Zhangshuhu TeaZhangshuhu Tea
Where to buy it
Flavour
Light-fragrance style
Zhangshuhu is at around 1,400 metres, open ground with plenty of sun.
This one is unfired yet carries ripe fruit and honey, and that comes from oxidation. Oolong is oxidised by tumbling the leaf so the edges bruise and enzymes meet air; catechins turn into theaflavins and thearubigins, the grassy note becomes floral, and further along it becomes ripe fruit and honey.
So ripe fruit has two possible sources: deeper oxidation, or fire. You tell them apart by whether there is a caramel or charcoal tail.
Unfired. Bright honey-yellow, a long, deep finish.
Fair priceverified
One jin is 600 g. Below NT$1,200, be sceptical.
A reasonable range is NT$2,000–4,000 per 600 g. Below NT$1,200, ask more questions. 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
One region can span 700 m to 1,700 m, with several times the price difference. The same name does not mean the same grade.
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
Zhangshuhu in Taihe village, Meishan, between thirteen and sixteen hundred metres. It was the last part of Meishan to be planted — and the first to organise. In 1995, under a land-use planning programme, growers here formed a joint production group and gave the tea one name, Xianye, with uniform packaging, graded marketing and a single price list. It worked, and other districts followed. Zhangshuhu covered about fifty hectares in 1997, with the leaf sorted by picking season — spring, late spring, White Dew, Cold Dew and winter — then graded first, second, third or rejected.
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
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 (23.5380, 120.6880). This marks the growing area, not one specific garden.
Alishan Tea Region9
What there is to do here
6 routes Two days possible Meishan: Ruili, Ruifeng, Taixing, Taihe・Zhuqi and Shizhuo・Dabang, Tefuye, Lijia — Tsou villages
This district has the most itineraries, and nearly all of them run two days. Ruili, Ruifeng, Taixing and Taihe in Meishan are threaded together by old trails, bamboo, waterfalls and suspension bridges, and the guesthouses are the tea growers themselves. Further up are Zhuqi, Shizhuo and the Tsou villages. Every month of the year has its own crop.