Tea Production & Sourcing

Store Manager’s Chat – It’s Been Raining a Little Too Little Lately

Recent news about water shortages in Keelung and Yilan receiving a mere 11 mm of rainfall in July, causing tea trees to wither, kind of snapped me out of a daydream. It really has been raining quite a little lately. /*! elementor – v3.14.0 – 26-06-2023 */ .elementor-widget-image{text-align:center}.elementor-widget-image a{display:inline-block}.elementor-widget-image a img[src$=”.svg”]{width:48px}.elementor-widget-image img{vertical-align:middle;display:inline-block} August is the

Winter Tea Harvest Order

The quality of this year’s high-mountain spring tea wasn’t great, so I brought in less stock, and much of it is already sold out. With some tea friends running low on their stash, they’ve been messaging me to ask when the winter tea will be released. I figured this is a good time to explain

2022 Winter Tea Growth Update

I’m here to share some bittersweet news with you all—the harvest for the 2022 winter tea is going to be delayed! Normally, winter tea is harvested about 60 days after the autumn harvest. However, the high mountains got cold early this year, so the tea leaves are growing slower. Areas like Biluoxi and Farm Edge,

Trouble for Lishan Sinjiayang Winter Tea

The shop manager headed up to Lishan over the past couple of days, originally planning to check out the tea plantations in the Sinjiayang settlement, but to our surprise, the road is still impassable. With the winter tea season just around the corner, Sinjiayang’s tea farmers are really in for a headache. You might not

Growth Conditions of 2022 Lishan Winter Tea

Lishan winter tea will be heavily harvested around October 12. A few days ago, the shop manager went to Lishan to check on the tea growth, and unfortunately, this year’s winter tea won’t be a bumper crop. This year’s Lishan autumn tea was a huge success, with quality and yield arguably the best in recent

Cuifeng Autumn Oolong (Harvested on August 13) is Sold Out

The Cuifeng Autumn Oolong (harvested on August 13) is completely sold out. Thank you all for your support! We still have some Cuifeng Autumn Oolong (harvested on August 11) in stock, so if you missed out on the 13th batch, don’t miss this one. /*! elementor – v3.7.8 – 02-10-2022 */ .elementor-widget-image{text-align:center}.elementor-widget-image a{display:inline-block}.elementor-widget-image a img[src$=”.svg”]{width:48px}.elementor-widget-image

2022 Cingjing Meifeng and Songgang Winter Tea Growth Conditions

Compared to the Cuifeng tea region we checked out a few days ago, things are looking much more normal over in Cingjing’s Meifeng and Songgang. The farmers say harvesting will kick off around October 8, with some of the more tender tea gardens starting around the 15th. While there’s a slight drop in yield compared

2022 Lishan Winter Tea Growth and Harvest Status

A few days ago, I mentioned that Lishan winter tea had the potential to be ‘low in quantity but high in quality,’ but the store manager has to take that back. This year’s Lishan winter tea will be a year of ‘few good teas’ and ‘low yields.’ I went to check on the tea a

2022 Cuifeng Winter Tea Growth and Harvest Status

This year, many tea buds in Lishan failed to grow properly, and I was really worried Cuifeng might face the same issue. So, I headed up today to check on the Cuifeng tea leaves myself. What I found was a mix of relief and concern—sure enough, many tea bushes are just like the ones in

2022 LongFengXia Budongyu Winter Tea Growth and Harvest Update

I went up to LongFengXia and Budongyu over the past couple of days to check on the winter tea crop. Just like other tea regions, we’re still seeing lower yields and some subpar tea leaves. However, a few tea gardens are looking remarkably promising—if the weather holds up, these plots have a great shot at

Growth Status of Fanzitian and Sanweicheng Winter Tea in 2022

I went up to check on the tea at Fanzitian and Sanweicheng over the past couple of days, and it’s the same old issue: very sparse growth, or things are just moving too slowly. Even in late October, the leaves are still tender, feeling quite a bit delayed. A few tea gardens at higher elevations

Why We Are Skipping the 2022 Cingjing, Qilai Mountain, and DongYanShan Winter Teas

Apologies to everyone, but due to quality considerations, we will not be purchasing many items of this Winter Oolong season. Cingjing Meifeng, Cingjing Songgang, Qilai Mountain, Tunyuan, and DongYanShan are officially “sitting this one out,” so tea lovers don’t need to wait for them. The Winter Oolong from these tea regions can only be described

Growth Conditions of 2022 Alishan, Zhuqi, and Meishan Winter Tea

In early November, the store manager visited Zhuqi and Meishan in Chiayi to check out the tea harvest, and to put it bluntly, “it’s an absolute disaster.” This year, winter tea yields are scarce from northern to southern Taiwan, and Alishan winter tea is no exception. It’s bad enough that there’s less tea this year,

You Really Can’t Skimp on Tea Fertilizer

Fertilizer prices have skyrocketed over the past two years. Common 20kg soybean meal fertilizer has jumped from NT$500-something to nearly NT$700—an increase of about NT$150. Assuming 200 bags of fertilizer are applied per chia (approx. 0.97 hectares), that’s an extra NT$60,000 a year just on fertilizer, leaving many tea farmers feeling the pinch. High-mountain tea

Tea Garden Management is Truly Critical

Proper tea garden management is truly critical. Good management not only boosts yield, but also improves quality year after year. When managed poorly, a sudden decline in a tea garden is far from rare. Over the past few years, the store manager has witnessed cases of failed tea garden management in Lishan, Alishan, Cingjing, and

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