Ages: 6-12
One of the things I wanted to do this trip was to take the kids to a tea house and experience tea tasting and learn how to brew Chinese tea. There are several places where you can do this in Taipei, 王德傳茶莊 or 新芳春茶行.
However, for an even better immersion experience, where you can learn all the vocabulary related to tea, different types of tea leaves and fermentation, I highly recommend a trip to a tea farm!
This activity is suitable for all ages. Older kids will be able to learn a lot of terminology while the younger kids can have a hands on experiences.
This organic tea farm is called 青山茶園民宿, in Yilan County. I messaged them through FB Messenger a week beforehand to reserve a tea picking experience at 11am for 5 kids. Each kid is $499. They told me it takes about 4 hours total.
The host speaks English. Or he kept trying to to our kids haha. He says he sometimes gives tours to foreign visitors. So yes, it’s a great Chinese immersion experience for the kids but you can make the tour arrangements in English!
採菁 Picking Tea Leaves
The experience is pretty low key. When we got there, first they brewed their famous 蜜香紅茶 for us, showing us the proper way to brew tea. I’m not one for black tea but this one had a very distinct honey fragrance which was delicious! The fragrance comes from a bug that eats its tea leaves and its tiny droppings!
They then took us to go pick tea leaves at their local plantation. The children learned that you need to pick 一心二葉, one new shoot plus 2 soft leaves, what that looks like.
See how the new shoots are lighter green and tender looking? That’s what you want. So in a way, tea leaves are perpetually available if you just wait for new shoots to come out. But, there are good times for picking leaves, like the tea fermented from Spring and Fall picking vs Summer.
The best tea is 春茶, Spring tea, according to the host. It took all of 15-30 minutes and he took tons of pics for us.
Then back to the main B&B, yes they’re actually a Bed and Breakfast place so you can stay overnight! They took us to the back and the kids learned the 4 steps in making green tea: 採菁 ，炒菁，揉捻，烘培； basically picking leaves, drying leaves, rolling it into a “ball” and then light roasting.
炒菁 Drying Tea Leaves
The first step after you pick tea is to dry the tea leaves. First we dumped it out onto a tray and made some faces.
Then over a low heat, the tea leaves are dried a little. I can’t remember if you ferment the tea before or after this step. The fermentation is what gives you oolong or black tea. White tea is when you do nothing but just wait for the leaves to naturally dry.
揉捻 Rolling and Shaping the Tea Leaves
Notice how the leaves are just a tiny bit withered now. Now we roll the leaves into a “ball”. Basically you’re moving your hands in a circle till the leaves are rolled up.
I was told that for those 高山茶 tea where the leaves come out super tiny rolled, they actually have roll the tea leaves into a big ball bag, super duper big, multiple times, for it to get that look.
烘培 Roasting the Tea Leaves
After the tea leaves are rolled into a ball, it’s time for the last step, roasting the tea leaves! This took the longest time and after awhile the kids were sent away to decorate bags, which will hold the roasted leaves.
As we slowly roasted the leaves, I chatted up the host – my favorite part of any activity. I had a fantastic time asking him all my questions about tea. Like what the differences are between 金萱茶 and 包種茶 and 高山茶? I learned that any tea leaves can be made into green tea, oolong, and black tea. And how the Taiwanese like to make oolong tea.
We also talked about the redevelopment of farm lands in Yilan from city folks. How housing prices doubled in the last 10 years after the completion of the long tunnel from Taipei.
Tada! The finished product! Cool right?
Tea Tasting
At the end, he took us back to the front and brewed me more types of tea to try. We said one tasted like chicken stock and another like 金桔. And I chatted with the host some more. Teehee.
We didn’t leave till 4.5 hours after our arrival.
Yilan is such a great day trip. You can rent a car for around $2300 a day and drive around. It’s nice to get out of the city for the day and look at the pretty greenery.