How do you know you’re in the Island of Tea?
Well, not immediately, but when you check in to your hotel, and you walk around a bit, and notice that less than a block away at the street corner, there’s this
and this
and best of all
Did I mention this is all on the same street corner? And of course, within the same block and half radius, there’s at least two or three more shops that only sell tea.
But still, this could be just the one district where there are a bunch of tea shops. Well…. until you get back to your room, flip on the tv, do some channel surfing, and while doing so, finding that two of the tv shopping networks sell tea (among more normal things, like women’s underwear). Yes, they sell tea via tv.
In retrospect, I really should’ve recorded it via video, but I’ll spare you the hard sell, since it involves a lot of yelling about how great a deal is. The first channel was selling puerh.
As you can see, only 3 and half minutes remaining, so I didn’t catch the initial pitch. In any case, they were too excited about this amazing deal to actually tell me how much tea they were selling for the price they were quoting, and they had to keep reminding me how there’s only a few minutes left. From this chart, I figured the following:
It seems like they were claiming that they had this great cake from year 2000, somehow broke it up and made them into mini-tuos – don’t ask me how, why, or whether that’s even possible. Anyway, that’s the claim, and for the low, low price of 1980 NT (about $60 USD) you can get a can of these minituos. If you buy five! You can even get a free ceramic cup! In case you want to see what cake it is:
As the last line said, the preciousness of this tea does not need to be said.
The other channel was selling something a little more conventional
Yes, Cuifeng, in Hehuan Mountain, winter harvest. What sounds like half a jin (300g) for 2760 NT, about 90 USD, which is really not very cheap at all. To prove that it’s really high, they of course had to bring out the maps
Oh, and if you buy 4 jins total, they’d give you a free 4oz sampler of the same tea!
Yes, welcome to Taiwan.
11 responses so far ↓
Nancy@livininthegreen // December 12, 2013 at 11:57 am |
Ha ha! Love it! Sounds like an amazing time and love the photos too!
John Grebe // December 12, 2013 at 1:30 pm |
Grandpa? Wow you mean to tell us that the fame of your teaching upon grandpa style tea has spread all the way to the Island of Tea.
MarshalN // December 12, 2013 at 8:31 pm |
Hah, I wish!
psychanaut // December 12, 2013 at 5:06 pm |
I think I’ve been to that Grandpa place. Not too far from main station, right?
MarshalN // December 12, 2013 at 8:31 pm |
Correct
passingby // December 27, 2013 at 7:21 am |
MarshalN: I wonder if you can share some addresses of the the interesting tea places to visit? I bought myself a ticket to taipei but has little clue what is the best place to stay or visit.
MarshalN // December 27, 2013 at 7:52 am |
If you don’t know Taipei at all, and assuming you don’t have weeks to spend, I’d suggest places in the Yongkang area – they’re more expensive but are friendly to tourists, and the area has nice food and other things to do as well. There’s probably at least a dozen teashops there.
passingby // December 27, 2013 at 8:45 am |
I don’t know Taipei at all, first trip in more than 10 years. Where is a convenient area to stay, hotel-wise? Only 4 days. 🙂
MarshalN // December 27, 2013 at 8:52 am |
Uh, you should really ask your travel agent, or search online for that. Taipei in general is pretty convenient so long as you don’t stay way out of the city center.
passingby // December 27, 2013 at 8:46 am |
Just to add, at least no language problem. Asking and looking should get me where I want to go.
Mike // February 14, 2014 at 1:51 am |
Hi, I’m an American living in Taiwan. I’ve lived here for about 4 years and I love the tea too. I brew my own tea but I also love the tea shops here. I’ve started a blog focusing on bubble tea in Taiwan. http://www.taiwanteaology.com
-Mike