Taiwanese tea culture

Taiwanese tea culture includes tea arts, traditional tea ceremonies, and the social aspects of tea consumption. While the most common teas consumed in Taiwan are oolongs, especially Taiwanese oolongs such as Alishan and Lishan. Black, red and green teas are also popular. Many of the classical arts can be seen in the tea culture, such as calligraphy, flower arts, and incense arts. Most people in Taiwan drink tea, and tea serves not only as a drink, but also as a part of the culture. The tea culture of Taiwan can be traced back to its roots in Chinese tea culture. Many people visit one of the numerous traditional tea houses or "tea-arts" shops, located all over Taiwan.

The island's tea arts are Chinese that have been influenced by western culture. Gongfu tea ceremony is informally referred to as laoren cha, or "old man tea", which originated in China and has flourished in Taiwan.

Over three hundred years ago, the first wild tea trees were discovered in Taiwan. However these trees which were found in the wild were not grown on an estate or grown specifically for consumption as most teas are nowadays. Only two hundred years ago, Taiwanese people took tea trees from the Wuyi Mountains in the Fujian province to Taiwan and planted them in the North of Taiwan. After that, Taiwan began cultivating tea trees in tea gardens and producing tea from them. Taiwan has a climate which is one of the best for cultivating tea trees in the entire world, with high mountain ranges, a lot of sun and precipitation. Because of Taiwan's geography and climate, Taiwanese teas are some the best teas in the world. Taiwan produces green teas, Bau Jong tea (known in the Western World as Bau Jhong tea), Oolong teas, black teas and others. Taiwan Bau Jong tea and Taiwan Oolong tea are indeed famous throughout the world.

In 1868, English merchant John Dodd employed Chinese tea masters from the Fuijian province to start a tea processing shop in Taipei, so that they could successfully complete the entire tea manufacturing process from within Taiwan instead of having to complete the manufacturing process in China.

In the next year, 1869, John Dodd began shipping Formosa Oolong tea to the United States. In fact, he shipped 127 tonnes of the Formosa Oolong which was brand new and completely unheard of at the time to America where it became a great success and grew in such popularity that from that time on, Taiwanese tea was then exported to Europe and other countries around the world.

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