At the end of 2024, a Ms. Ykitai who was studying anthropology in the Netherlands came to Taiwan. 

She is expected to visit in early 2025. She came to Taiwan for her thesis topic: Research on Taiwan Tea Culture. 

We met in Taiwan recently, and we have excerpted interesting discussions.

We talked extensively about Ms. Ykitai's questions.

Surprisingly, she found Lugu Township as the starting point for her thesis research and lived in Lugu for nearly two months.

We are very happy to meet such tea lovers who like Taiwan tea.

During the period, regarding Dongding Oolong and High Mountain Oolong, Ms. Ykitai mentioned:

I also understood from locals that Lugu and Dongding lost their status, with more and more high mountain plantations.

That gaoshan chá used to be 800meters, now it has to be at least 1000-1200 meters high.

Like you said, farmers leave to go to Alisha and Lishan. And young people go to the cities. There are mostly old people left on the village.

Duan Cha said：

Lugu, as the birthplace of Dong-ding oolong, I think this historical status has not changed much for a long time.

Some tea farmers in Lugu and Zhushan have inherited their father's business from son to son.

Duan Cha's products do not undergo any blending/mixing, and our technical team can maintain the same quality for 40 years, which is something we are very proud of it. 

Therefore, the excellent tea-making technology can be passed down.

In addition, the extremely closed sales channel is why it is so good.

That's reason why Taiwan high mountain oolong or Dong-ding oolong still maintains its market value.

Just like the skilled workers in Germany, they have established an apprenticeship system for hundreds of years. 

The technical watershed of Dong-ding oolong lies in the mastery of tea baking technology.

In Chinese, it means: high mountain tea must have a 底韻(dǐ-yùn ), it means "express the uniqueness of something".

The 底韻(dǐ-yùn ) is the soul of high mountain tea. Only when tea garden management and tea making technology are combined can the undertone be perfectly presented.

When Taiwan's economy became one of the Four Asian Tigers, around the 1990s, high mountain tea became a star product. The height of the mountain seemed to be a guarantee of price.

Even if it is high mountain oolong, I think it still must have the technique of Dong-ding oolong tea.

For meeting market demand, Some tea merchants or tea farmers will use a blending method, like blending whiskey or brandy, mixing proportions from different oak barrels or base liquors.

The consumers often have only heard of high mountain oolong tea, but it is difficult to distinguish the quality of it.

I believe that the technique of Dong-ding oolong should be preserved by all tea enthusiasts who are dedicated to promoting Taiwan tea.

They should strive to maintain the technical process and the cultural essence of Dong-ding oolong, as it is the cultural lifeline of Nantou, the largest tea-producing region in Taiwan.