The History of Tea in Taiwan: From Wild Mountain Tea to Export Plantations

Tea is a beverage made from the leaves of the tea plant. Whether the tea plant (Camellia sinensis) originated in China is not yet settled, but tea culture originated in China.

Chinese people understood how to drink tea very early on; tea was originally a medicine, and later became a beverage. Tea drinking became widespread in China starting from the Tang Dynasty, when the tea scholar Lu Yu wrote the world's first monograph on tea, the Classic of Tea. Since ancient times, China has developed a culture of growing, processing, and drinking tea, with four major tea-producing regions: the Southern Region, the Southwest Region, the Southern Yangtze Region, and the Northern Yangtze Region. Among these, the climate of the Southern Region is most suitable for tea plant growth; in particular, Fujian has many hills and became an important tea-producing region in China.

Before the British began large-scale tea planting in Assam and Darjeeling in northeastern India in the mid-19th century, Chinese tea dominated the world market, and was especially popular among the upper classes in Europe and America.

When did tea cultivation begin in Taiwan? It is generally said to have started in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when Fujian immigrants introduced tea plants from their home region and planted them in the hilly areas of the Tamsui River basin in northern Taiwan. However, according to Taiwanese folk contract documents, entries for "tea gardens" and "tea bushes" already existed in the 1770s.

In addition, there are records of tea cultivation in Taiwan during the Dutch period, which suggests that Taiwan's tea-growing history should be more than 3 to 400 years. It is generally believed that all Taiwanese tea varieties were introduced from China, but in fact Taiwan's mountainous areas originally had wild tea plants, though yields were very low because harvesting was difficult.

Did Shuishalian produce good tea since ancient times? Taiwan's wild tea plants

According to records from 1644 to 1645 in the Dutch Dagregister van Batavia, "tea plants" (modern Dutch: Theebomkens) were discovered in Taiwan, possibly the earliest record of Taiwan's wild tea plants. Qing Dynasty documents about Taiwan all state that Taiwan's wild tea plants were found in the mountains of "Shuishalian," which refers to the area around present-day Yuchi Township and Puli Township centered on Sun Moon Lake.

Dutch documents record that Chinese people had already entered Nantou (Lamtau), Caotun (Paktau), and Shuishalian (Serrien). From this perspective, the Taiwanese tea plants mentioned in the Dagregister van Batavia may well have been the wild tea plants of Shuishalian.

The Qing-era Zhuluo County Gazetteer (1717) says: "In the inner mountains of Shuishalian, tea is abundant, with a distinctive flavor and a green color like songluo tea. The mountain valleys are deep and steep, and the climate is severely cold; it can dispel heat and reduce bloating. However, the roads are perilous, and there is fear of the indigenous people, so Han Chinese dare not enter to harvest it, nor do they know the methods of tea processing. If someone brought those skilled in making Wuyi varieties, purchased it from the indigenous people after they harvested it, and processed it, the fragrance and flavor would surely be even better."[3]

From 18th-century and other Qing Dynasty documents, it is clear that Chinese immigrants in Taiwan knew very early on that Taiwan had wild mountain tea, and went on to harvest and roast it. They also understood the taste, properties, and medicinal effects of mountain tea, and said it ranked as a fine tea.

In the Qing dynasty, Zhu Shijie's Xiaoliuqiu Manzhi (1765) mentions "Shuishalian tea": "Shuishalian Mountain is within the jurisdiction of Zhuluo County, and has ten indigenous communities... The inner mountains produce abundant tea... Whenever guests come to Fuzhou, the provincial capital, the people of the capital immediately ask for Shuishalian tea, because it can treat dysentery with blood and mucus as if by divine effect." The Qing-era Tang Zangun's Taiyang Jianwen Lu (1891) also discusses "Shuishalian tea": "Its nature is extremely cold; it is most effective in treating heat disorders and can bring out smallpox."

From this, it can be seen that during the Qing Dynasty, Taiwan's wild mountain tea was roasted and processed, but production was limited, so when people in the provincial capital of Fuzhou met visitors from Taiwan, they often asked for Shuishalian tea, because it could treat "dysentery with blood and mucus" (in traditional Chinese medicine, referring to pus and blood in the stool). In addition, Taiwan's wild mountain tea, being extremely cold in nature, could dispel heat toxins and eliminate smallpox. Today, Taiwan's wild mountain tea has been confirmed as a native Taiwanese species, and in 2009 was formally named "Taiwan mountain tea" (Camellia sinensis f. formosana).

According to information from the official website of the Forestry Research Institute under the Council of Agriculture: Taiwan mountain tea belongs to the Theaceae family, Camellia genus, and is an evergreen small tree with large leaves. It can grow up to 8 meters tall, and individual trees can live over a hundred years. It is mainly distributed in mountainous areas of Nantou, Yunlin, Chiayi, Kaohsiung, Pingtung, and Taitung at elevations of 700 to 1,600 meters. Green tea made from Taiwan mountain tea has an elegant aroma and a fresh, sweet taste, and its antioxidant capacity and catechin content are notably superior to commercially available green tea. In recent years, Taiwan mountain tea has received attention and generated market demand, leading to incidents of illegal harvesting; the government has adopted a bidding system to control harvesting in order to protect the forests.

Qing-era tea processing: Northern Taiwan was the important tea-producing area

From the 18th century onward, more and more Chinese people came to northern Taiwan to reclaim land, with rice as the main crop, along with a small amount of sugarcane and tea. By the late 18th century, Fujian immigrants began introducing tea plants from the Wuyi Mountains of Fujian to northern Taiwan, planting them in the hilly areas of the Tamsui River and its tributaries, the Xindian River, Dahan River, and Keelung River, and bringing in Fujian's tea-roasting techniques.

According to Qing-era Taiwanese documents, during the Qianlong reign (1736 to 99), tea gardens already existed in Guishan, Taoyuan. In the late Qianlong period, Fujian people were already renting land to grow tea in the Shenkeng and Muzha areas of Taipei. During the Jiaqing reign (1796 to 1820), a Fujian man named Ke Chao had a bountiful tea harvest in the Ruifang area of Taipei, which further spurred a wave of tea cultivation.

In the first year of the Daoguang reign (1821), tea was also extensively planted in Daxi, Taoyuan, and Xindian, Taipei. In the 1820s, the tea-processing industry in northern Taiwan gradually flourished, and tea merchants began selling Taiwanese tea to Fuzhou and Xiamen. In the late Qing period, the rise of new industries, tea and camphor, in northern Taiwan shifted Taiwan's industrial center of gravity from southern Taiwan to northern Taiwan.

Taiwanese tea being exported to Europe and America was a matter of historical circumstance. In the early 17th century, the Dutch shipped Chinese tea to Europe. From the 18th century onward, Britain became a major tea-drinking nation, which also influenced the North American colonies, including the United States, to import large quantities of Chinese tea.

After the United States declared independence in 1776, it continuously sent ships to China to purchase tea. Tea's share of imported goods rose year by year, exceeding fifty percent by the 1830s, and demand for Chinese tea grew ever greater. As a result, American public opinion began to advocate growing tea in Taiwan, which would greatly reduce demand for Chinese tea and prevent Chinese tea from being held back as a rare commodity at high prices. By the 1850s, some American naval officers, diplomats, and merchants even advocated that the United States buy or occupy Taiwan.

In 1858, the Qing signed the Treaty of Tientsin with the United States, Britain, and France, opening Anping and Tamsui in Taiwan as international ports, which allowed the British merchant John Dodd to see the opportunity to sell Taiwanese tea directly to the United States.

John Dodd came to northern Taiwan in 1865 to investigate tea cultivation, and in 1866 introduced the "Oolong" tea variety from Anxi, Quanzhou, Fujian. He encouraged tea farmers to grow it with loans and purchased all the tea leaves. In 1867, after Dodd shipped the tea to Fuzhou for processing and successfully sold it to Australia, he opened a "tea house" in Bangka, Taipei, to research tea processing and brought in tea-processing technicians from Xiamen and Fuzhou.

In 1869, John Dodd led two steamships loaded with more than 127,000 kilograms of Taiwanese tea, sailing directly from Tamsui to New York for sale. This was the first time Taiwanese tea was shipped directly abroad for sale. Branded as Formosa Tea, Taiwanese tea succeeded in test sales in the United States, opening up international recognition for Taiwanese tea.

The Taiwanese oolong tea that was popular in Europe and America in the late Qing period was likely made into a fully fermented tea (black tea system) catering to Western markets, different from the semi-fermented oolong tea that Taiwanese people loved after the war. However, some believe that the oolong tea exported from Taiwan to Europe and America in the late Qing period was Baihao Oolong, with a fermentation level of seventy percent. In any case, it was still rather different from the oolong tea that has been popular since the postwar period.

Tea processing in the Japanese era: The foundation of Taiwanese black tea

In the early Japanese era, the Taiwan Governor-General's Office recognized the economic value of Taiwan's tea industry and immediately began systematizing and mechanizing it, establishing tea processing and tea plant cultivation experiment stations, tea inspection offices, and tea industry training institutes to promote the development of Taiwanese tea. Taiwan's tea plant cultivation area and tea production increased greatly.

Building on the foundation of Taiwan's Qing-era tea industry, the Japanese continued to develop new oolong tea varieties and exported them internationally under the brand Formosa Oolong Tea. In addition, the Japanese introduced the Assam black tea variety from India, and after successful cultivation, exported it internationally under the brand Formosa Black Tea, competing with Indian tea and Ceylon tea. (Editor's note: Jiang A-xin's dedication to black tea in "Tea Gold Years" was related to the Japanese emphasis on black tea cultivation and export.)

In the late Japanese era, World War II broke out and Japan entered the war. Due to a lack of labor and food, Taiwan's tea gardens were either converted to growing food crops or abandoned because of the lack of manpower, causing Taiwan's tea industry to shrink drastically.

The development of Taiwan's tea culture after the war

In the early postwar period, although Taiwan's tea gardens began to revive, due to low production and international competition, Taiwanese tea gradually shifted mainly to the domestic market. Oolong tea continued to develop, while black tea nearly ceased production because Taiwanese people were not accustomed to drinking it.

However, with Taiwan's economic development and rising prosperity, tea art houses and tourist tea gardens appeared in various places, Taiwan's tea culture flourished, and Taiwanese tea products became increasingly diversified.

Oolong tea types: In the central and southern regions there is Dong Ding Oolong tea, and in the north there are Baozhong tea, Tieguanyin tea, and Baihao Oolong tea (Oriental Beauty tea). In the 1990s, production of "high-mountain tea" grown and processed at elevations above 1,000 meters was "elevated."

Black tea types: After the 921 earthquake in 1999, Yuchi Township in Nantou County chose to make a fresh start with the Japanese-era black tea industry. In particular, the new variety "Taiwan Tea No. 18," bred from Taiwan wild mountain tea (known locally in history as Shuishalian tea) and the Burmese large-leaf tea variety, was named "Ruby," and won great acclaim for its excellent quality, driving the revival of Taiwan's black tea industry.

In addition, Taiwan also began producing green tea, as well as the native Taiwan mountain tea.