Taiwan Tea Odyssey

Tales of drinking tea in Taiwan

  • Mei-Jia Tea Garden: an enduring Muzha teahouse

    This past weekend, I went with some friends to Mei-Jia Tea Garden (美加茶園) in Muzha, up the hill in the tea-growing region of Maokong. They offer a “Tea Experience DIY” tour where you can pick tea at their farm. In addition to being a fully functioning tea farm, Mei-Jia is one of the many teahouses Continue reading

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  • A visit with a Muzha farmer

    A few months ago at the Muzha Tieguanyin Competition, the staff introduced me to a farmer who’s particularly known for producing Zhengcong Tieguanyin (Tieguanyin produced from the original cultivar, Hongxin Wai Wei Tao). I’ve continued to be interested in the distinction between different kinds of Tieguanyin in Muzha, so the other week I went up Continue reading

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  • Pu’er hunting at the Taipei Jade Market

    Recently I decided to try my hand at buying pu’er at the Jade Market in Taipei. Mostly just out of a curiosity to know, is it even possible to find something good here? The Jade Market is a touristy weekend attraction in the center of the city and has a reputation for being filled with Continue reading

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  • Taipei Expo Farmer’s Market

    I do most of my grocery shopping at the traditional market in my neighborhood. On occasion there’s one or two tea vendors there, which is typical enough of traditional markets in Taiwan. But in Taipei there’s also one market in particular where quite a few tea vendors, many of them farmers themselves, show up every Continue reading

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  • Making of a Champion: an inside look at the Muzha Tieguanyin Competition

    If you spend enough time in Taipei tea shops, eventually you’ll come across one of these golden boxes: This is competition-grade tieguanyin from Muzha, perhaps the most famous tea growing region in the greater Taipei area (and especially well-known for the many teahouses in Maokong). Twice a year, the Muzha Farmers Association holds a competition Continue reading

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  • Laughtear Chinese Teahouse

    One of my favorite parts of living in Taiwan is going to teahouses. It’s a chance to slow down and unwind, and when on your own, for deeper introspection. Which is a rare luxury when you’re usually chasing around a toddler. When you visit a teahouse here, it’s pretty much a given that the place Continue reading

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  • The perils of online tea shopping

    This tea was supposedly a 1997 Xiaguan tuocha. Which is a bit older than the Xiaguan teas you typically run into. It was fairly cheap and was easy to throw in my online shopping cart one evening. I didn’t give it much thought. The first clue that something was amiss should’ve been the price. A Continue reading

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  • Tea sampling in Maokong

    Maokong is a small hillside neighborhood in the outskirts of Taipei, part of the broader Muzha region. It’s well known for its tea plantations and the many teahouses you can visit for lunch/dinner. It’s also really fun to get there, because you take a cable car (called the Maokong Gondola) up over the hills with Continue reading

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  • Six Door Tea

    There are teahouses all around Taiwan. Some big, some small, some good, some pretty mediocre. Some justifiably well known, plenty of others you just have to stumble upon. One of my favorites is Six Door Tea (六扇門) in Pingxi (平溪), which is a charming little river town to the east of Taipei. I’ve been out Continue reading

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  • Shopping for tea in Pinglin

    Last week, my wife and I drove to Pinglin (坪林), a small rural town half an hour southeast of Taipei City, in hot pursuit of nesting herons that she wanted to film. Knowing that it was also spring harvest time for tea, and that Pinglin is the heart of the baozhong growing region, I was Continue reading

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