Mingjian Songbai Changqing TeaMingjian Songbai Changqing Tea
Where to buy it
Flavour
Intense floral aroma (gardenia, ginger lily)
Sijichun can be picked five or six times a year, more often than any other Taiwanese variety, which is why it is cheap.
The gardenia and ginger-lily notes belong to the plant itself: strong, direct, and obvious without any training.
Songboling sits at the southern tip of the Bagua range on terraces between two and four hundred metres. Mingjian still had over two thousand hectares in 2019 — the largest tea district in Taiwan.
What the trade prizes is the winter-slice picking, from December into January: small in volume, and the most concentrated in flavour.
Fair priceverified
One jin is 600 g. Below NT$350, be sceptical.
A reasonable range is NT$700–1,400 per 600 g. Below NT$350, ask more questions.
What to ask when buying this
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.
Production date, expiry, origin of raw material, seller name and phone — if any is missing, do not buy.
Specifications
About the origin
The place was once called Puzhong, so in the 1970s the tea was simply Puzhong tea, or Songbokeng tea. It sits at the southern tip of the Bagua range, where the air is cool. In 1997 the gardens of Songboling spread across terraces between two hundred and four hundred metres, covering 2,500 hectares — the largest tea district in Taiwan. Mingjian still had 2,016 hectares in 2019. The leaf here is machine-harvested, so the rough tea comes with stalk mixed in. Refining starts by running it through a de-stemming machine before firing. Leaf with the stalk taken out rolls into smaller pellets, which is why Sijichun looks finer-grained than hand-picked oolong.
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
Here are the closest teas we can actually ship you:
Lugu Dong Ding OolongLugu 800 m Charcoal Roast Throat Finish1.2–3.0kYuchi Sun Moon Lake Black TeaYuchi 700 m Mint Cinnamon1.0–2.2kLocation accuracy: named locality (23.8440, 120.5560). This marks the growing area, not one specific garden.
Nantou Tea Region4
What there is to do here
6 routes Two days possible Lugu・Mingjian / Songboling・Zhushan・Yuchi・Shuili・Nantou City: Houtanjing
Dongding is in Lugu, Songboling in Mingjian, the spiral gardens in Zhushan, and Sun Moon Lake black tea in Yuchi. Four places making four different teas, all within an hour of each other by car — the densest square of tea in Taiwan.