Dayuling TeaDayuling Tea
Where to buy it
Flavour
Cool mineral and pine, the layered depth of the highest elevations
Between 2,200 and 2,650 metres — among the highest commercial tea gardens in Taiwan.
Up there the bush grows slowly and there are only two pickings a year. Slow growth means thick leaf, more pectin and less of the bitter and astringent compounds. That is where high-mountain sweetness comes from.
The cold mineral edge and the pine note only appear at this altitude.
⚠️ Dayuling is the most counterfeited name in Taiwanese tea. Ask which kilometre marker, which block, and ask to see the origin paperwork.
Fair priceverified
One jin is 600 g. Below NT$3,000, be sceptical.
A reasonable range is NT$10,000–20,000 per 600 g. Below NT$3,000, 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
Where Hualien, Taichung and Nantou meet, between Hehuanshan and Bilushan. It was called Hehuan Pass until Chiang Ching-kuo renamed it Dayuling. The gardens sit between 2,200 and 2,650 metres, among the highest in Taiwan. Cold, with a wide day-night swing and cloud that rarely lifts, the bushes grow slowly; the leaf is thick and full of pectin, and the liquor carries something of the high forest — some call it the pine note — over a cold mineral edge and a clean sweet fruit-and-flower aroma.
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 (24.1850, 121.3150). This marks the growing area, not one specific garden.
Lishan Tea Region9
What there is to do here
2 routes Two days possible Lishan・Fushoushan farm・Wuling farm
Two thousand to 2,600 m — the highest tea district in Taiwan. It is a long drive, but the same road gives you peaches, apples, the Xueshan trailhead and the country’s protected salmon. Give it two days at least.