Longtan Longquan TeaLongtan Longquan Tea
Where to buy it
Flavour
Light fragrance and clean sweetness with a smooth finish
It took first place in the province-wide machine-picked Baozhong competition in 1982, and the following year Lee Teng-hui, then provincial governor, named it Longquan. The name is barely forty years old.
Machine-picked is the key phrase. Longtan is a gentle laterite terrace between 300 and 400 metres — machinery can get in, which keeps labour costs down and is the reason the district can supply consistently.
The red soil is iron-rich and drains well; the year is warm and wet, with fog at dawn and dusk.
⚠️ Rolled tea swells three or four times over. Fill the pot a third full. Pack it and the leaf cannot open, and only astringency comes out.
Fair priceestimated
One jin is 600 g. Below NT$400, be sceptical.
A reasonable range is NT$700–1,500 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
Longtan is high and flat, and tea has always been its main crop. In 1962 there were 3,069 hectares here, second in Taiwan behind only Guanxi in Hsinchu; by 1987 there were 1,538, and by 2008, 428. The remaining gardens were turned over to visitors, and since 2019 the city has planted lupins at Dabeikeng and run a lupin festival that brings people back up the hill.
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 (24.8630, 121.2160). This marks the growing area, not one specific garden.
Taoyuan Tea Region3
What there is to do here
2 routes Day trip Longtan・Yangmei
Longtan and Yangmei are cycling country. The slopes are gentle, the ponds many, and the tea gardens sit between fish ponds and farms, so you can stop often. This is also one of the districts that makes Oriental Beauty.