Netizen Xiao He asks: Last week, I bought hand-picked ShanLinXi tea online for NT$500 per 600g, but it leaves a strange taste on my tongue. A friend told me that ShanLinXi tea usually costs over NT$1,000, and anything below that might be imported foreign tea. Is this true?
Reasonable Price for ShanLinXi Tea
Liao Chang Xing: For hand-picked tea, it takes about 2.4 kg of fresh tea leaves to make 600 g of loose tea, and the labor cost just for picking those leaves is around NT$240. Factor in tea garden management, fertilizers, roasting costs, packaging, and shipping, and the production cost comes to about NT$600. And that is just the price for standard, flatland hand-picked tea.
ShanLinXi tea is one of Taiwan’s top three high mountain tea regions, where high mountain maintenance and harvesting costs are naturally higher. For tea grown at altitudes above 1,500 meters, the production cost alone can easily exceed NT$800 per 600g. If ShanLinXi tea is priced under NT$1,000, it is usually due to one of the following reasons: 1. Autumn or summer harvest. 2. Machine harvesting. 3. Blending with tea from other regions to cut costs.
Tea priced under NT$1,000 per 600g leaves almost no profit margin for tea farmers, let alone tea merchants who resell it. As for the hand-picked tea you bought online for NT$500 per 600g, it wouldn’t even cover the cost of harvesting and production. Next time before making a purchase, be sure to ask about the origin, harvest season, and harvesting method in detail.