Cao Ao ZaiCao Ao Zai
Flavour
Cool mineral with high mountain florals
Cao'aozai lies in the highest band of Shanlinxi, around 1,900 metres, in a hollow. Cold air pools in a hollow, so it runs colder than a slope at the same height.
The firing is zero — none at all. The tea rests entirely on altitude and variety, with no fire to smooth anything over, so nothing can be hidden. If it was made badly, you will know.
This makes a good reference tea. Once you have tasted an unfired high-mountain oolong, you can tell, in every fired tea afterwards, which flavours came from the fire and which came from the mountain.
⚠️ Volumes are very small; most of it moves locally or through regular customers.
Fair priceverified
One jin is 600 g. Below NT$1,600, be sceptical.
A reasonable range is NT$2,400–4,500 per 600 g. Below NT$1,600, ask more questions. "High mountain tea" has no legal definition in Taiwan. Ask for the exact elevation and the road marker (K number). Competition-grade lots command a large premium. Ask which association ran the competition, which year, and for the seal.
What to ask when buying this
"High mountain tea" has no legal definition in Taiwan. The K number is a road milepost — the most concrete way to pin down origin. Asking it signals you have done your homework.
Grading standards differ between associations, so awards are not comparable across competitions. Genuine lots come with a seal and certificate.
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.
Specifications
About the origin
On the boundary between Zhushan and Lugu, around the Forgotten Forest, at roughly 1,900 to 1,950 metres — the highest gardens in the Shanlinxi group. Also written Caonanzai.
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.
The window for temperature and timing is narrow. On your first try use slightly less leaf and shorter steeps.
Rolled-ball leaf needs the first infusion to open up; the second is then shorter.
Best drunk within two months.
What to eat with it
A chilled jelly has almost no flavour of its own; a heavily roasted tea would bury it. A fragrant, lightly oxidised tea lifts it instead.
This one is Taiwan-only — not available overseas
Here are the closest teas we can actually ship you:
Alishan High Mountain TeaAlishan 1700m 1700 m Milky Osmanthus2.0–4.0kLocation accuracy: named locality (23.6400, 120.7800). This marks the growing area, not one specific garden.
Shanlinxi Tea Region9
What there is to do here
1 routes Day trip Shanlinxi・Around Yangzaiwan and Longfengxia
Above 1,500 m, forty minutes further up the road from Lugu. This is ginkgo, moso bamboo and cloud country; tea is one thing among several here, though it is the one that keeps.