Oriental Beauty tea wins UK 3-star award: Chang Chia-chi goes from pilot to champion tea maker
According to a Wealth Magazine report, Chang Chia-chi's business cards and tea bags feature a sailing ship with a teapot as its hull, printed with "Formo Cha TAIWAN 1869." Why 1869? "Because that was the year Taiwan tea first stepped onto the world stage." He gazes at the round label on the tea can reading "Great Test 2020" with two stars and smiles: "The 2021 label hasn't arrived yet. It took me 3 years to finish drawing this ship!"
In 1869, several major events marked humanity's timeline: the opening of the Suez Canal and the completion of the U.S. transcontinental railroad. And in Taiwan, the Dodd & Co. trading firm, a collaboration between "the father of Taiwan oolong tea," Scottish merchant John Dodd, and "the father of Taiwan tea," Li Chun-sheng, loaded 203,000 pounds of "Formosa Oolong" onto two sailing ships and set off for New York, causing a sensation and making a name overnight, establishing Taiwan tea's place on the world stage: a refined, unflavored, pure tea beverage, a high-priced signature drink crafted by highly skilled tea makers.
"At British tea exchange events, no explanation is needed. They immediately say, oh! I know Taiwan, I know Formosa Tea, very expensive, very delicious..." Chang Chia-chi began competing on the world stage in 2018, and the first contest he threw himself into was the UK's "Great Test Awards." Founded in 1994 by the British Food Association and widely recognized as the world's largest food flavor evaluation competition, Chang Chia-chi returned empty-handed the first time, but in his second year he came back and won medals for 3 consecutive years.
A Young Man Returns Home with Grand Ambitions — Competing on the International Stage
Wealth Magazine analysis shows that the 2021 competition featured over 14,000 products from 108 countries, judged blind by 355 food industry professionals from around the world. Chang Chia-chi's "Flora" and "Luna" Oriental Beauty teas won the highest 3-star award. In the single-estate tea category, only 3 entries received 3-star awards, and Chang Chia-chi entered two teas and hit the mark with both, setting a new record in the competition's 25-year history; the other was a Darjeeling black tea from the UK's Teafields company.
"If you're going to compete, compete in the hardest one," Chang Chia-chi says. "Maybe it's about wanting to prove something. Young people returning home face all kinds of difficulties, and you always want to prove yourself before you can feel at peace." Before this, he had entered the 2016 and 2017 Miaoli Red Black Tea competitions. He won nothing the first year, and although he received a medal the second year, the judge said at the award ceremony: "Seeing a young person willing to come home and make tea, we encourage you, let you take a medal home." The elder's affection for a young person returning home was heartwarming, but he felt quite unconvinced.
According to a Wealth Magazine report, Chang Chia-chi was born into a family that manufactures tea-roasting equipment. Most of the tea-making machines along Provincial Highway 3 come from their family factory. From his grandfather Chang Chien-yeh to his father Chang Mu-jung, owner of Ming Yang Tea Shop, the family not only designs and builds tea-making machinery and equipment but also makes and sells tea. His childhood dream was to fly airplanes. He learned to fly in Australia, and his accumulated flight hours were already enough to obtain a commercial pilot's license, but before reaching that final mile, he pulled back and returned home to help make tea.