News

Lugu's 4H Project recently hosted around 70 international 4H members for their 2nd Annual Asia Network Board Meeting. This year the Lugu Elementary School, in cooperation with National Taiwan University Tea Research Center prepared a select group of students to brew tea for the guests. These students have been practicing their tea brewing etiquette along with English poetry recitals and conversation since last spring. 

We invite you to join us as we continue on our endless journey to seek out and discover singular seasonal batches of tea that are one-of-a-kind specialties, and not available anywhere else. We will continue to tell the story of each batch of tea we select, sharing photos that offer windows into this rich world of Taiwanese teas and the culture in which is flourishes. We tell you all about the tea, where it comes from, how it's made, and share a sip-along-with-us tasting video with each unique batch. Come along for the adventure with the Eco-Cha Tea Club as we make another cycle around the sun, drawing us to remote mountainous regions around the beautiful island of Taiwan!

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.

Now over 40 years running, this spring's Lugu Farmers' Association Dong Ding Oolong Tea Competition consisted of 6,441 entries. This pioneering tea competition was designed to maintain and promote a standard of high quality in the production of this traditional type of Oolong Tea.

We spent several days over the last couple weeks filming in tea country (Lugu) and in Taichung City with the Buddhist-based Da Ai Television station. It will a while before the program is aired, but for now we can share some behind the scene shots. Here we are at Tony and Lisa Lin's tea table playing with tea design ideas.

We recently attended a seminar given by the head director of TRES (Tea Research and Extension Station) on his unprecedented research in aging Oolong Tea.

Read all about this amazing celebration of Taiwanese Tea Culture. We've got stories and photos to share from this year's event, which was called 春山沐月 or, "Spring Mountains Bathed In Moonlight".

1. We are in a life-long love affair with tea and tea culture.

I took this photos some years ago on my way to one of my favorite mountain getaways, Dong Pu Hot Springs in Nantou County, Taiwan.

Taiwan's history of tea making goes back to the 1600's when the Portuguese first started exploring the island and discovered indigenous growing tea plants. This indigenous Taiwan mountain tea can still be found today growing wild in the mountain regions of central Taiwan. Andy recounts experiencing this tea for the first time.