The Official Chinese name of the Mountain Stream Teas company translates as ‘Hualien Outdoors’. That was the name of the company when we were a wilderness adventure outfit that supported our family from 2014 to around 2022 or so. For a decade we lead thousands of people into the beautiful rivers and mountains of the east coast of Taiwan, and during the last couple years of business, the tea gardens as well. We slightly oversold those trips as ‘Tea Adventures’, and thankfully people didn’t mind too much. Ending the trips at a hot spring helped.
It was a great experience, although admittedly much higher stress than selling tea. As Mountain Stream Teas has grown, we have always known that eventually we would start doing tea garden visits again. We have the skills, knowledge and experience to create some absolutely amazing memories for guests. We also have motivation to do it the right way.
Now seems like a good time to try it. Or plan it and see if anyone is interested anyways! It would be a trip to meet our friends, visit places that are both high end and those that are affordable, travel around Taiwan during the Spring Harvest Season to see tea getting made, and leave everyone who visits satisfied they got their money’s worth. Guests would see the tea making process, the Taiwanese Tea Industry’s underbelly, and how tea actually makes it to market. And most importantly, they will get a very deep understanding of Taiwanese tea that can’t be found anywhere else. They would also get a heavy dose of Taiwanese culture and geography!
As we begin the planning process the trip would look something like this:
Day 1 Arrive in Hualien, drink tea at the shop, sleep in Hualien
Day 2 Drive to Taroko Gorge for tea and on to Ilan to visit two places. Sleep in Jiaoxi hot spring resort (Travel time 2-3 hours)
Day 3 Pinglin/Muzha maybe Sanxia. Sleep in Taipei (Travel time 2-3 hours)
Day 4 High speed rail to Taichung, Visit the Mingjiang area, sleep in mountain area. (Travel time 4-5 hours)
Day 5 Alishan/Meishan. Sleep in mountains or lower down. (Travel time 1-3 hours)
Day 6 Dongding/Sun Moon Lake. Sleep in rural area. (Travel time 3-4 hours)
Day 7 Dongding/Sun Moon Lake, final tea meeting in Taichung. End
*Travel time means in the car going from farm to farm. Not all at once.
**Visiting places like Lishan or Fushoushan involve full travel days and altitude sickness. If there is demand to go there I will set up a supplementary 3-4 days trip but it is expensive and relatively unpleasant.
Costs would be around 2900USD and would be all inclusive from noon on Day 1 to end of Dinner on Day 7(Travel, hotel, food)
If double occupancy it could be slightly cheaper. (We will not match guests)
Hotels would be a mix between 1-4 stars depending on the options in the area. Better in the lower elevations, less so in the higher elevations. Vegetarian food is relatively easy to do. Transport would be in T5 style Volkswagen vans and maybe a larger 12 person bus if needed.
The time frame for the trip would be late April to Mid May. The season could be stretched from mid March to late May but with less tea making. Multiple weeks of trips are a possibility if more people are interested. More details about timing will come after feedback. If you have a large enough group 5+ it might be possible to do a private trip.
So, that is the first draft of the plan. If you are interested in a Spring Tea Harvest Trip, what do you think? Any questions or comments?
If you think you might be interested in one of these trips, please let us know here!
-Mountain Stream Teas
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