Written by Chen Chih-hao.
Translated by Fang Why-fu.
Image credit: Tea Workers During the Busy Harvest Season in Northern Taiwan, 1937. Courtesy of SMC Publishing Inc (南天書局).
When Did Taiwan Tea Emerge?
Most well-known varieties of Taiwan tea—such as Oolong, Baozhong, and black teas—originally had their tea seedlings brought over from Fujian province in China. Yet, through the long-term efforts of tea farmers and merchants in research and refinement since the nineteenth century, Taiwan tea has developed its own distinct flavour and story.
The rise of Taiwan tea was related to migration from the Fujian and Guangdong provinces. Starting around the seventeenth century, the number of immigrants from these provinces gradually increased. Because tea-drinking culture was already highly developed in Fujian and Guangdong, these immigrants brought both the habit of tea drinking and tea cultivation techniques with them to Taiwan. However, before the late nineteenth century, tea was neither a taxable nor officially managed commodity in the Qing Empire’s fiscal system. Because of this, there is barely any official record of it. We can only deduce from private land contracts that, by the late eighteenth century at the latest, tea plantations had already spread across northern Taiwan. It wasn’t until the mid-nineteenth century that the Draft Gazetteer of Tamsui Subprefecture (淡水廳誌) noted that tea was produced in large quantities in the Taipei area and sold to places like Lukang and Tainan. This indicates that in its early days, Taiwan tea primarily served the local domestic market. [Source: Zheng Yongxi, comp., Tanshui Ting-chih Kao (Draft Gazetteer of Tanshui Subprefecture), vol. 2. Nantou: Historical Research Commission of Taiwan Province, 1988, p. 152.]
In the late nineteenth century, in response to foreign demands, multiple ports in Taiwan were integrated into the treaty port system. In that sense, Taiwan tea pivoted from a domestically orientated product to a global export market. Foreign merchants continued using their historical name for Taiwan—Formosa—to brand Taiwan tea, giving rise to “Formosa Oolong Tea.” Subsequently, to adapt to the changing demands of the global market, other variations such as Baozhong and black tea were put into production. The reputation of Taiwan tea thus spread worldwide alongside its expanding export footprint. Over the past two hundred years, aside from familiar regions like Europe, the Americas, and Southeast Asia, Taiwan tea’s export reach has even extended to North Africa and the Middle East.
Image credit: Tea Plantations and Women Tea Pickers in the Tatun Mountain Region, 1895. Source: George Uvedale Price, Reminiscences of North Formosa. Yokohama: Kelly & Walsh, 1895. Katherine Golden Bitting Collection on Gastronomy, Library of Congress. Courtesy of the National Center of Photography and Images, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (licensed image).
Image credit: Mochizuki’s Tea-Rolling Machine, 1914. Source: Takeuchi Sadayoshi, Taiwan (Taipei: Taiwan Nichinichi Shinpōsha, 1914), p. 229. Courtesy of the National Taiwan University Library (licensed image).
Formosa Tea and Taiwanese Society
Taiwan tea’s production originally centred in northern Taiwan, giving rise to the well-known saying, “Sugar in the South, Tea in the North.” From a historical perspective, the rise of the tea industry in the nineteenth century coincided with a period when Taiwan’s social order was gradually stabilising. On the one hand, while immigrants from Anxi (Southern Fujian) are best known for running the tea business, their participation was not limited to a single group. Immigrants from Tong’an in Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, and Guangdong, and even the Plains Indigenous peoples of Taiwan, all participated in the tea industry. On the other hand, as the tea industry thrived, the armed feuds in the northern hilly areas started to dissipate; the historically frequent Fujian-Guangdong feuds and other sub-ethnic feuds (分類械鬥 fenlei xiedou) slowly disappeared. The development of the tea business did not lead to large-scale conflicts over resource competition; on the contrary, it frequently fostered collaboration among different ethnic groups. Moreover, tea manufacturing is a highly labour-intensive industry. Both harvesting and processing demand significant human effort. Therefore, communities engaged in the tea industry developed strong internal cohesion and maintained close cooperation with their neighbours. For instance, in places like Tamsui and Sanzhi—former hubs of northern Taiwan’s tea production—cross-village rotational worship of male deities such as Angkong (尪公) and Baosheng Dadi (保生大帝) was closely connected to the development of the local tea industry.
However, the rise of the Taiwan tea industry also brought multiple export challenges and crises. For instance, during the Japanese colonial period, Oolong tea experienced severe sales stagnation and price crashes. To cope with these crises, tea farmers and merchants, with support from the authorities, introduced various innovations and reforms. Local tea farmers formed tea associations or companies, pooling regional resources to manufacture tea cooperatively and even purchasing machinery to elevate overall quality. Meanwhile, official and civilian entities actively promoted lectures and training on tea-processing techniques. Through the dedication of local tea masters, farmers and merchants gained the ability to produce a wider range of products, including Oolong and Baozhong, thereby allowing the quality of Taiwan tea to steadily improve. In the 1930s, the Japanese government began promoting black tea production in Taiwan. Beyond experimenting with Ceylon black tea plantations in Yuchi, they encouraged tea farmers island-wide to produce their own black tea. In areas now known as Shimen and Sanzhi in New Taipei City, local farmers at the time modified their original tea varieties (such as the Yingzhi Hongxin, or “Hard-stem Red-heart” 硬枝紅心) to produce and sell black tea. This transition not only expanded the varieties of Taiwan tea but also laid the foundational research for contemporary renowned products like the Taiwan Ruby and Hongyun black teas (TTES No. 18 and No. 21). Even though Taiwan tea has faced various challenges, the continuous adaptation and technological innovation of its people have ensured the industry’s survival, demonstrating the robust resilience of Taiwanese society.
Image credit: Interior of the Kuanhsi Black Tea Manufacturing Factory. Source: Taiwan News Agency, Commemorative Volume of the 1935 Taiwan Exposition (Taichung: Taiwan News Agency, 1935), 61. Courtesy of the National Taiwan University Library (licensed image).
Transitioning into Cultural and Creative Products
Driven by rapid industrialisation and urbanisation, tea production in northern Taiwan faded from the historical stage in the late twentieth century. The industry pivoted toward the mountainous regions of central and southern Taiwan. Teas branded by their mountain origins—such as Alishan and Dayuling High-Mountain Oolong—took centre stage and became the high-end commodities of Taiwan tea.
This geographical shift in production also reflects two contemporary developmental trends. For one, after the 1980s, Taiwan tea gradually transitioned from an export-focused industry back to a domestic one. During this time, teahouses, tea culture promotion, and the concept of “drinking tea for health” (including tea products marketed for weight loss) became widely familiar. Phenomena such as visiting Muzha’s Maokong to drink tea, displaying tea sets in the living room, or chatting over freshly brewed tea under a tree or in a temple courtyard are all reflections of the industry’s inward pivot. Food companies also began imitating Japanese canned tea production, enabling longer shelf life and wider retail distribution.
Most importantly, the globally famous bubble tea is an innovation born from this exact domestic turn. Not only has it become a must-try drink for foreign tourists visiting Taiwan, but it has also been exported worldwide, serving as a trademark of Taiwanese culture. Additionally, facing fierce competition in the export market, Taiwan tea began elevating its added value, eventually transitioning into the realm of cultural and creative products. Today, whether in general retail shops or bookstores, we can easily find Taiwan tea housed in highly fashionable and design-centric packaging—a clear visualisation of this enhanced added value.
Through the persistent efforts of its people, Taiwan tea is steadily brewing its own flavours, cultural characteristics, and stories. And the recently acclaimed TV series Gold Leaf (茶金), inspired by the life of Hsinchu Beipu tea merchant Chiang A-Hsin, is a prominent work that draws directly on Taiwan’s rich tea history.
Image credit: 臺北州製茶巡迴教師謝泉的聘任文書（謝國村、謝宜良提供） – Appointment Document of Hsieh Ch’üan, Itinerant Tea Instructor for Taihoku Prefecture. Courtesy of Hsieh, Kuo-Tsai (謝國材) and Hsieh, I-Liang (謝宜良). Photograph by Chen Chih-hao.
Author: Chen Chih-hao is Director and Associate Professor at the Institute of Taiwan History, National Taiwan Normal University. He is a specialist in Qing-era Taiwan and historical geography, with particular attention to the historical transformation of foothill and hill regions. His works include The Reclamation and Frontier Society of Qing Northern Taiwan and The Black Tea of Caoshan: A History of Tea Cultivation in Yangmingshan National Park, 1830–1990.
Translator: Fang Whyfu is a doctoral candidate in History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His research focuses on environmental history in the early modern period, centring on the Qing Empire’s littoral resource management and daily lives in the long nineteenth century. He is currently working on his dissertation, tentatively titled “The Qing Empire’s Island Laboratory: Environmental Volatility and Experimental Statecraft in Taiwan, 1788–1895”.