High mountain tea gardens tend to be small as tea farms go, at under 5 acres (217,800 square feet, around 2 hectares, or 20,234.3 square metres). As a result of a high altitude and small farms with a selective picking style, which is 2 or 3 leaves on the stem, there is a low yield of high mountain tea each year, and so they tend to be expensive.

The processing of high mountains teas is characterised by their being shaken on trays much less than for traditional oolongs, the heating step to stop oxidation (kill-green) is completed sooner and they have little to no roasting. High mountains teas are still hand-picked however, with three or four leaves and the stem. Some people think that any stem found in tea is a bad sign and will lead to bitterness, but for an oolong, it is important to include the stem so that the water can escape. It also allows you to see the picking style when the leaves expand on being brewed.

The tea farms are grown on the side of the mountain, and so tend to include steep paths on either side of the levels of rows of tea bushes, which grow on their own flat strip, so the effect is a little like a staircase. I was surprised when we first sourced tea that the farms were so steep as I had thought that all tea farms were flat, or on gently undulating ground. At a high altitude in Taiwan the reality is that the farms are very steep. You need a bit of a head for heights and occasionally for climbing too, as there don’t tend to be stairs and occasionally not much of a path between levels . Stairs have been built at Alishan but I suspect that those were built for the benefit of tourists.

Image: Copyright © 2018 Chessers Tea

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