Saturday July 9th 2016
Today we got on the bus at 7:30am to go to the Xi Tou Natural Education Area (here’s a link to their website http://www.exfo.ntu.edu.tw/sitou/eng/01about/default.aspx). Climbing up the mountain to see the Giant Tree was quite an experience. Putting the leg exhaustion aside, the air was fresh and the view was amazing. It rained as we walked, but I love the smell of rain so it was ok. When we got to the Giant tree some of us were disappointed with what we saw. The tree wasn’t that giant and it looked kinda dead.
The Giant Tree is the one with the split top and no leaves. After reading about it online, I learned there is a large boulder in the middle of the Giant Tree which explains why it’s split.
After seeing the tree some of the guys wanted to keep climbing to see the Overlook and Astronomical Observatory, but us girls were not having any of that. Instead, we chose to eat some popsicles (mine was red bean) and then went see the University Pond.
The next place that we went was a tea farm in Chuxiang. When we got there, there was a large lunch prepared for us by the tea farm owner’s wife. This food was by far the best Taiwanese food that I’ve had since arriving in Taiwan. There was a huge pot of fried rice, sweet potatoes, some sort of baked pears, corn soup, and delicious fried chicken. After we were done eating we got to play dress up. They gave us long sleeved jackets and hats to wear while we picked tea leaves. We were in the tea field for about an hour. Greta told me that the farmer said that collectively we pick about $150NT worth of tea leaves. When we went back to the room where we ate we learned about how tea is processed. I was surprised to learn that all teas are made from the same tea leaves, and it’s the way the leaves are processed that determines the flavor and color of the tea.
We got to taste test 5 different types of tea; red, eastern beauty, oolong, high mountain, and four seasons.
The tea farmer said the best way to make tea is…
- boil water to 100 degrees celsius
- let tea leaves brew for 6 minutes
- remove tea leaves and let stand for another 6 minutes
- slurp the tea (loudly) to better taste the flavor
I will say that waiting the full 6 minutes to let the tea cool down was too long for me. I prefer my tea to be hotter than what is was after cooling down that much. Wishing you happy tea making from Grace in Taiwan.
Grace, I like my tea hot as well. So, I understand your sentiment?