Note: Nestled in the lush hills overlooking Taipei, MaoKong tea epitomizes Taiwan’s rich tea culture. Renowned for its serene atmosphere and premium oolong teas, MaoKong offers visitors the delicate floral notes of Tieguanyin to the robust flavors of Baozhong. More importantly, MaoKong’s teas promise a sip of Taiwanese heritage. Here are Dash K’s. reflections on tea in the MaoKong region.
Today is the fifth day of the trip! We visited MaoKong and explored the surrounding neighborhoods nestled in the mountaintops in the Wenshan District. To get to the mountains, we first had to gain 280 meters of elevation. For context, that’s somewhere in between the Space Needle (184m) and the Eiffel Tower (330m). The method we used?
The MaoKong Gondola system will get you up the mountain and give you amazing views of mountainous region. This was an amazing gondola ride which had a super cool view of the city that took us up the mountain.
After a hike, we visited a tea plantation and learned about the history and the culture of making tea in Taiwan. Our tour guide gave us a sample of a Baozhong tea leaf, which they harvest to make a robust and fragrant tea. A student from our partner school showed us how to properly steep the leaves and how to properly pour the tea. In the photo below, we are trying to enjoy the tea while trading our contact information to stay connected since this was the last day we might see some of the partner school students.
The trip to the museum included a guide through the fields, a promotional movie in a theater and a sample of all the various teas made in this region.
After our visit to the tea museum and after we said our goodbyes, we went to a restaurant called the Big TeaPot! Imagine a cooking show where every dish you made had to somehow include tea. We got to eat Oolong infused rice noodles, fried chicken flavored with Jasmine, prawns sautéed with lavender among several other courses, all while eating on top of the mountain where that tea is grown.
After the meal, I went for a refreshing walk, my friends and I ordered a milk tea which was super sweet and super good! After we paid, we freaked out because we needed to be back by 7:15pm for our gondola ride back down. We bolted back to the tea house and we made it back by 7:14, with a minute to spare!
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