Few weeks ago we received Carlotta and Javier here in Taiwan! We were delighted when they got in touch with us, because they are "Tea People / Cha Ren" and also travelers, one of their objectives here in Taiwan was to visit tea plantations and factories. With Iris we said right away 'yes!', we can receive you here and show you around some of the tea gardens and factories that we work with.
Do you want to know how was their visit? Then keep reading, we have lots of details to share with you!
Carlotta and Javier are passionate travelers, they love wine (professional sommeliers too) and also they know a lot about tea. They flew all the way from Spain to Taiwan, she is italian and he is spanish. Without any doubt, a very interesting couple.
No surprise that Carlotta has a successful gourmet travel agency called Alacarta, they work with tourists in Italy, Spain, Portugal and France. Take a look at their website, it's very interesting!
Ok, let's go back to their trip... they had a very tight schedule, there is so much to see here in Taiwan! So together, the four of us, we organized an excursion of some days to key places for any #tealover. Iris and I came up with a 3 days trip personalized to Carlotta and Javier's expectations where we traveled to tea gardens, factories, tea houses and restaurants.
Let's see how was the trip... maybe you will get interested in visiting us too!
(you can simply text us to our chat or the form in this page and we will answer your questions)
Day 1: Lishan, visiting tea gardens and factories at 2.000masl
Day 2: Taichung, modern tea houses and gourmet restaurants
Day 3: Shanlinxi, visiting a '5 Stars Factory' and more tea houses
Day 1: Lishan, visiting tea gardens and factories at 2.000masl
The first day of their visit, we met at their hotel in Taichung to leave at around 8am direction Lishan. The road brings us to the gorgeous mountains of Hehuanshan, with stops to appreciate the landscape at 3.000masl. To get used to this high altitudes we stop few times and drink some red tea, so the body has a moment to get used to the lack of oxygen.
The trip takes a little bit more than 3 hours, so we have time to know each other and have a nice chat, turns out we have lots in common! and we also have time to look at the landscape, what do you think of the nice views from the picture above?
Once in Lishan and after having lunch, we head to Iris' family tea garden about 20 minutes from the town... we use the monorail to climb the steep slopes!!!
We then take a walk at the tea garden at 2.000masl, we enjoy the landscape view and Iris shares some details about the tea plants and cultivation methods. At this time of the year the farmers enrich the soil with fertilizer, so the conversation centers into this topic. Iris tells us her family uses yellow beans as fertilizer and also some species of Funghi, the idea is to return the nutrients that our beloved Camellia Sinensis needs to grow strong and rich.
Since Carlotta and Javier are used to go round vineyards, we compare some aspects and differences between both plants, their cultivars and cultivation methods. No doubt an enriching conversation for the 4 of us!
On thing we need to highlight is their incredible luck with the weather, even though we were in the middle of winter they were lucky enough to have clear skies, although the day before there was a huge rain in Lishan.
We finish the first day walking around Lishan Village and eating a tasty 'Hot Pot' in the best restaurant from town, at least to our taste haha.
But before going to sleep, we take a walk around the factory and we have an introductory class to tea processing, same as we did it in this article.
It was an intense day, full of adventures!
Day 2: Taichung, modern tea houses and gourmet restaurants
On the next day we prepared to drive down the mountain, but first we stop at a touristic spot... Tianshi Pond. A beautiful and calm place to appreciate the landscape, flora and fauna and also to talk about our respective countries (Spain, Italy, Chile and Taiwan!).
Soon after lunch time we entered an agitated Taichung, the third biggest city in Taiwan with almost 3 million inhabitants. It looks like, with the objective to make contrast with the noisy city, some visionaries have opened tranquil and calm tea houses, where everything revolves around tea (contrary to traditional tea houses that are more like restaurants).
This time we went to a modern and calming tea house where the clerk received us on the bar and prepared a unique experience. It consist on a series of teas prepared following Cold Brew method and others in GongFu style, all of them taiwanese teas with exception of an exquisite Darjeeling tea. Each of them has a characteristic aromatic profile and they are expertly brewed.
Day 3: Shanlinxi, visit to a '5 Stars Tea Factory'... and more tea houses
Now it's time to go to Shanlinxi!
We are welcomed by our friends, producers of some of our teas from this region. They invite us right away to have lunch, cooked by themselves! In the country side of Taiwan, people eats lunch at around noon. They were very curious about the couple of western people visiting them.
Even though this is a big and spacious factory, they follow artisan production methods. Iris guides us through the facilities and takes some time to teach us about tea processing, together with an explanation on the distribution of the factory and the machinery. Every detail has a reason to be there. And of course we taste the freshest tea our friends produced, right before winter began.
And an awesome bonus was to discover some sprouts of bamboo in the forest! The tea garden of our friends is surrounded by bamboo forests, which is a common thing to see in Shanlinxi.
To finish this day trip, we head to Zhushan to try a new Tea House, it is called A Tea Co. where we try different teas produced in this area, and also a traditional Muzha TieKuanYin.
Here we are welcomed by our friends from Zhushan!
This way we finish our 3 days trip through tea gardens, factories and tea houses. An incredible experience, that yield plenty of teachings and experiences.
We cannot wait to share all of them with you!
Do you want to experience something similar? Or maybe have an idea to try in Taiwan?
We have prepared truly unique experiences for tea lovers, contact us and we will organize a tour though tea gardens, factories and tea houses specially design for you in the heart of Taiwan.
