Taiwan has a rich tea culture in people's daily life. There are indigenous tea trees in Taiwan but the real tea culture only started since 1850's, when some Chinese immigrants brought tea plants from China(Tieguanyin tea trees) and also European merchants who helped promoting Taiwan tea to European countries and the US.
We have different teas in different regions since the climate could differ from mountain to flat plain, from the tropical of southern Taiwan to subtropical of Northern Taiwan. We have high and steep mountains(296 mountains over 3000m/9800ft., above sea level, also the largest number and density of high mountains in the world, with Yushan being the tallest mountain in both Taiwan and East Asia.) with heavy fog which is perfect for tea trees.
Until now, we have developed more than 30 kinds of tea in Taiwan and you can always find about 10 kinds of tea in many shops or even a local's house. I would say that tea for us Taiwanese is like wine for Europeans, which we always have our own selections at home and also it is very common to receive loose tea packages when we have friends coming over to visit. Also, the bubble tea which has been a trend in some countries now started in the 1970's in Taiwan, adding tapioca bubbles into the sweet black tea, and nowadays in Taiwan when you get a chance to see the drink stands on the busy streets, you will find numerous kinds of boba drinks that we have developed. For each drink you also get to choose your own preferred sweetness and coldness, with adding all kinds of toppings as you like.
Hence, the occasions of having tea in Taiwan can be as the following situation:
1. Specialty teas:
The artisan teas from local farmers, classified with prizes organized by local agricultural departments. Appear in fine tea houses, find-dining restaurants with Michelin stars, a local tea lover's house. Usually served with a tea ceremony(even a small simple one) with proper tea set in order to sense the aroma and taste of the fine teas.
2. Free teas at local restaurants:
Almost all restaurants in Taiwan serving Taiwanese/Chinese food provide free tea. The free tea serves at local restaurants can sometimes be imported ones, since the local teas are usually made into specialty ones in order to get a higher price with rather expensive labor cost in Taiwan. Imported tea from China or Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam with cheaper labor costs and wider lands provides a huge amount of tea in Taiwan, mostly for restaurants or street drink bars.
Usually Oolong, jasmine green tea and Pu'er tea are imported from China, black tea is imported from Vietnam or India/Sri Lanka (Not so much from Africa because of the distance of shipping).
3. Boba drinks bars on the street:
The drink bars are EVERYWHERE on the streets in Taiwan, as many as the convenience stores(7-11, Family Mart...) and even the convenience stores are selling boba teas as well since Taiwanese people just love it so much. (like espresso bars in Italy?) The tea used in drinks bars are not the specialty ones but commercial ones. As people are more aware of the quality of food/food productions than before, some of the drink bars emphasize the quality of the milk that they use (ex: local fresh milk instead of imported frozen/dried milk, sometimes even milk from single origin farms), the loose tea leaves instead of shredded tea powder, and sometimes using local Taiwanese tea(but still commercial ones though) though the amount is not so much and the price is still a lot higher than imported ones.
Let's talk about the local specialty teas made in Taiwan.
The teas that are mostly drank at a local's house in Taiwan is about 8-10 kinds, from green tea made in Sanxia, to high mountain tea made in Yushan and black tea made with a new species from the indigenous tea tree(Camellia formosensis.) called Ruby Red(紅玉紅茶).
While green tea is non-fermented and black tea is fully fermented, in Taiwan more than 80% of the local teas are semi-fermented ones(it is according to the preference of Taiwanese people), which means the level of fermentation of the tea is in between 10%~90%. The level of fermentation makes the different aroma and taste of the tea, from the something close to grassy fresh green tea to the dark, roasted, matured black tea taste. In our class we always select 3 kinds of Taiwanese specialty tea, with different level of fermentation for our guests to recognize what "fermentation" taste like.
The 3 kinds of tea introduced during the tea ceremony in our class are:
1. Wenshanbaozhong Tea
2. High Altitude/Mountain Oolong Tea
3. Oriental Beauty Tea(Bai Hao Oolong)
1. Wenshanbaozhong Tea is made in the north of Taiwan, a kind of tea with about 10-20% of the fermentation, with a rich floral aroma and fresh green tea taste without the grassy bitter texture. It is a regional limited tea only in the northern Taiwan even with low familiarity in the south of Taiwan. The floral aroma comes with the stirring/mixing of the tea during fermentation, without adding any extra flowers.
2. High Altitude/Mountain Oolong Tea is made in the areas that is over 1000m from the sea level, and the most famous tea plantation among the tourists is Alishan while the most expensive high mountain oolong usually comes from Dayuling (Chinese: 大禹嶺; pinyin: Dàyǔlǐng, el. 2565 m). The high altitude provides a weather of cold night and hot daytime, which makes the growing of tea leaves slow but strong, with thicker leaves and more sweetness in the juice. The strong leaves are also perfect for rolling into rounded shape(also called gun powder in some countries) and the purpose of making tea leaves round is to preserve the leaves without breaking while packing and against oxidation as time goes by. This is the kind of tea that is the most produced among other Taiwanese tea and the most sold one overseas, because there are more mountains than flat lands for farming and also the rich aroma is popular among the tea lovers in the world. It is usually made into 30% of the fermentation and light roasted. The rich, silky taste differs between different areas of the mountains.
3. Oriental Beauty Tea(Bai Hao Oolong) is made in the northwest part of Taiwan (Hsinchu&Miaoli), with 70-80% of fermentation which gives a light honey aroma and fruity, spice-like taste. The tea leaves are bitten by grass hoppers during summer, and the bitten part makes natural fermentation from the injured place, and the farmers has found out that only the bug-bitten-fermentation helps on giving the honey aroma which makes this tea such an extraordinary one compare to other ones. For getting bugs bites it is also known as organic grown tea since it is not allowed to use pesticide in the tea farm in order to keep the grass hoppers. "Bai Hao"(白毫) literally means grey hair and it also means the very young tea leaves that has not turned green before it is picked. But the name of Oriental Beauty actually comes from a legend of the tea sold in the 17th century in Europe, and the British queen was delighted to have this tea and named it Oriental Beauty. We nowadays use both of the names in tea shops in Taiwan, but usually the trendy tea shops would use the name Oriental Beauty while the old traditional tea house would remain using the name of Bai Hao Oolong long.
