Yi Ming Tea Garden tea maker Lin Yuping carries on the good taste of tea

Lin Yuping, the person in charge of Yi Ming Tea Garden, likes to call herself a "tea maker". Growing up in her family's own tea garden in the homeland of Oriental Beauty tea, she developed impressive tea-picking skills, yet she also fully came to know the bittersweet realities of running a tea garden. She studied medical technology in university, and after graduating she naturally stayed in a big city working as an office employee in a large hospital. It was not until she could no longer bear the life of rotating night shifts and days and nights turned upside down that the last straw came: the shock of facing a patient dying before her eyes for the first time.

 

At that time, 25-year-old Lin Yuping resolutely fled the city, chose to return to her hometown, and became the last disciple of 70-year-old master tea maker Huang Wenwei. Now, nearly 30 years later, speaking of her decision to return home back then, Lin Yuping frankly says it was good for her spirit. She considers herself suited to being "wild-released" in nature, letting body, mind and spirit return to a natural state without being squeezed. But as far as real income goes, it was negative, because farming with a conscience makes it hard to earn big money.

 

Lin Yuping is grateful for the help given by many benefactors along the way. She recalls that during the three years she spent learning tea making from Huang Wenwei, when her master observed the weather and issued the instruction, "The north wind has started, hurry and bring the tea leaves back in," Lin Yuping pressed him: "Why?" but got no answer.

 

When after heavy rain the next day brought bright sunshine, Huang Wenwei instructed: "Today you must sun all the fresh tea leaves until they turn red." Knowing nothing, Lin Yuping asked: "Why did we sun them for half a day yesterday, and today we have to sun them for a whole day?" Again there was no answer. Lin Yuping had no choice but to record everything carefully, accumulating over three years a thick stack of A4 paper "sayings." Only later did she realize they were priceless treasures, carrying on a lifetime of experience from the old master tea maker.

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Under Huang Wenwei's guidance, the diligently learning Lin Yuping began entering tea-making competitions in Miaoli County, and in 1996 she won the special prize for on-site tea making held by the Miaoli County Farmers' Association. After that, she went on to set an unbeaten record of winning the championship year after year for more than ten consecutive years. She even swept all the awards from first class, second class and third class to one plum blossom, two plum blossoms and three plum blossoms, a full "one-stop" of every prize, becoming a constant winner on the tea-making competition circuit.

 

During that period, she also crossed over to compete in Hsinchu County, winning awards two years in a row, until the organizers explicitly banned cross-county and cross-city participation.

 

In 2017, with support from the Miaoli Innovation Program carried out by ITRI's Industry Service Center, Yi Ming Tea Garden launched a postcard-style cultural and creative tea card portable pack, which instantly made the brand well known. Even Shanghai rushed to place orders for it. Among them, one product, "Rose Sea Salt Tea," comes from a story Lin Yuping remembers about her grandmother.

 

She says that in earlier years her grandmother would strictly forbid tea pickers from touching sweets. She would also personally prepare a large pot of tea with salt added for the tea-picking workers, so that the sweating pickers could replenish sodium and avoid heatstroke throughout the day.

 

Lin Yuping then incorporated the life wisdom of her forebears into the design of cultural and creative products.