It started raining in Lishan around 9:00 PM on March 25th, bringing 40 mm of rain over 24 hours. While the daily accumulated rainfall was quite satisfying, it unfortunately only lasted for one day—falling a bit short of the three days and two nights the tea farmers were hoping for. Still, this rainfall helped quench the tea trees’ thirst, and most farmers are already quite pleased.
Another key tea-growing region, the Cingjing tea area (Cuifeng, Qilai Mountain, and DongYanShan), was even luckier. Over the past few days, this area recorded the highest cumulative rainfall in all of Taiwan, with a full 50 mm falling on the 26th alone. When chatting with tea farmers on LINE, the store manager could literally feel the joy through their messages (“Awesome!~”). Further south, Zhushan (where LongFengXia, Sancengping, and Fanzitian are all located) received around 30 mm, which is also quite decent. Further south still, Gukeng in Yunlin and Meishan and Zhuchi in Chiayi received a bit less, roughly 10 to 20 mm. You could say that some rain is better than none at all.
We can’t quite say the drought crisis is over, but the rain on the 25th was definitely timely. Not only did it quench the tea trees’ thirst, but it also really helped with fertilizer breakdown. Even better, mountain water sources have been replenished. Recently, the water sources and storage tanks of many tea gardens were completely empty, but this will keep them going for several more days. The weather forecast shows another front arriving on Thursday (March 30th), and we hope this one will completely lift the drought crisis in the tea regions.
Also, an update for everyone: harvesting has already begun for low-elevation CuiYu and JinXuan. The store manager tried a few samples over the past couple of days, and the quality is “far from great,” with “low yields” and “high prices.” The store manager has chosen to keep waiting to see if better batches come along later in the harvest. However, tea lovers and fellow tea merchants should mentally prepare—spring tea prices are practically guaranteed to go up.
