Tea Competition
The tea competition results came in just before our show at the Taipei Zoo, so we were able to take some of our better tea to that event. Aliang had 5 teas take 3rd place (more on that in a minute), and overall was quite happy with his showing. I didn’t get to go observe the testing with him, as I had to work, but he took a few photos for me. After our Zoo show, we went back to his shop (for tea, of course!) and he explained how the competion process works.
Each contestant can enter as many teas (all Tieh Kuan Yin for this event) as they like, but they have to provide 13kg (about 29 lbs) of each tea. The judges have set criteria that the tea must pass at each level, and all teas that meet the criteria get a pass. This means the contestants aren’t so much competing against each other as they are competing against the judges. At this contest, 16 teas passed the standards for 1st place (in effect, there were 16 winners), 36 teas passed the standards for 2nd place, and 46 teas passed the standards for 3rd place. That makes a total of 98 ‘best’ teas, out of 359 total entries, and A-Liang had 4 teas that placed. In the 1st place category, they also pick a ‘champion’ (called tou deng), which is the best tea of the top winners (this is the prize everyone hopes to get).
After determining the winners, the judges then determine pricing. Based on their experiences and the 
quality of the crop, they determine what the selling prices will be for the top finishers. Then the Farmer’s Association bags up the submitted tea in small packages, usually 150g (about 5.5 oz) and seals it with a sticker identifying it’s place in the competition and registration number. The contestants can then sell that tea in their shop, and consumers can be assured they are getting what they pay for (and, they can contact the association to check what the rates are before buying as well).
The ‘Champion’ tea from this competition was priced at NT$16,000 / jing (600g), which converts to US$527 / 1.3 lbs. For 29 lbs, that comes to US$11,756! By comparison, the other 1st place teas were priced at NT$6,000 / jing (600g), which comes to about US$200 / 1.3 lbs.
An interesting note is that some tea merchants will sign agreements with the association to buy certain quantities of 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place teas in advance, although they won’t know what their price is until after the competition. It can be a bit risky, but having the certified tea to sell in their shops is usually worth it.
In addition to the top standards, they also have a minimum standard as well, and teas that fail to meet the basic tests are dropped from the competion. Below is a picture of two ‘losers’. The one on the left was so lightly roasted that it more resembled oolong tea that TKY, and A-Liang said he was surprised that it was even submitted. The sample on the right was very heavily roasted (as evidenced by the dark color), but the leaf was very poor quality to begin with, and so it was also given the boot.
While discussing all of this with A-Liang, he got a phone call from the association telling him his tea was ready to pick up. So we went in his car (took 2 trips) to bring the tea back. Hopefully I’ll get to try some of it next week, and post a follow-up.
