Tea Farmers

Mr. Xie is a third-generation farmer in Mingjian, Nantou, Central Taiwan. He crafts our Calm Fragrance oolong and red teas, as well as Cloud Temple green tea. In the past few decades, such lower-altitude tea has been eclipsed by the popularity of the teas grown higher up. Mr. Xie's family has grown small-scale productions of oolong tea through three lifetimes, since before many of the higher-altitude teas even existed. Mr. Xie has been an organic tea farmer since 1997. He converted due to the health problems agrochemicals were causing in his wife. He questioned whether he could sell such tea to others knowing what these chemicals could do. In the beginning, he faced a lot of struggles to maintain his principles. His tea was lower quality and he lost almost all his customers. His father, who had been worried when he suggested upsetting the status quo in the first place, was very critical of his decisions. During this time, rather than giving up as many would have done, he got a part-time job as a painter and carpenter, working day and night—either painting or farming—to keep his family afloat. Finally, in the early 2000s, his acumen for organic farming improved to the point that he was able to take his teas to market again. Since then, he has gone on to win awards, been featured on TV and has even heard his father bragging to others about how his tea is organic and good for the environment. Mr. Xie's work hasn't stopped with his own farm. He knew that he would have to keep improving his skills, creating new and better teas, and help show his neighbors the value of organic farming, especially since their land and his are close enough to influence each other. He formed a co-op with other farmers and began teaching locals to shift to organic methods, offering them equal shares in their combined enterprise. As more people have joined this local group, the incentive to do so has also increased. To date, several farmers in the Mingjian region have joined him in organic farming, including Mr. Xie's immediate neighbors.

Ai Li Juan is a member of the Ku Chuong tribe from the village of Qian Jia Zhai (千家寨), which literally means “Thousands of Families Village.” It is located in Jiu Jia Township, Zhenyuan County, in the heart of the Ai Lao range. She produced our teas Mountain Spring and Daughter of the Forest. There are around 16,000 people spread out over Jiu Jia Township, most of them rural farmers. Until recently, there were no roads to the village and everything was carried in and out by donkey. The elder generations still tell stories of those days, reminding their children and grandchildren not to take their modern amenities for granted. There are 4,700 acres of tea forests here at an altitude of 2,000 to 2,500 meters. Ai Li Juan has always made us feel like family, so much so that we came to know her as “Auntie Ai.” She has housed and fed us, guided us to ancient tea trees and showered us with traditional songs and heartfelt smiles. Auntie Ai’s tea is controlled by a co-op. There is little that any one individual can do to spoil the old-growth forest, its environment or any aspect of its processing without the other members of the group coming down on them. A portion of the sales from all tea grown in this forest, and 100% of the proceeds from the oldest trees there, all go to support the betterment of the whole tribe, and to preserve Ku Chuong culture. This means that personal greed cannot destroy what rightly belongs to no single human. Ms. Ai has been a member of the co-op in Qian Jia Zhai since 2005, tending to more than 400 hectares of tea. She loves tea and her culture. In fact, a vast amount of the funds she raises from the production of old-growth Puerh is being devoted to preserving Ku Chuong cultural heritage, from weaving to singing and dancing.

Huang Xian Yi’s family made all our Cliff Tea. He was the eleventh generation in a lineage of tea masters from Wuyi. He was born in 1949. As a boy he hopped from stone to stone to get to school at the Tian Shin Monastery. He went on to boarding school in the local town for five days a week but later returned home when the school closed for lack of students. He began helping his father farm vegetables and tea. In the early 1990's, he began to put his heart fully into a life of tea with an earnest desire to master all the skills needed to produce the best teas he could. He sold his teas by the packet to tourists outside his home at the Water Curtain Cave (Shui Lian Dong,水簾洞), also serving boiled bowl tea for a few pennies a bowl. After the family was moved out of the park in the late 1990's, he made a decision to move more and more into hand-processed tea, preserving the traditional tea making skills passed down so many years. His brand Rui Quan (瑞泉) has since gone on to great fame in Wuyi. Huang Xian Yi passed away in 2020. He was one of the greatest tea makers we have ever met, committed to preserving the heritage of Wuyi Cliff Tea and to passing on traditional handmade tea skills to future generations. He was always smiling, kind and open to sharing his love for tea. Even after a year away, he would grab your arm and pull you inside to tell you about this year’s tea as though you were a neighbor whom he had just seen yesterday. A lot of heritage, knowledge and skill has left this world with him, traveling to the stars to become one of the constellations and legends that guide Chajin thence. Master Huang was also a dear and beloved friend. “Lao Die,” as we affectionately called him, always supported Global Tea Hut and we felt so very honored to have been touched by his spirit and uplifted by his knowledge. He was amongst the most important teachers of our lifetime, and even a thousand bowls could never repay what he has given us…

Gao Dingshi is a hero in Taiwan. After his father passed away as a result of pesticide poisoning, he became one of the world’s greatest advocates for clean, pure tea—taking “organic” beyond the confines of the usual definition, allowing his gardens to grow wild and untouched by human intervention. His tea and way of life are incredibly inspiring. He had a severe stutter when he was young and as a result couldn’t speak very well. At a very early age, he realized that if he slowed down his mind and spoke slowly, he wouldn’t stutter. In that way, he cured himself of his stutter and also changed the way his mind works. Master Gao moves slowly. He is amazing to drink tea with, as his preparation is so slow and mindful it changes the room. His tea is legendary, grown in wild gardens in Shi Ding (石碇), in northern Taiwan. Master Gao is a friend and teacher to us, and has helped us to understand much of what we know about sustainability, tea ecology and living tea. He has also shaped the way we approach tea, as Nature and as medicine, and shifted the way we brew tea as well.

Master Gu Cheng Gan is a fourth-generation Eastern Beauty farmer in Beipu Taiwan who has, like his father before him, worked incredibly hard to preserve tea culture. Master Gu was born in the Year of the Rooster, 1969. He grew up amongst tea, harvesting and processing from an early age. He is a Hakka, and much of his life’s work has been to preserve Hakka culture. With the proceeds from his tea, he promotes food, traditional crafts, music and the preservation of the Hakka language. Hakka people are very hospitable, kind and simple people, with a history of farming, and a love of the Earth and each other. They really treat guests with sacred hospitality, which is the spirit of tea and our Center. And their story is a big part of Master Gu’s own story. Master Gu and his family have worked hard and expanded their traditional holdings. With savings and years of hard work, they were able to revitalize Beipu’s Eastern Beauty production. In 2000, Master Gu’s Bao Ji Tea Company (寶記) bought back the first of several abandoned Eastern Beauty farms, cleared several hectares and planted saplings there. They have thrived and are beginning to produce tea again. They tend these gardens with great care even today. Master Gu’s organic Eastern Beauty is a real treat, as is any time we share in his company. He does a lot to promote sustainable agriculture that protects Nature and traditional culture. He is simple, genuine and giving and has taught us a lot about tea.

Lu Li Zhen was born on June 6th, 1952 in Xin Bei, the very north of Taiwan. Master Lu's uncle owned a tea shop in Ban Chiao. For more than thirty years now, Master Lu has roasted and sold his tea in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Japan and more recently to Europe, especially Germany, where he often travels to give lectures. During that time, he has helped spread tea culture and awareness through many, many tea gatherings he participated in or hosted himself. Master Lu roasts all the oolongs he sells in his shop, following a tradition where the farmers in Taiwan produced “maocha,” or “rough/unfinished tea,” that the tea shops then roasted to their clients' tastes. Nowadays, there are very few tea shops left that do their own roasting. Some may roast a tea or two for fun or as a specialty item, but there aren’t many that roast all their teas the way Master Lu Li Zhen does. Master Lu doesn’t just roast his teas, he does so masterfully with decades of skill and has won several tea competitions for his work.