One Person, One Tea: A Tea Master's Revolutionary Rhapsody

On the shelves of Yunfang Tea Garden sits a tea called Cicada Tea, quietly on sale for over two decades. The tea got its name from the elegant process of small green leafhopper feeding. It highlights the purity and natural balance of the tea garden. With its unique cigar-like shape, the tea was once considered a bold innovation in tea marketing. Later, Yunfang elevated Taiwanese tea to a new level by launching its Yunfun Premium Brew Collection, sealed in wine bottles to appeal to high-end consumers and the fine dining scene. Chen Xi-Ching, the tea master behind it all, has over 40 years of tea-making experience and once won the national tea championship. Now nearly 70, he remains forward-looking, stating with determination: "I want to make the tea of the future."

Chen Xi-Ching was born in Nantou and brought to Taitung as an infant. The first landscape he remembers is the pineapple fields his father cultivated and, later, the expansive tea gardens he planted. One of his earliest memories is of their home bustling with tea makers borrowing space to process tea. To young Chen, it felt like a martial arts gathering, stirring in him a deep fascination with tea.

Around 1984, after completing military service, Chen returned home. Despite Taiwan's booming tea economy, he found that his family's tea couldn't sell. "I sent samples to friends and classmates, but they all said it tasted awful like medicinal soup. I even tried selling it in Dadaocheng, but the tea shop owner would only offer NT$90 per 600 grams."

What left a deep impression was the elderly man in line behind him who sold his tea for NT$1,200 per 600 grams. After a conversation, Chen learned the man was from Pinglin and offered to drive him home. Once there, on impulse, he asked to stay and work as his apprentice.

This, however, was just the beginning of Chen's journey. "Everywhere I went, I learned the local tea," he said. From Pouchong in Pinglin to Dong Ding in Nantou, as well as Tieguanyin and Oriental Beauty—he studied them all. "My teachers are scattered across Taiwan." Through this roaming study from mountain to mountain, he honed his craft with precision and care.

 

 

The Art of One Person, One Tea

By 2005, Chen Xi-Ching had achieved mastery in tea-making. That year, he entered the second National High-Quality Tea Competition, winning the championship in the Light Fragrance Oolong category. From among the winners of the Strip-Shaped Pouchong category, Roasted Fragrance Oolong Tea Category, and Light Fragrance Oolong Tea Category, he was selected as the overall national champion, earning him the title of "Tea King."

Speaking about his craft, Chen remarked, "There are not many people who really understand the art of literature, feng shui, and tea. Tea is without question an art." He believes that tea-making must be treated as an indivisible act of creation. He said: "Everything matters- from how quickly or slowly you spread the leaves, the sunlight, the southern wind and the weather." To him, tea-making is a complex task that blends the crop, the environment, and the maker's intuition.

"Tea should be made from start to finish by a single person, just like a painting, every stroke following the artist’s intent." Chen pointed out that in today's labor division of tea-making, picking, rolling, and panning are often done by different people to accommodate rotating shifts in the processing plant. Leaves that are harvested at different times are often processed together, making it difficult to further elevate the flavor.

Take tea sorting, for example. Although machines can now screen out twigs, Chen insists on a final round of hand-sorting to remove leaves that are irregular in color or density, retaining only those that are whole and consistent. This meticulous work, while seemingly minor, is extremely time-consuming: sorting about 54 kg of tea leaves by hand can take five to six hours. Most brands would not consider such inconsistencies as defects, yet it is precisely Chen's perfectionism that sets Yunfang's tea apart.

 

Fragrance Across Borders — Creating a State Banquet Selected Premium Tea

Under the halo of his "Tea King" title, Chen Xi-Ching attracted not only major beverage companies seeking collaboration, but also drew interest from a renowned Japanese cosmetics brand, which visited twice in hopes of developing his tea aroma into a fragrance. These cross-industry invitations inspired Chen to further explore the diverse potential of tea as a commercial product.

Step into Yunfang Tea Garden, and you'll find Yunfun Premium Brew Collection packaged in elegant wine bottles. As early as 2017, Chen had already proposed these bold ideas. True to its name "Yunfang", which is derived from the Taiwanese phrase for "stable fragrance"— every design seeks to articulate the elusive essence of Taiwan's tea.

Chen built his own cleanroom to develop the top-tier Yunfun Premium Brew Collection. Unlike ordinary cold brews, it uses Yunfang's finest leaves, including those bitten by the small green leafhoppers, and pairs them with pristine water sourced from the Central Mountain Range. Carefully controlled steeping time and temperature ensure a flavor as vivid as freshly brewed tea. He also fills light-proof wine bottles with nitrogen to preserve aroma and freshness for up to six months and dramatically enhances both the flavor and texture of bottled tea. This innovation successfully entered the Japanese and European markets and was selected as the official beverage for the 2024 Presidential State Banquet.

Chen didn't stop there. In collaboration with the Tea and Beverage Research Station, he also developed catechin supplement, bringing tea into the health and wellness space. With over 40 top awards to his name, what truly distinguishes Chen is not only his mastery of tea-making but also his boldness in crossing boundaries and reimagining what tea can be.

 

 

How a Hybrid Craft Gave Rise to Taitung’s Red Oolong

At its peak, Luye's tea-growing region spanned over 600 hectares. But under the pressures of high-mountain teas and imported products, that number dwindled to just one-fifth. The development of Red Oolong was a turning point, an act of survival for Luye's tea farmers. Chen Xi-Ching recalls that while some considered producing black tea instead, Taiwan's high labor costs made it hard to compete in the international black tea market. This prompted the search for a new kind of tea.

Red Oolong combines the early steps of oolong tea production with the later stages of black tea production. The leaves undergo prolonged oxidation, followed by heavy rolling to deepen the aroma and enhance the body. Finally, a strong roast gives the tea its signature ripe and layered flavor. According to Chen, this technique was born from local traditions in Taitung, a region already adept at producing both black tea and lightly oxidized oolongs. The preserved method of cloth rolling, combined with considerations of labor, flavor, appearance, and packaging, helped define the tea's distinctive character.

"In tea-making, the worst mistake is to work in isolation," says Chen. "We're all bound by habits. Everyone. Most people think black tea must taste like Assam. One major tea buyer accused me of adding flavoring to my Ruby Red tea because it had a minty note. He said, 'Black tea can't possibly taste like this.'" For Chen, Red Oolong is precisely about breaking those constraints, an exercise in imaginative fusion.

 

Today, Red Oolong is leading Luye's tea industry onto the global stage. In response to global warming and labor shortages, Chen has contracted a tea farm near Chulu Ranch at 350 meters above sea level, designed for ride-on harvesting machines and cultivated using sustainable farming methods. Now the torch is gradually passed to the next generation- Chen's younger son, Chen Guan-Zhe, has taken on the management of the tea garden's production, while his elder son, Chen Guan-Pin, focuses on tea bag formulation and manufacture. His daughter, Chen Yu-Wen, has returned home to manage marketing. Together they protect and sustain the tea gardens.

For Chen Xi-Ching and his entire family, tea is not only a livelihood but their shared devotion. With plans to expand the tea gardens, they remain committed to creating the "tea of the future".