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 weekend.
Since living in Taiwan, I’ve been really impressed by how much effort the government makes towards supporting local agriculture. This includes region-specific farmers associations that provide educational programs and hold annual tea competitions, and also markets like the Taipei Expo Farmer’s Market, where every vendor has been vetted and their produce made traceable through the Traceable Agricultural Product, or TAP, system (first implemented in 2007). This is something you see on food packaging around Taiwan. Basically, each vendor has a QR code you can scan, which will lead you to their official agricultural profile.
This market isn’t huge; you can explore it and talk to several vendors in under an hour. It’s basically two long rows of tables, in a covered open-air venue. It’s next to a large food court called MAJI Square, so there’s plenty of options to eat nearby too. The market has an interesting cross-section of local produce: fruit (much of it the more exotic fruits you might come by), mushrooms, rice and other grains, preserved anything-you-can-imagine, honey, coffee, and of course, tea. Because so many of the stands are manned by farmers, it has a different feel from the mostly re-sellers at my local market.
Of the about 120 vendors here, maybe 15 of them sell tea. The tea farmers I met were all from northern and central Taiwan. If you’re looking for local teas, especially the kinds grown around Taipei like baozhong and hongcha, it’s a fun place to poke around. I didn’t see any pu’er, heicha, or aged oolong.
If you’re looking for the absolute best-of-the-best, this might not be the place for it. But there’s still plenty of perfectly drinkable tea here. And prices are quite reasonable — most were around 200-400 NT for 150g. About the highest price I saw was 150g packs of Shanlinxi oolong for 800 NT. Whether you’re getting a better value by purchasing directly from the farmer? Hard to say. It’ll at least be pretty fresh though.
Perhaps the best part about visiting this market is the chance to chat with a number of farmers/vendors all in the space of an hour or so. I met the owners of a Nantou-based business called Caile Tea Company (采樂茶業) who grow hongcha and also sell a number of other Nantou teas, including different oolong cultivars like Sijichun, Cuiyu, and Jinxuan. I tried four or five of their teas and particularly liked their red oolong.
I also met some farmers from Yilan who grow both tea and roselle, a type of hibiscus mostly used in drinks. You don’t hear about tea from Yilan that much, but their mi xiang hongcha was especially good. Of all the teas I tried at this market, this one probably stood out the most. They were really friendly too, and happy to stand around, drink tea, and chat. They also make tea infused bar soap, and gifted me some.
As with most places, you have to filter through the vendors a bit if you’re looking for the better quality. Several were emphasizing tea bags or bottled iced teas more than loose teas. And some felt like it was more for gift-giving. Thankfully, most have prices visible, so you get an idea of what you’re in for.
Something else I liked about this market is that all the vendors are happy to brew tea for you. So you can walk around, try samples from a number of different places, and not feel the same pressure to buy as when you walk into a tea shop.
While I wouldn’t consider this market an absolute must-see, it’s a bit of a different experience and was fun to spend some time here.
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