had to make do.
However, tea lovers don’t need to worry on behalf of the tea farmers. After all, there are plenty of people who don’t really understand tea, and this is a star-studded tea region anyway—selling out isn’t an issue, it’s just a pity for the buyers who end up overpaying for subpar quality.
The store manager has first sourced the tea samples from May 5th, 6th, and 7th. Afterward, the higher-elevation areas like Cuiluan, HuaGung, and North Cuiluan will be harvested successively, which the manager is quite optimistic about. Wishing the manager success in finding some exceptional teas!
Note 1
The original plan included a stop at the Maliba Tribe and the Suspension Bridge tea plantations, but unexpectedly, the Lihsing Industrial Road suffered another landslide. Fearing being blocked on the way back, the manager canceled that part of the trip. As for the Maliba and Suspension Bridge tea regions this year, we’ll just lazily wait for the samples to come to us!
Note 2
It rained on the morning of May 8th, with the sun coming out after noon. May 9th was clear, and on the 10th it only rained after 4:00 PM, so it still counts as a good weather day. The manager is waiting for the tea samples from the 9th and 10th and hoping for some great batches. It rained all day on the 11th—fingers crossed that the rain stops soon~
Note 3
The sun peeked through on the morning of the 12th, but it started raining again in the afternoon. Heavy rain fell on the 13th and 14th.