Mentioning Fushoushan Tianchi tea the other day, it turns out quite a few people aren’t familiar with the Tianchi tea region, so today let’s share a bit more trivia about “Fushoushan tea.”
Just like Fenqihu isn’t actually a lake and ShanLinXi isn’t a river, Fushoushan isn’t a mountain either (a lot of people actually think it is). Fushoushan is the name of a farm, and Fushoushan tea simply means “tea produced by Fushoushan Farm.” Fushoushan Farm tea is a pioneer of Lishan tea. Backed by endorsements from former presidents and other notable figures, it has been in high demand for over a decade, starting at NT$7,000 per 600 g.
High profits naturally lead to plenty of counterfeits. Some blatantly misappropriate names like Fushou Changchun Tea or Fushou Changqing Tea (the farm holds trademark rights), while others—as mentioned before—exploit loopholes by using names like Fushou Tianchi Tea or Fushoushan Daguanting Tea (attractions on the farm) to confuse consumers. The farm sued businesses selling tea using these tourist spot names a few years ago, though it didn’t seem to hold up in court.
Feel free to Google “Fushoushan tea,” “Fushou Changchun tea,” “Fushou Changqing tea,” “Fushou Tianchi tea,” or “Fushoushan Daguanting tea” whenever you have a moment. These are magic keywords for testing a tea merchant’s honesty. 😂😂
As for how to tell genuine Fushoushan tea from fake? It’s simple: only tea directly from the farm is authentic. If the canister isn’t the official farm packaging, it’s basically fake. Tea sold by the farm always comes with anti-counterfeiting labels.
There’s also another situation known as “Fushoushan Farm perimeter tea,” “farm edge tea,” or simply “off-farm tea,” which refers to tea leaves produced by private tea plantations near the farm. That’s quite an interesting topic too—I’ll introduce it next time when I get the chance!
