Remember a few days ago when the shopkeeper mentioned trying mainland China’s “Taiwanese-style oolong tea”? Tea lovers often ask us if we sell Chinese green tea or oolong tea. As a reminder, by law, importing Chinese tea into Taiwan is prohibited, with the exception of Pu-erh. The Taiwanese-style oolong tea the shopkeeper tried was during a trip a few years ago, and “logically speaking,” nobody in Taiwan should be selling mainland Chinese Taiwanese-style oolong tea.
Savvy tea enthusiasts hearing “logically speaking” will know there’s likely a way to import Chinese oolong tea anyway. That’s right—a few years ago, a tea shop actually imported mainland Taiwanese-style oolong tea into Taiwan and got caught. They routed it through Thailand, disguised it as Thai or Vietnamese tea, and then sold it as high-priced Taiwanese tea. The shopkeeper remembers this clearly because the importer was a well-known century-old tea house. Feel free to Google it—you can still find the related news.
So you see, a century-old tea house isn’t necessarily trustworthy, and a high price tag doesn’t guarantee it’s authentic Taiwanese tea. At the end of the day, you really have to taste the tea to know.
Some tea friends have mentioned wanting to buy Taiwanese-style oolong tea from Taobao to try it out. We hear that customs checks can be strict and getting caught might result in fines, so we’d advise skipping it. Bringing back a small amount in your luggage is reportedly fine, though—so maybe give it a try if you happen to travel there!
