Tea is deeply embedded in Taiwan’s culture. Children often start drinking tea at a young age and can distinguish between various Taiwanese tea varieties. Although nowadays, bubble tea shops are taking the way to a more slow habit of drinking tea – Gong Fu Cha.
Nevertheless, most bubble tea shops still serve decent-quality tea stocked from one of the island’s numerous tea farms. If you are at a bubble tea shop and want to experience the quality of the tea, simply order it without milk, toppings, or sugar, and you will see just how good it is, even on its own.
Taiwan is a mountainous island with high altitudes and ample rainfall. Perfect for growing high-quality tea! Tea grows everywhere on the island. You are bound to stumble upon a tea farm growing regional varieties from the north to the south. Indeed, each part of the country is known for its own distinct tea variety and takes pride in its farms and growing techniques. Let’s go over some of Taiwan’s most famous teas!
Taiwanese Oolong
High Mountain Oolong (Milk Oolong)
High Mountain Oolong
High Mountain Tea (Gaoshan cha – 高山茶) grows on Taiwan’s numerous misty mountains. These tea gardens must be located at an elevation of 800 meters or higher above sea level to be considered true high mountain tea.
Some of the more famous Taiwanese high mountain teas come from Alishan, Yushan, and Lishan mountains. There, the tea bushes receive sunlight filtered through plenty of mist and clouds – the prime ingredients for high-quality tea. The tea bushes must work hard to survive. As a result, they grow slowly, producing large, thick leaves rich in amino acids and polyphenols, characteristic of high-quality Taiwanese oolong. Read more.
The taste of High Mountain Taiwanese oolongs is delightfully sweet, buttery, and milky. Some of them also exhibit exuberant floral qualities.
Make sure that the rolled oolong tea leaves are large and whole. Low-quality, machine-harvested teas will have small, broken-up tea leaves.
Every year, Alishan attracts thousands of tourists wanting to walk across many of the "tea ways", sample exceptional oolong, view the beautiful sunrise, savor the fresh air, and escape Taiwan's heat.
Four Season Oolong
Four Season Oolong, also known as Four Seasons of Spring (Si Ji Chun – (四季春), is quite an interesting Taiwanese oolong tea variety. The name comes from its ability to produce high-quality leaves year-round, unlike many other cultivars that have more distinct seasonal differences. It’s especially popular for making fragrant oolongs with a floral, slightly fruity profile. It is widespread in Taiwan and found in every tea shop, but it didn’t quite catch on in the West.
This tea is commonly grown in Alishan or Nantou County. Usually, the taste is light, sweet, and creamy, with a floral aroma reminiscent of gardenia.
Dong Ding Oolong
Dong Ding Oolong (凍頂) is another Taiwanese favorite. It’s also known as Tung Ting, Frozen Summit, or Frozen Peak. Originally, Dong Ding was made from the Qing Xin (青心 – “Green Heart”) cultivar, which is still the classic choice. However, over time, other cultivars, such as Jin Xuan (金萱) and Si Ji Chun (四季春), have also been planted in the Dong Ding area and used to make “Dong Ding style” oolongs. But when people refer to “traditional” Dong Ding, they usually mean oolong made from Qing Xin cultivar grown on Dong Ding Mountain.
Dong Ding oolong is produced in Nantou County, at an elevation of 600-800 meters. However, the Dong Ding area is constantly shrouded in mist, which lends a wonderfully luscious character to the tea.
Frozen Summit tea is lightly to medium roasted. This adds a pleasant, nutty taste to the sip, reminiscent of fresh-baked oatmeal cookies.
Taiwanese "Monkey Picked" Tie Guan Yin
Tie Guan Yin
Tie Guan Yin Oolong (铁观音) is also known as Tie Kuan Yin or Iron Goddess of Mercy.
We have written quite extensively on Taiwanese Tie Guan Yin Oolong. It is a tea category that is equally popular and delicious in Taiwan and Anxi, China, where this tea is produced. In Taiwan, TGY is commonly grown on Lishan Mountain.
Generally, these days, Taiwanese TGY is more roasted than its Chinese relative. It’s altogether floral, fruity, and toasty, with a remarkably sweet finish.
Red Oolong
Red Oolong is a relatively new category of tea originating in Taiwan. You are unlikely to find it in many tea shops around Taiwan, as it’s a specialty tea primarily produced in the Luye region, located in the southern part of the island. It's an Oolong, oxidized to a level close to Red Teas, hence the name.
On our trip to Luye, we fell in love with one of these teas and made sure to source it in our shop, as we believe more people should have the chance to be acquainted with it. Read more.
This is a bug-bitten oolong, an interesting category of tea not uncommon in Taiwan. The tea gardens where the bushes grow are kept natural and are not sprayed with pesticides. When bugs come to bite the tea leaves, the leaves produce certain terpenes and send sugars to the bitten areas. This alters the final taste of the tea wonderfully, making it honey-sweet.
Baozhong
Baozhong (包種茶), also known as Pouchong, is a sort of category of its own, falling between an oolong and a green tea. It is perhaps the lightest form of oolong.
Baozhong is grown exclusively in the Wenshan area of Taiwan, in the north of the island. The tea is very floral and refreshing. In fact, it’s very common to find cold-brewed Wenshan Baozhong in tea shops and stores across the island.
Another common Baozhong production area is Pinglin, which is also known for its tea tourism. Shops will line the small-town streets, and there will be bikes to rent for a ride around the tea farm-filled hills. There is also a specialty food served in the area - noodles dressed in oil made from the seeds of the tea bush.
Oriental Beauty
Oriental Beauty Oolong is also commonly known as Dong Fang Mei Ren. Traditionally, this tea comes from the Hsinchu region in northern Taiwan. This oolong falls on the heavier oxidation spectrum, resulting in a very complex flavor profile.
This is also a bug-bitten oolong, so rest assured, the gardens are left natural. The bug bites naturally contribute to this tea's exceptionally sweet taste. The final flavor is very fruity and altogether quite bold. The iconic, honey-like sweetness of this tea coats the palate and lingers even after the final sip.
Black Tea
Ruby 18
Ruby 18 is the best example of Taiwanese black tea. It is also known by a few other names, such as Ruby Red and Sun Moon Lake Black Tea. In Chinese, it's often referred to as Hong Yu.
Sun Moon Lake is renowned as the premier region in Taiwan for cultivating black tea. It doesn’t exclusively grow Ruby 18, so you might want to double-check which exact tea you are getting. Honey Black Tea, for example, is another popular and delicious tea variety from the area.
Ruby 18 is quite extraordinary in every way. It is a cross between the Assam tea cultivar and a tea plant native to Taiwan, Camellia formosensis. The latter is not actually used for tea production, although it gives off an interesting herbal flavor.
Ruby 18 is very rich, bold, malty, fruity, and slightly minty.
Scented Taiwanese Teas
Scented teas are also quite popular in Taiwan. Some common varieties include the sweet and energizing Ginseng Oolong, Gardenia Oolong, Osmanthus Oolong, and Jasmine Baozhong.