台埔茶葉竹山店 - Mandatory Shopping Stop for Tea & Experience Tea Leaves Picking @ Taiwan

The one thing I don't like of tour packages in Taiwan, purchased from Singapore, is that they have this "shopping element" that brought back many bad memories I had in China. 

And this visit to a tea factory, 台埔茶葉竹山店, was the first mandatory shopping stop for our 8 Days 7 Nights See Iconic Taiwan Anew Tour Package by Chan Brothers. 

Our arrival was welcomed by this loud uncle with a strong Taiwanese accent; as a veteran of commissioned shopping and marketing gimmicks, I am so not looking forward as such 'shoppings' are literally a waste of time! 

While I was wondering when we would be brought to a room to hear the sales pitch, we were instead asked to don farmer hat and proceeded to step into the purpose-built tea plantation next to the factory! Thankfully the rain had stopped. 

Bringing us to the "original habitat", we were educated on the plants where tea leaves were harvested from, which leaves to pick for tea selection, how plantations usually harvest the tea leaves (with a blade) etc. And do you know that the trees flower too? 

Dad being the tea worker for the day; correction, for less than 20 minutes. As he is super tanned, it's quite common for people to assume my dad worked long hours under the sun! 

Video of the uncle! Honestly, he was friendly, very funny and thoughtful! At the back of my head, I was telling myself not to be "cheated" of my feelings as his main objective was to sell things to us! 

Okay, time for the sales pitch.

So invigorating to "wash" our hands with the warm rolled tea leaves that were in the two baskets! The smell was just so relaxing and I can still catch whiffs of tea aroma when I sniffed my hands afterwards.

The inevitable.

Most shopping stops would at most give us water / tea but at this tea shop; there were plates of biscuits and sunflower seeds! That's one guaranteed way to force me to drink more of their tea! 

Tea aside, I must say this bamboo shoot biscuits were amazingly good! So impressed I was; I actually went all out to ask if they could sell me the biscuits! p.s. I managed to get my hands on 3 boxes, and if memory serves me right; they were priced at 200 Taiwan dollars each. 

Beginning of the sales pitch by the same Taiwanese uncle and from the reviews I read on Google Map; he is the de facto face for the tea factory, and many of the higher review scores were attributed to him. 

A year older than my dad, the uncle shared that there were three seasons to the tea harvest, in spring, autumn and winter and they can harvest 250,000 Taiwan catties a year, a reduction from 400,000 ever since they went on a drive towards an organic, no insecticide farming.

Tea sampling time; and washing it down with bamboo shoot biscuits! 

These particular tea leaves were 半生茶 which had a nicer taste with a sweet after taste. Only problem with such tea is its high caffeine, unsuitable for insomnias like me.

The tea with the darker shade was 陈年茶, which would be under the same class as yunnan pu-erh. Although this doesn't have much caffeine, the big disadvantage as compared to pu-erh was its astringent taste. 

半生茶 is more palatable even though as far as taste was concerned, I would say typical green tea sachets from OJK, at 50 sachets for about S$6, would be sufficient to satisfy my needs for healthier drinks.

But the uncle whipped out another product; green tea powder! Extolling the health benefits like constipation, improve immunity, and its usage for masks, he also shared that green tea powder should mix with cold, room temperature, and not hot / warm water.

His preferred way was to mix with a probiotic drink like Yakult / Vitagen, which he proceeded to ask his staff members to pour into our teacups! 

Now going into the product sale segment; they were not cheap and were priced between 2,000 to 2,500 a box. Seeing that we were unmoved by the high price, he started throwing in bundle promotions; buy three, get two free etc. 

That resulted in some stirrings amongst our tour mates and even I was excited about the deals! If I were to buy 5 boxes of green tea powder, that would be 1,200 Taiwan dollars (about S$50) a box, which is quite reasonable for organic green tea.

The uncle's literal shit talk! When it comes to selling, I must admit this uncle was top-notch; humorous, persuasive with the flexibility in negotiating and putting customers at ease. And he kept pumping us with tea! 

I left satisfied, with plenty of tea in my tummy, and my credit card bearing a line with an outlay of a few hundred Singapore dollars. p.s. and I am drinking green tea powder mixed with yakult every night. Three more boxes to go. 

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Address

No. 358, Section 2, Jishan Rd, 

Zhushan Township, Nantou County, 

Taiwan

Map

As above.

Click HERE for the Summarized Itinerary for Our 8 Days 7 Nights See Iconic Taiwan Anew Tour Package via Chan Brothers