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Nantou County's seventh annual Global Tea Expo happened last week, with TV news reporting that the event drew around 400,000 visitors over its 9 days of various performances, presentations, demonstrations, and contests to complement the 300 vendors who set up shop to sell their produce. It is by far the largest and most representative event in Taiwan promoting its specialty tea and thriving tea culture.

Since 1992, the Lugu Farmers' Association has sponsored a course in Tea Art. The purpose of this educational program has been to provide local residents with an aesthetic understanding of tea art and culture. It is meant to provide a foundation that participants can innovate upon and develop their own embodiment of Tea Art. After attending both practical and theoretical classes, participants take a written exam and do a tea brewing demonstration of their own design in order to receive the Tea Art Award.

All of the above are really just the highlights of an event that represents a living tea culture in Taiwan. The broad spectrum of activities and exhibits, not to mention hundreds of vendors selling their own tea and other local specialties is truly an anomaly. There is nowhere else on the planet that represents tea as a traditional product of regional origin in such a comprehensive and extravagant way. For anyone interested in experiencing the pinnacle of a tea cultural event, the Nantou County Global Tea Expo is a must destination. 

Watermarked photos courtesy of 陳信綸

On October 10th, Double Ten Day — National Day of the Republic of China, as we began winding down the 6th annual Global Tea Expo, we had the opportunity to host some tea people from New York!

In concurrence with the Nantou Global Tea Expo, the National Craft Research And Development Institute hosted activities and exhibits related to Taiwan's tea culture. One of these was an amazing exhibit of modern bamboo structures designed for traditional tea parties.

Last Sunday was the annual gathering of tea lovers from all over Taiwan to partake in the largest tea party on the island, and perhaps in the world. Roughly 5000 people of all ages sat down on a field to simply enjoy tea together.

The theme of this year's Nantou Global Tea Expo is rooted in the ancient Chinese custom of sharing refreshments and co-creating poetry and song while sitting beside a stream. This tradition dates back to the Jin Dynasty in the 4th Century.

We celebrated the conclusion of the Nantou County Global Tea Expo quietly, as the organizer Tony Lin and his wife Lisa were quite relieved to finally relax in their home after the three-week-long event. After staying the night in their home, I visited a few friends in Lu Gu - the home of Dong Ding Oolong Tea, to see how the winter harvest was going. A cold spell early in the growing season slowed the winter flush which has resulted in a repeat of last year's record low winter yield.

The first farmer I dropped in on had already completed his harvest and was roasting his first batch of tea in preparation for the Lu Gu Farmers' Association winter competition. It was a pleasure to taste the first brew of freshly harvested winter leaves that were still in the process of being roasted. The award winning tea maker deemed that they were just about done and had less than an hour left of their long slow roasting process. Mr. Chen is Tony’s cousin and was the first tea farmer I met 20 years ago.

Mr. Chen making New Year's offering in his "Tea Brewing Park" in Xi Tou, Lu Gu Township.

The last Sunday in October was the final day of the Nantou County Global Tea Expo. So I made my 4th visit to the event to make a last round of meeting and talking with tea farmers as they wrapped the three week stint of vending their produce, and also to attend the fashion show featuring modern style Chinese women's wear. 

I sat in a proper theater that is a remnant of early KMT or perhaps even Japanese Central Government (pre WWII) in Nantou County, and watched women of stature and grace model contemporary renditions of traditional Chinese fashion. The style was naturally elegant in a sort of traditionally dignified way. The tasteful, non-commercial production of the show was also much appreciated. There was an upbeat Asian techno-jazz track that was played intermittently with live performance on the Gu-qin (a piano-type instrument where the strings are plucked rather than struck). It really was a fine fusion of traditional and modern culture.

After the show, I headed to the ice cream vendor who was making fresh ice cream on site of only one flavor per day - that of a locally produced tea. I got to taste Tie Guan Yin Oolong on my first day, and Dong Ding Oolong flavor on my second and last chance to sample the handmade tea-flavored ice cream - made fresh daily throughout the event. It was delicious!

With my cone of Dong Ding Oolong ice cream in hand, I made my way to the long, cavernous, red arched-roof tents filled with hundreds of tea vendors serving their own produce to the public for free. I finally sat down at the table of a farmer who I’d met a few times before and who had told me of his recent project of leasing a tea garden on Dong Ding Mountain and cultivating it organically. Although it has already been tested and certified organic, it is still in its transitional phase in that the yield of leaves is very low as the plants adjust to natural growing conditions. This winter harvest produced a mere 50 jing (approx. 60 lbs) of tea. The type of tea he is making is an interesting innovation however - in a retro sort of way. He is harvesting leaves that have been more or less affected by the insect that is responsible for the creation of Oriental Beauty and Concubine Oolongs. He processes them more in the fashion of Oriental Beauty - drying them into loosely curled leaves that have been 60-70% oxidized and then roasts them at low temperatures in order to completely deplete them of moisture content for stability and preservation purposes.

I sat at a few other tea vendors' tables as the energy of the expo wound down and the farmers began packing up their goods to take home after three full weeks of serving the public at their tea stations. One was a well established tea merchant with 3 stores in Central Taiwan. The guy who served me tea was about my age and has inherited the business from his father. They specialized in traditional style teas such as Oriental Beauty, Tie Guan Yin (original style rather than the new trend of Green Guan Yin), Aged Oolongs, and Black Teas. I really appreciated their classy yet modest brand representation. I felt like I was talking with a true traditional tea merchant in the 21st Century. It was a very brief yet poignant meeting and I really look forward to visiting their home base in Nantou City some day in the near future.

I also met a farmer with a tea garden located in an area I did not know tea was grown - on the eastern slopes of He Huan Mountain, where I've ridden many times and knew there were no roads off of the main route that traverses the pass at about 3000m. The eastern side is gorgeous rugged terrain with patches of primary growth below the treeline and zero development other than a solitary hotel with stunning views of sunrise above a sea of clouds almost daily. I learned from this farmer, however, that there are foot paths from the main road, as well as monorail tracks run by power generators to cart the bushels of fresh tea leaves harvested by hand on land that is only accessible on foot. So these bushels of freshly picked leaves are collected at the roadside and carted off to a nearby factory for processing. This is a new frontier of high mountain tea cultivation that I have yet to explore, and in an area that is some of the most rugged and undeveloped high elevation terrain that I have seen in my 20 years of mountain exploration.

The main purpose of my final visit, however, was to continue into the foothills of Deer Valley to celebrate the conclusion of a job well done by the organizer of the Expo - Tony Lin. It was a celebration of the simplest kind. Tony, his wife Lisa, the new principal of the local Junior High School - Patricia, who acted as MC of various events at the Expo, and I all headed for Tony and Lisa's home in Lu Gu from the Expo. We arrived after dinnertime, but none of us had eaten, so Lisa got creative in an impromptu way to feed us from her kitchen that had been neglected during their busy expo time. Soon after, we were joined by a mutual tea friend who I’ve known for a long time and have learned a lot from in the last several years in relation to Taiwan tea, as well as fine Scottish Whisky - which he provided for the occasion.

Video of the '1000 People Brew Tea Event' at the Nantou Global Tea Expo, 2013. 

Take a walk with us through the Nantou County Global Tea Expo. This is Taiwan tea culture coming together for 3 weeks of sharing. 

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Enjoy!