Xiding TeaXiding Tea
Where to buy it
Flavour
Delicate aroma with clean sweetness
Xiding is at 900 metres on the Alishan highway, known for its sea of cloud.
The cloud forms like this: warm moist air off the Chiayi plain rides up the slope by day, and at some height the temperature falls to the dew point and the vapour condenses. That height is the cloud base, and Xiding often sits near it — which is why you stand here and watch cloud below your feet.
For the tea, sitting near the cloud base means long hours with the sun cut off, and that is why this altitude can still produce well.
Oxidation two, firing two. Bright golden liquor, ripe fruit with a light milky note.
Fair priceverified
One jin is 600 g. Below NT$800, be sceptical.
A reasonable range is NT$1,300–2,800 per 600 g. Below NT$800, 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
Xiding lies in the east of Gongtian village, Fanlu. It was Tsou hunting country, and the name in Tsou means the place where animals gather. Three main settlements make up the district — Anding, Xiding and Longtou, north to south. Xiding mountain reaches 1,471 metres, the highest point in Fanlu; the whole slope tilts east to west, and the gardens fall between nine hundred and fourteen hundred and fifty. The rock is conglomerate, sandstone and shale, under a weathered loam topsoil.
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:
Alishan High Mountain TeaAlishan 1700m 1700 m Milky Osmanthus2.0–4.0kLocation accuracy: named locality (23.4570, 120.7080). 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.