Erjian TeaErjian Tea
Where to buy it
Flavour
Light-fragrance style
Erjian is at around 900 metres, with plenty of sun and thick leaf.
This one is about reading the spent leaf. Spread it on a plate after brewing: intact bud-and-two-leaves, even in size and even in colour, means care in both picking and processing. A red rim around the leaf edge is normal — it is the mark of oxidation, and its width tells you how far the oxidation went.
Broken leaf, uneven sizes, or one piece yellow and the next green, usually means machine picking or a blended lot.
Bright golden liquor, ripe fruit with a touch of roast, concentrated and long-lasting.
Fair priceestimated
One jin is 600 g. Below NT$800, be sceptical.
A reasonable range is NT$1,300–2,600 per 600 g. Below NT$800, 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
On Erjianshan in Zhongliao Township, Nantou. About 100 ha.
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
Location accuracy: named locality (23.7000, 120.8800). This marks the growing area, not one specific garden.
Yushan Tea Region9
What there is to do here
1 routes Day trip Caopingtou・Yushan visitor tea gardens
Caopingtou and the Yushan visitor gardens in Xinyi township, 1,250–1,500 m up on the flank of Jade Mountain. There is a giant teapot landmark here, and the whole run of the New Central Cross-Island Highway.