Linkou Longshou TeaLinkou Longshou Tea
Where to buy it
Flavour
White-flower fragrance with a rice-like finish
The Linkou terrace is only 150 metres up, yet it is foggy most of the year. The drop at the terrace edge is steep, so sea air climbs, cools and condenses — and the fog screens out some of the direct sun, which lets the leaf hold on to its amino acids.
Low-altitude tea grows fast and can be picked more often; the price is a thinner cup. The answer here is to hold both oxidation and firing at two, go for fragrance, and not compete with the mountains on body.
A light tea is best drunk fresh. Aroma leaves first; what remains is only faintness.
⚠️ Once opened, keep it in an opaque tin and finish it within two or three months.
Fair priceestimated
One jin is 600 g. Below NT$400, be sceptical.
A reasonable range is NT$700–1,400 per 600 g. Below NT$400, 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
Growers here coined the name Longshou themselves in the 1980s — long from Linkou, shou for long life, the thing tea is supposed to give you. Linkou was once covered in gardens and processing sheds; then the city arrived, and by 2019 there were three hectares left. The growers who stayed work small plots and sell what they make themselves. The season runs from April to November.
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 (25.0770, 121.3960). This marks the growing area, not one specific garden.
New Taipei Tea Region6
What there is to do here
4 routes Day trip Pinglin・Shiding・Sanxia
You can be standing in pouchong country a little over an hour after leaving Taipei Main Station. Pinglin has the museum, the river and trails you can finish in an afternoon; Shiding’s old street is built out over the water; Sanxia makes a green tea unlike anywhere else. All three work as day trips.