Sanxing Shangjiang TeaSanxing Shangjiang Tea
Where to buy it
Flavour
Quiet, elegant aroma with a hint of flowers and fruit
Sanxing Shangjiang tea comes from Dayin and Shuangxian villages in Sanxing, Yilan, at around 450 metres. The name is a military rank, used by the farmers' association to mark the top tier.
Grading is the point here. The association judges and grades, and the grades map straight onto price bands. Where a grading system exists, a buyer is harder to fob off: what you pay corresponds to a third party's mark.
⚠️ A district without grading is not necessarily worse. It just means you have to taste for yourself.
Oxidation two, firing two. A quiet aroma with flower and fruit, lively, and it takes many steeps.
Fair priceestimated
One jin is 600 g. Below NT$500, be sceptical.
A reasonable range is NT$900–2,000 per 600 g. Below NT$500, ask more questions. This range is estimated from nearby regions and elevation; it has not been verified against listed prices.
What to ask when buying this
This price range is estimated from nearby regions and elevation and has not been verified, so compare for yourself.
Spring and winter lots fetch the highest prices and the best aroma; summer and autumn are a step down in both.
If they will not let you taste but want you to buy 600 g of something expensive, walk away. It is the simplest and most effective filter there is.
A scannable producer record beats any verbal assurance.
Specifications
About the origin
Sanxing is in the southwest of Yilan, mostly mountain, with the gardens in Dayin and Shuangxian villages. Rain is plentiful and the air is clean; the tea comes out clean in aroma, round in taste, and holds up over many steeps. There were 92 hectares in 1997 and 30 in 2019.
These figures will be updated if they change.
Brewing
Why this temperature
Ball-rolled oolong is tightly wound, and the first pour only reaches the outside of the pellet, so it needs water close to boiling to open at all. If it does not open, the later steeps swing between thin and heavy. The first and second steeps often take the same time or less, because the leaf does not truly unfurl until the second.
Temperatures follow the official category guidance. Source: TRES — Effects of water quality and temperature on tea liquor
Common mistakes with this tea
95°C or above. Too cool and the roast aroma never opens, leaving it flat.
Rolled-ball leaf needs the first infusion to open up; the second is then shorter.
Best drunk within two months.
The most common beginner regret is buying 600 g on the first try. Buy a jin only after you know you like it.
What to eat with it
Glutinous rice clings and the sweetness lingers on the tongue. A tea with some astringency clears it away.
This one is Taiwan-only — not available overseas
Location accuracy: township level (24.6650, 121.6150). This marks the growing area, not one specific garden.
Lanyang Tea Region4
What there is to do here
2 routes Day trip Datong: Yulan・Dongshan: Zhongshan
Yilan grows its tea low — Yulan at around 150 m, Dongshan under 500. Low does not mean lesser: the rain and humidity here make a tender leaf and a delicate, high-toned aroma. An hour from Taipei through the Xueshan tunnel.