Study at a Tea Nursery

TOST 2011-2-3, three years in a row, we have arranged our members to visit Hong Hsing Tea Nursery at Nantou County. It is a lot easier to understand the tea cultivars right at a tea nursery. Finding out what cultivars are demanding by farmers and what types of teas they are working on... Thanks to our host, Mr. Kang for his patience and guidance. We are grateful to those scientists and farmers who have done marvelous R&D on this island. Taiwan does have many great cultivars that are suitable for making various teas...and most importantly grow well in certain tea districts with relative climate and soil condition. We also learned that certain licensee fees are involved on the deals of patented cultivars, which is more than fair and with good practice.

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2013 TOST - Visit Hong Hsin Tea Nursery

2012 TOST - Visit Hong-Hsin Tea Nursery (10/23/2012)

Mr. Kang, the owner of Hong-Hsin Tea Nursery is waiting for our arrival.  We are grateful to his kindness to open his tea nursery for our 2012 TOST friends.  Some farmers are having their own tea plants to be cloned in their own gardens.  Yet, most farmers will purchase healthy tea plants from the tea nurseries.  Hong-Sing might be the largest tea nursery in the Nantou tea district, and our instructor Mr. Steve Huang is a good friend, and that is why we are able to study cloning the tea plants here.  So many baby tea plants...and we can tell from his nursery's arrangement to judge what kind of cultivars are popular and why...

2011 TOST - Our first stop: Wenshan Farm (10/17/2011)

Day 1. Beginning at 8am, we departed from our "official home" - Dongwu Hotel, head for Wenshan Farm. All members are requested to wear Taiwan Tea aprons – our special TOST ‘uniform’.

In the bus, we first studied on a map of Taiwan with special points of interests for tea enthusiastic travelers. (*We shall give Kirsten and Tea4U team a big credit to initiate the Taiwn tea map.)

At the Wenshan Farm, our old friend, Mr. Yen, who we have made a special request to get him as our designated guide greeted all of us eagerly. Right away, he geared us up and showed us a number of cultivars growing on the farm grounds. Everyone strapped on a tea-leaf collecting bamboo basket and hat. (This is a request form last year's group - so we all be able to dress up for fun and photos.)

I have asked Mr. Yen to teach and demo how to cut a tea branch to make a new plant. In order to get the exact same cultivar as the mother plant, it is important to cut the stem. Only one large leaf and a little sprout are kept on the branch. The branch is planted in good soil to grow a new plant. It usually takes a few years before the plant is ready to produce new leaves for making tea. We also were introduced the major cultivars in Taiwan - our members were all busy taking their notes while listening to these tea information. We did have chance to pluck some tea leaves there...and we shared the "butt tea" story from 2008 TOST... put the fresh leaves in pocket and wear them for the day, next morning, use these leaves (white tea) to infuse a pot of tea... One thing brought my attention - Taiwan tea fellows now treasure those old tea plants with better approach...they are taking care of old bushes, old tea plants for the cultural and educational study, and they are part of our history. This time, in Wenshan Farm, we have seen a few Assam tea plants that are over 100 years old are well taking care for visitors to see.

Cupping and discussion concluded our time at Wenshan Farm, we had total five different teas (3 grades of Pouchong, a Jade Oolong and one Brandy Oolong FB 27) for our cupping there.

2011 TOST - Visit Hong Hsin Tea Nursery (10/18/2011)

Visiting a tea nursery is a new adventure for our TOST program. It is indeed very exciting to see how the new tea plants are cloned. There are a few different methods of having new tea plants... by seedling (which might give the plantation some sorts of managing problem of inconsistency), by layering, or propagation by branch cutting... The nursery we are visitng - Hong-Hsin Tea Nursery in Mingjian, Nantou is one of the largest suppliers for tea plants with cutting propagation. This is our first stop to the central Taiwan, a long bus ride from Taipei. Steve Huang is waiting for us there, and he has a big laugh after he heard through the "rice wine bottled water" joke from our bus...
Mr. Kang is the owner of this nursery, a very nice gentleman. He and his family are working hard and happily there... how could you be not to see many new plants are growing... He explains to our members how the process and what kind of soil...also which cultivars are more popular... This is my first visit to the tea nursery, too.