When the British came to Taiwan in the 1860s, they made Formosa Oolong an international star and Taipei's Dadaocheng (大稻埕) and Tamsui (淡水) into prosperous tea-exporting centers. But the art of brewing and serving tea remained the possession of Chinese elites, who fostered a form of sophisticated tea brewing, often called kungfu tea (功夫茶), which originated in China's Fujian and Guangdong Provinces. Then the Japanese came, promoting the planting of black tea, and introducing Japanese and European tastes to local tea palate.
Fast-forward to Taiwan's economic boom in the 1980s. The popularity of tea drinking grew at a thundering pace as teahouses sprang up and new tea-preparation skills and etiquettes developed out of the kungfu tea tradition. From all of these factors, a distinct Taiwanese tea culture gradually emerged, and has since spread to Chinese communities across Asia. It even had an influence on China's tea culture revival in the 1990s.
The history of tea can easily be pick up from Ho Chien (何健), founder of Yeh Tang (冶堂), a tea space situated on a quiet alley off Yungkang Street (永康街). Having studied Taiwan's tea culture and history for the past 20 years, Ho has made his establishment into a Taiwan tea gallery showcasing a collection of folk antiques. While perhaps not museum-grade, they nevertheless preserve the collective memory and experience of tea drinking in Taiwan. It is a homey setting where visitors can calm the mind, have time with themselves and sip various local teas.
"To me, drinking tea is a way of life, an attitude toward life. It helps you to gain an insight into your relations with people, things and nature ... . There is no superior or inferior way with tea. If you are willing to explore its world, you can learn a lot. But if you are not, it's simply a good way to quench the thirst," said the tea connoisseur and historian.
Tea gets a still more philosophical interpretation at Teng (藤居), run by cultural luminary Chou Yu (周渝). It features rare antique tea dating as far back as the 1920s, organic tea and curios made by respected tea-makers such as Chen A-chiao (陳阿蹺), as well as antique furniture dating back to the Qing Dynasty. Chou sees tea drinking as an integral part of Daoism, Confucianism and Chinese Buddhism — a means of self-cultivation. He is a self-taught specialist in old pu'er teas, and since 2003 has worked with tea growers in China's Yunnan Province to make teas in accordance with revived ancient techniques.
As any tea connoisseur will know, tea, like red wine, is alive and constantly changing, allowing drinkers to relish a huge variety of flavors depending on preservation and preparation. "Hold the tea in the mouth, take a breath, let the imagination roam and you can see the landscape where the plant is grown," said Chou, demonstrating how to appreciate tea's natural elements.
Compared to new teas, Chou believes old tea has a more cultural dimension — the sense of time lends the drink significances as a cultural carrier, and the tea's history serves as the starting point from which people learn to reflect and cultivate the mind and soul.
"There is always some part of our past we don't want to face and our lives are very often twisted or oppressed by our personal histories. I believe that from old tea we can learn to keep an aesthetic distance from the past and be able to gain insights into the way of things," Chou said.
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