Inspired to share a recap of our tea runs to Li Shan during the spring harvest, 2026. Our first trip to Li Shan to visit tea farms and factories during the opening days of the spring harvest to source our Li Shan High Mountain Oolong Tea we had beautiful weather, in between a string of rainy days. We got lucky during our first 24 hour visit, but the whole work force that shows up in this remote mountain region to harvest and process the season's produce have to deal with the challenges of unpredictable weather on a daily basis. They all stay in factory dormitories for days that turn into weeks-on-end before their job is done. The tea production in Li Shan involves significantly more challenges than any other tea region on Taiwan. It's arduous work for the pickers and factory workers, and quite stressful for the bosses who must work with all of the unforeseen factors that arise in the daily circumstances.

We met Mr. Zheng a few years ago in the factory where our Li Shan Tea is made. We have learned that he has been producing tea in Li Shan region for decades. He is hired by Taiwan's highest elevation tea factory owner to process the tea from the pristine tea garden at 2500m just up the road in the remotest part of Li Shan. His 40 years of working in the high mountain tea industry have gained him a reputation for his expertise and reliability in skillfully processing the most valuable produce of tea on the island. This does not make his work easier, however. His experience has provided a skill set that increases the odds of making the best quality tea, but there are still the natural elements to deal with, along with potential complications with machinery, power supply, work force, etc., in this remote mountainous region.

It's midnight in the photo above, and the some of the merchants who consistently source from this factory are tasting the previous day's harvest. The final results were not ideal, and for no obviously apparent reason. The weather on the day of the harvest was fine, and nothing really went awry. The only conclusion to be made was that the leaves had become too "waterlogged" with the previous days of rain that lead up to the day of harvest. For a combination of reasons, we only stayed at the factory one night. Mostly it was because we realized that we wanted to wait at least another week into the spring harvest before tasting and deciding which day's produce to procure. We left feeling a bit sorry for our friend who still had another ten days to go at least up in the factory. Sure enough, it started raining the next day, and there were further delays in the harvest, creating somewhat of a domino effect in the challenges of getting the job done. Luckily, when we headed back up ten days later, things were looking and feeling much brighter!

This time around, we stayed two nights in the factory and got up to the farm to see some of the day's harvest. We tasted several days of the spring harvest, and felt quite lucky to be in the factory in order to get first dibs. We chose the second to last day of harvest, which was completely cured on our second night in the factory. Our day's harvest was sold by the time the tea was transported down the mountain to be delivered to the merchants who purchased it all with 24 hours of being cured.

All of this arduous work of living in a remote tea factory for days and weeks, and all the other things that nobody except the people who are there ever know about — they are overcome by the positive attitudes and perseverance of people like the two guys in the photo below. That older guy on the right has some leprechaun qualities that have the power to uplift everyone he interacts with. Not only this bit of magic is enough though. The younger guy on the left is the son of the wife and husband team from whom we source our Li Shan tea in recent years. He was dealing with a very inconvenient cold on his second run up to the factory. He left before us to deliver tea to his customers. We had space in our SUV, so we helped haul some of the produce down the mountain for him to pick up and supply his customers in our area.

It requires a cohesive commitment from everyone involved to work through the challenges and achieve the best outcome. This is where the rural farming culture meets modern professionalism in Taiwan's tea industry. This is what we continue to be inspired to represent. Here's a short video of our first run up to the factory, which offered some real life insight into the lives of the people who make our beloved Li Shan Tea.