Region · in Taiwan
Chiayi
Chiayi is the county behind the Alishan name, and understanding that relationship is most of what the place has to tell a buyer. Alishan is a mountain and a scenic area, but the tea sold under it is grown across several Chiayi townships at a range of elevations, so the county is the honest unit and the mountain is the brand.
What grows here
High mountain oolong, ball-rolled, lightly oxidised and usually barely roasted, from the eastern uplands. Meishan, Zhuqi and Fanlu are the main townships that produce it, each with its own villages and its own altitude band, and Shizhuo in Zhuqi is the best-known of the sub-origins. Most of it is Qing Xin, with Jin Xuan for the cheaper lots, and some summer leaf goes into bug-bitten and black teas instead.
What to look for
Ask for the township and the elevation, not the mountain. Alishan is applied generously enough to cover gardens well below the altitude band buyers assume, and the county grows tea on lower ground as well, so a Chiayi address on its own says very little. The named villages are where the price ladder actually lives, and a garden name plus a season is worth more than any amount of scenic branding.
Harvest terms from Chiayi
The harvest words a label from here is likely to carry.
Places in Chiayi
Named places inside Chiayi. The ones with a page of their own are links.