The Council of Agriculture’s Tea Research and Extension Station (TRES) yesterday announced a new variety of tea called Taiwan Tea No. 24 that was developed from an indigenous tea plant dating to the Ice Age.
Known as the “Formosan landlocked salmon of Taiwanese tea,” Taiwan Tea No. 24 is the only purely indigenous variety of the Taiwan Tea series, station director Su Tsung-chen (蘇宗振) said.
Since 2000, the station’s Taitung branch has been conducting research on indigenous tea varieties on Taiping Mountain (太平山) in Taitung County’s Yanping Township (延平), he said.
Photo: Chien Hui-ju, Taipei Times
Using cutting propagation, researchers experimented with domestication, he said, adding that during the breeding period, they continued to explore the feasibility of growing tea plants native to mountainous regions on flat land.
The researchers searched for a native tea species on a mountain nearly 1,200m above sea level, said Yu Chin-an (余錦安), a research assistant at the station who worked on the project.
After 19 years, through various experimental procedures, single-seed selection and a series of comparative tests of superior strains, they have finally cultivated the plant, Yu said.
Taiwan Tea No. 24 is not only outwardly different from tea grown in the mountains in western parts of Taiwan, but also belongs to a different DNA group, the station said.
It is a variant of Camellia sinensis f. formosana and a plant left over from the Ice Age, it said.
It is highly resistant to disease and pests, and its advantages include having strong vigor and high yield, and tolerance to cold and drought, it added.
The aroma of the black tea it produces carries hints of mushroom, almonds and coffee, while the green tea has a citrusy flavor, the station said.
Analysis of its chemical composition showed that the caffeine content of Taiwan Tea No. 24 is far lower than that of Taiwan Tea No. 18 and other varieties, so drinking it would be unlikely to affect sleep quality, it said.
Its leaves contain high levels of free amino acids and relatively low levels of catechins, it said, adding that it can help “soothe the mind” and is less bitter.
The station is to apply for plant variety rights for the tea to initiate the process of technology transfer, it said.
Hualien and Taitung counties would be the first regions where the station promotes the variety, it said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods