Batch 130 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is a  Li Shan High Mountain Oolong Tea harvested on August 13, 2026. This tea garden was given the terroir name Black Pine Forest —after the original growth forest surrounding it at 2100m elevation. It's situated above the aboriginal community of Xin Jia Yang at the 74K marker along the Central Cross-Island Route 8.

This tea is from a new source that we met during spring harvest of this year. We've learned quite a bit this year regarding the Li Shan tea growing region, and it's all a result of showing up in the factory during harvest and politely being present to the scene at hand. Our on site education on this region started more than ten years ago, and it still feels like we are just beginning to gain a comprehensive understanding of Taiwan's highest elevation, most remote, and most challenging tea producing region.

We just got off the phone with the farmer as we are composing this blogpost, because we wanted to clarify a few details about his career background in tea. He had mentioned that he was the second person to develop tea farms above this village where he was born and raised. The first person was his father's older brother, who taught him the trade. The phone conversation was supporting evidence to the fact that it takes MANY conversations to get the full story! I'm sure there will be many more details revealed for years to come. But he just told us that his uncle was THE FIRST PERSON to plant tea in the Li Shan region, starting in 1969. His uncle also planted Taiwan's highest elevation tea garden at 2700m! This Da Yu Ling tea garden was removed many years ago due to changes in government policy.

Our source began developing his Xin Jia Yang tea gardens in 2002, after his family made the difficult decision to remove the fruit orchards from their land. They had lost money in the couple years prior, after the 9/21 earthquake in 1999 and extreme weather in the following two years. For the last eight years, we have been sourcing our Li Shan High Mountain Oolong Tea from farms between the 70-80K markers on Route 8. This farmer that we met in the spring of this years appears to be the best source from this ridge in Li Shan so far.

We are most inspired about the down to earth first conversation we had in our first meeting last spring, and all the interactions since then. There is just no falderal. Our communication has been easy and real. It's truly a local's vibe in the sense that the indigenous community know they have a better bio story to relate than everybody else who showed up in Li Shan who has made great efforts and investments to be there. So, the moral of the story, perhaps, is that when you hang about long enough in the venues for which you have respect and admiration, doors open. Once again we are privileged, proud, and grateful for this role.

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