Got woken up at 6am by the sound of cats meowing and probably Mr Lin getting food for the cats. I went back to sleep but kept getting woken up intermittently by the cats and kitchen noise.
I finally got up at 8am, and mucked around a bit getting ready before going out and having a look around the farm before breakfast. When I left my room there were a foreign couple staying in the room next door. I greeted them and I went around having a look. I climbed the steps halfway (didn't make it to the viewing platform). And then Mr Lin messaged me saying bf is ready, so I went back down at 8:53am.
I got asked to sit in the little dining room of the century old building, and the table is made from whole wood. A pot of tea was on the table too.
Bf was served and wow! What a feast?? Was not expecting such a 5 star meal? And the tea, a type of red tea, was so good? It wasn't strong or bitter at all.
They had Weilih zhajangmen, lol. It was good though.
After breakfast the other lady guest pointed out that there's a frog...!!! Is it the same frog as last night??? Ahhhhhhhh <3
And I saw a weird bug after the frog hopped away.
After that I went back inside to my room and sorted myself out, took a Blis, and repacked my bag.
When it was almost 10am I went out again and looked around the old house, and a lady was there talking to Mr Lin. Later I learnt she was the older sister of Mr Lin. She greeted me in English and asked if I was ready for tea ceremony. I said yes. And followed her down to the little table next to the traditional stove.
I let her know that she can speak Mandarin, lol, and she was kinda relieved she didn't have to struggle with her English.
She had a clay kettle unglazed, over a gas stove.
Today we are tasting 3 types. 金萱，烏龍，蜜香紅茶.
蜜香紅茶 has been eaten by bugs and then picked and processed, which gives it a honey type aroma. It's also fermented for a longer time than oolong or jinxuan.
Jinxuan has a stronger taste, whilst oolong is lighter and more delicate. I think the 甘甜味 lasts longer with the oolong and hits harder first compared with jinxuan which hits after the aroma cup cools down a bit.
The 紅茶 is made from thick leaves and thin leaves type. The thick type has more stronger taste/more tannin, and is commonly used for assam. The yithin type has a lighter taste and is less earthy. I think she also said the thin type isn't used to make green tea because it doesn't give the qualities most drinkers seek aka it's quite bitter and felty.
So you get time taste 3 cups of each tea, and the tea is poured into the sniffing cup first before emptied into the drinking cup. A cup of hot water is drank before the red tea. The order was jinxuan, oolong, and red tea.
Oolong can only be classed as high mountain tea over an altitude of 1200m - 1700m.
We also chatted a bit and I talked a little bit about NZ and my immigrant history. I asked about what they grew here before tea. It was 金針 and 竹筍.
After the tea ceremony was over, I asked if I would be able to have a tour of the tea making process?
She said to ask her brother as he's the one more in charge of the tea making.
I went back to my room and repacked my bag, and got ready to head out. I bumped into Mr Lin just getting ready to go, and he said he can take me now. I got into his car and went down, windows down mmmm.
He said that they are building a new factory and it's due to completion at the end of the year. He showed me the drying room, which is a huge sunhouse. The walls and roof are plastic sheeting. You can draw the shade cloth over electronically to control the amount of sunshine/temperature. There are window vents on the walls too, and noted the ceiling had fans too.
Mr Lin said before this was built they had to watch the weather and sometimes if it rained, the rain might come in on the side.
With this, they can control the climate conditions.
They dry the leaves to about 40% dry, to get rid of the dews on the leaves.
They receive 5 barrels at a time, starting from about 9am in the morning.
The barrels come in 5 times a day (so 25 barrels, heck!).
After about 2 hrs, the first batch goes down to the fermentation room. They get places onto the big bamboo dish, to begin fermentation. They are then cooled down with air con to rest, I think for about 2 hrs?
They are then tossed into the tumbler, which bruises the leaves to start the fermentation process. I think they are tossed for about 20 mins? Before being placed into the bamboo dishes.
The next batch comes and are mixed with the previous batch on the dishes, to make sure all sides are evenly exposed and mixed.
I think he mentioned they get fermented to about 8pm? And they start the processing.
After that, they get taken to the heated tumbler, which is about 200°C? and then to the pressing machines to be juiced and pressed, about 8-10 mins? For the pressing , then onto the rolling machine. The tea is rolled like 8 times and it takes like 8 mins each time. The time is now like 1am. A different shifu comes in around 9pm to do this process.
After rolling, they are places into like a heating sorting machine. Mr Lin says, the machine is super hot, that after a whole day next to it, he felt like he almost got heatstroke with a woozy head!
The whole room smells so good... You can still smell the tea from their processing 1 week ago.
The previous fermentation room smelt good too.
After the sorting, it gets taken to the packing room where it gets packaged.
We took an vintage elevator down with the iron gates doors! He said it's older than him, about 30 yrs+ old. Since the building was built, it's the original elevator.
He apologised for the mess since they have the Taipei tea exhibit on, this weekend. I said no problem. It's an important event for them, just like con weekend lol. One big bale is 18kgs! These are wholesale and then repacked at the retailer.
They also pack into 150g 4量 packets.
The boxes are labelled with the season (winter, spring, etc) and the year (114), and the day of picking/processing (001). Since each batch will be slightly different, some customers pick the batch they like.
I then asked about if they sell their tea? And he showed me the types. They cost about $500-700 for 4 量 depending on the type.
Tour ended, I thanked him. On the way out there was a cat with a stubby tail (brown and black splashed paint marking mix), which he calls "A-bai", Taigi for Ugly. Because when he first came he was ugly, lol.
I headed out and down, and decided to walk towards Yuyupas anyway.
I find the turn and went down.
Must be weird for the drivers to see someone walking.
I passed a Tsou café that was sadly closed. There was a viewing platform and there were workers busy picking tea.
One of the workers had music going abs was picking really fast to the beat. Amazing.
To get to Yuyupas I passed the road with the workers and they looked at me, ha ha.
I passed a house that had a little viewing platform, and I wanted to turn in to have a look BUT two dogs saw me from all the way at the house and started to come towards me?! Uhhhh no thank you! I have trauma! So I quickly turned back and kept walking. They stopped at the driveway entrance and did not follow phew. One was wagging tail though.
I kept going, and eventually entered the main Tsou village.
There was a primary school. It was lunch time and I think students took the rubbish out. The bell chimed at 12:30pm. Music was playing over the sports field. As I walked into the village I think they were playing pop music? Sounded Japanese.
It was really quiet and very quaint. I passed a house with a yard that had a elder lady with pure white hair look at me, and I nodded to her (as I was masked). She acknowledged and nodded back.
There were a couple of dogs that barked and wanted to chase but was chained up, phew.
The houses all have their own character and deco, and the walls were painted.
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| Coffee plant by the road side?? |
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| Look at the fruits on this tree! Near a campground. |
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| Parking lot at the primary school |
When I got to the bottom of the hill, there was an eatery.... Which wasn't open. I looked up the hill and saw a unleashed dog wandering a way up and was like TToTT please stay away.
Another guy passed me and greeted me with a nod. I did too.
I wondered if I should turn back because it's lunch time... But kept going. I had a big breakfast so still had some fuel.
Eventually I did get to Yuyupas!
The ticketing counter was unmanned but I could hear the staff chatting.
I saw the stamps!! So did this first. A lady did come out and I paid $300 for entry. I asked about food and she told me where to go, red roof, all others have straw roofs.
I arrived and the restaurant was packed and noisy. I asked if they had anything suitable for 1 person? They showed me the menu but I said I was worried it might be too much, they said no problem you can try the café next door! They have sweets and pizza. I thanked them and left.
The café was heaps quieter. It is called I Mi Me Nu (where are you from?). I ended up getting a 8 inch pizza and a coffee (the honey one) for $500.
The lady who served me was really cute and her leafs were really pretty, athletic and stocky. Later I learnt she recently finished up at the military and was a ahbin'ge! No wonder her legs muscly. Admire. Their leg wraps are really cute too.
I stragetically sat in a seat where the open door breeze flowed in, and next to a window. The air quality was always 400ppm. In fact, air is so good here it's 400ppm or less on the app (but unit itself says 400ppm). There were about 10 other diners that flowed in after me. They were Cantonese?
The coffee was quite nice. For someone that doesn't drink coffee it was smooth and more sour. But good?
After I finished my meal, the lady who took my order (with the pretty legs) came and asked me if the coffee was okay? Since their coffees special characteristics from the high altitude growing meant that they tend to draw out the sourness as a feature more. She told me she only learnt how to taste and process coffee recently after 退伍 from the military. And after she drinks coffee she gets really sleepy instead??? But energised with tea???? Which is the opposite of most people! Someone suggested it may be a coffee allergy. Well, the more you know. We giggled and laughed and thanked her.
I left and went around and had a look at the stage area. It was empty for now but they had stamps in the smoking area?? And had beehives?? So cool? A staff gentleman was chatting to the other staff and singing. He was quite good.
Next I had a look at the tea tasting house. Not long after I had a look, the tour group from Singapore came and that explained why there were so many cups set up on the table, lol. The pretty lady greeted me when I came in. I had a look at their signboard with the tea making process, and their display cabinet.
I left and had a look around.
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| Giant dildo! The sign is so weathered you can't read it. I assume it's for fertility. |
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| The beehives |
Then I went up to the traditional Tsou house and ended up entering from the back door, haha.
I could hear the announcer going at 2:20pm for the performance, so left and came back later to finish looking at the house.
I seated myself at the stage and the tour guide was pouring everyone millet wine for the tour group. I was tempted to ask but ended up not tasting it.
I was curious!
A big bro (staff) was passing out pork dried jerky with wasabi paste grown from their land. It was slightly sweet and had mixed grains in it.
He was wearing these really cool leather leg wraps.
The performance was about 50 mins. They were so good at singing. The lady from the café was there too and performed two songs, one with another singer.
At the end they invited people from the audience to come and dance, I wanted to but didn't want to leave my bag unattended??? So I just clapped loud and bobbed along to the song.
It was really enjoyable and I got the majority on video.
The first dance was a millet/harvest blessing & thanks dance where they link hands and dance in a circle.
Second was one with waving a bushel of grass, one in each hand and dancing.
Another one was a warrior dance where the men made these silly faces.
Then was a song, and then a duet song.
Last was the audience participation song/dance.
Everyone was buying goods from the stall, I got dried dragonfruit 150g for $200.
Then I spotted a dog with a missing leg.
I came to their culture and hsitroy museum. Some things were missing on display!
And then I realised I had come in backwards, again!
Time for the gift shop.
I spotted another dog with a missing limb.
I wanted to get the millet and aiyu, but wasn't sure if I could bring that back to NZ.
When the shop lady saw me, she asked if I was going to walk back to Shizuo. Yes, lol.
After ruminating, I ended up getting a box of instant coffee as a gift for Meghan.
The boss/leader was talking to the staff, and the shop lady said I could catch a ride back?? With Mr Dù. Mr Du said I look like a 壞人 but I'm not. Haha. I quickly purchased the box of coffee for $400 and thanked the shop ladies and left. Mr Dù was closing the gate and said to follow him, and asked where I was from?
I said Taichung born in Taiwan but immigrated to NZ.
He was reading his phone and nodded like he wasn't listening. But he was! He asked about the Mãori and I said there's similarities but also very different.
Mr Dù apologised for the mess in his car, I said no worry. He had a black old car.
We made some chat in the car, he said he's been to LA and Europe etc. And 山上很不方便 but I said there's quite a bit of stuff and a conbini here? You can catch the bus here? But over in NZ there is nothing.
The ride was short and said he'll park at Hi-Life, and confirmed where I was staying? Oh Lin jia. Not far. He's picking up his kids. I thanked him for the ride and left.
I walked back to my room and changed bags.
I decided to go all the way up to thy viewing platform.
When I got up there there were 2 other girls and 1 other guy taking photos of the sunset.
I got some too but my camera wasn't great with the exposure difference.
I decided to try the Mist Trail. And realised I forgot my flashlight and it'll get dark on my way back. Weeeh I decided my phone torch should do.
So I climbed. I passed a café and minsu. And several other tea farms and minsu.
It got quite steep. I wanted to make it to the bamboo.
I got there in the end, pushing it with daylight. It was just starting to get too dark when I reached Tea trail, where the bamboo was.
I got a photo and headed back.
At least it was downhill. Phone flashlight did need to be done.
I got back, hot and sweaty.
Had a break and dehydrated, then decided to get fried chicken.
I made my way to the stall, and wasn't sure how it worked so asked for 1 peppersalt chicken and kumara fries. The lady said, is it for 1 person? It's not enough. I said I have never been here before, how much do you recommend? She showed me how much 1 serving of chicken was. Oh. I quickly had a look at the menu and added mushroom, squid, baby corn.
While waiting, I noticed a sign saying the boss is hard of hearing and sometimes memory lapse, so please be understanding, sorry!
It took about 20 mins for my order to be done. Lady asked if I wanted spicy? A little bit please.
It came to $250. I paid exact and thanked the lady!
They put like semi-raw onion in the box...
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| I tried to get a photo of that really cute and small van but I was too slow and they zoomed away too fast. |
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I headed back and decided to eat outdoors. What do I do with the onion? I don't want to waste, can I compost it in the garden? And then realised there were cameras... Oh okay can't tip it in. I tasted it and I think they blanched it? It wasn't as stinky but a little sweet. After 2 tiny bites the stinky came and I cancelled, nope.
A back cat kept looking at me with one eye closes and faked the maimed limb thing. No dosh kitty. They even meowed.
Then as I was almost done with my meal, I saw a black dog just walk up the corridor of the rooms and back out again. They even looked at me... Ummmmmmmmm OK. as soon as they left I quickly went back into my room to finish my food. Trauma.
The meal was good but with fried foods it got ba but rich so I had red tea with it. I couldn't finish it and really struggled.
After that, I took a shower, blogged, and now bed.
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