If you have a chance to visit East Asia, you must not skip Taiwan.
Taiwan is not only the motherland of bubble tea, but is also known for its world famous oolong tea, night markets street food, and mountains. This sub-tropical island is located between Japan, Korea, and China, on the east end of the Pacific Ocean. Taiwan's total land mass is roughly 30 times smaller than Ontario, 19 times smaller than Texas, and 63% of the land is covered by hills and mountains with 32% of them above 1,000 meters (3,280 ft) in elevation.

The combination of the sub-tropical weather and high mountain weather conditions makes Taiwanese mountains an the ideal place for growing tea. Alishan (also known as Ali Mountain) is one of them, and is one of the must-visit national treasures.

Alishan is around 2,663 meters (8,737 ft) in elevation. The temperature ranges from 8°C (46°F) in the winter to 30°C (86°F) in the summer. Not only does it have the world famous tea plantations, it also features majestic scenery - such as vibrant sunrises and sunsets, cloud seas that wash over the mountains, cherry blossoms, dynamic tea harvesting seasons, the highest railway service in Taiwan and its iconic lunchbox sold at every train station, and is the home of Tsou indigenous people.

The rich red soil, natural spring water, humidity, and the large temperature gap between day time and night time have provided superb conditions for fine high mountain oolong tea cultivation over the last few decades.

Our tea plantation is located at Shihjhuo (or Shi-Zuo, means stone table), Alishan, at around 1,300 meters in elevation.

The tea in the garden is hand-harvested and hand-processed following a set of standards provided by the Taiwan Tea Corporation. The tea plants and leaves absorb the sunlight, pure spring water, and night fog from the hillsides.

Harvesting seasons typically start from April and May, and August and September. During this time, lines and lines of harvest crews will handpick the top 3 leaves from the tea plants which make the best quality oolong tea, gather them in rattan buckets, and transport them to our tea processing factory just a few minutes away.

Tea processing is a skill and a mastery of art that has been passed down through generations in the family. A tea master not only needs to have the technical tea processing skill, but also the intuition to adapt their approach based on the conditions of each batch of tea. They also need to have knowledge of tea cultivation and farming.

Once tea processing begins, there is no stopping in between. It takes about two to three days from start to finish, and requires constant and careful monitoring during each step. This is a profession of passion, agility, wisdom, experience, and patience.