Bon Vivant - Worldly Delights

All the Tea in Taiwan

By Lisa Kadane

From Baozhong to Oriental Beauty, the art of steeping leaves has been perfected by this island nation

The server carefully measures out loose tea leaves with a wooden spoon before gently depositing them into a glass teapot. Once the Baozhong leaves fill up half of the pot, she adds hot water and waits exactly 60 seconds. Then, she strains the tea into a pouring vessel and fills eight little cups with the steaming yellow liquid.

TEA SERVICE AT THE PINGLIN TEA MUSEUM

© LISA KADANE

“If you steep it longer than one minute, it will be bitter,” explains Jack Wang, our tea interpreter at the Pinglin Tea Museum, located on a hillside surrounded by tea plantations 20 kilometres southeast of Taipei.

“When you get your tea, smell it first and ask yourself if it smells floral,” he instructs.

I lift the tiny teacup to my nose and inhale. It smells toasty and nutty and, yes, fragrant – like a ripe melon and spring air redolent with blossoms. I sip it slowly and enjoy a rich but mild flavour that lands somewhere between green tea and traditional oolong.

Meanwhile, the server has refilled the teapot with more water for round two. This process can be repeated up to four times, steeping the leaves slightly longer each time before they lose their pungency.

The Taiwanese haven’t been practising this tea ritual as long as their counterparts in China, but ever since the tea plant crossed the Taiwan Strait from the mainland nearly 400 years ago and took root on the island’s fertile hillsides, it has become a part of local culture.

OOLONG TEA

Tea culture is celebrated at the museum, which tells the tale of tea in Taiwan – from picking to packaging – in an interesting and immersive way. I’m surprised to learn that green tea, oolong tea and black tea all come from the same tea plant, Camellia sinensis. The tea you end up with in your cup depends on how the leaves are processed.

FARMERS PICKING TEA LEAVES

Even more fascinating is the story of its exodus from Asia to the rest of the world. The tea trade helped establish global commerce by creating overland routes from China to Russia and Europe, where it was considered a status symbol in cities like Moscow and London. After the Suez Canal was completed in 1869, tea from “Formosa” (what Taiwan was called until the early 1900s) finally reached New York City by ship and turned Formosa Oolong into a coveted product. Tea became Taiwan’s top export, edging out sugar and camphor (an oil used in mosquito repellent), by the late 1800s.

While it no longer props up the economy, Taiwan tea is still popular and served with most meals in the country. In Taipei, I sip it with soup dumplings at Din Tai Fung, and with blanched abalone at the Michelin-starred Tainan Tan Tsu Mien Seafood. In Taichung, I drink it in the form of bubble tea – served with milk, cane sugar and tapioca pearls – and the 590-millilitre glass is almost a meal in itself.

THE ORIGINAL PEARL MILK TEA, NOW KNOWN AS BUBBLE TEA

My little cups of tea at lunch and dinner become a calming expectation and a healthy pastime to boot. Thanks to the polyphenols in camellia tea plants, I’ve probably ingested the equivalent antioxidants in a week as eating 100 salads or fruit smoothies. In addition to its health benefits, tea is also believed to be ideal for meditation and good for the soul.

Before I depart Taiwan, I stock up on loose Baozhong leaves. Now that I’ve got this tradition figured out, I’ll bring serenity in a teacup back to Canada.

Words From Our Experts

TAIWAN TEA 101

Taiwan is famous for what became known as “Formosa Tea,” a family of oolong teas considered some of the world’s finest. Oolong tea is semioxidized and falls between green tea and black tea in strength and taste. Sample these:

• Baozhong oolong tea - Lightly oxidized, with twisted leaves and a rich, floral flavour, it’s one of Taiwan’s most popular teas and a must-try.

• Oriental Beauty tea - It is earthy and robust, thanks to the inclusion of insect eggs and egg sacs during harvesting. Named by Queen Elizabeth, Taiwan regularly sends packages of it to Buckingham Palace in the hope Her Majesty will endorse it.

• Alpine oolong tea - Also called high-mountain tea, it grows at elevations above 1,000 metres. It typically has a strong flavour.

• Bubble tea - Invented in Taichung in the 1980s, it is now a global phenomenon. The most popular kind, pearl milk tea, combines black or oolong tea with milk and cane sugar, and adds delightful tapioca balls – a.k.a. “pearls” – that can be sucked up through a straw. It’s traditionally served cold.