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...
A thoughtful question came from the Discord Server about the last blog post: "In the post, you mentioned that more and more younger folks are involved in the tea industry, and you also mentioned that prices on the premium/organic side are increasing. Have you happened to notice any correlation between those two trends (either on the “young people are more involved in production” and/or “young people are more involved in consumption” sides)? The feedback loops between the costs well-off folks are willing to pay, the general inflation that results, and the increasing operational costs to support workers so they can survive said inflation are interesting to think about, so I’m mostly curious if you’ve gathered any insight into such dynamics...
Our yearly trip to the 2025 Nantou Global Tea Expo was an enjoyable success, but we did see some disappointing trends emerge. There seems to be a growing divergence between the expensive 'premium' and cheaper teas which has been challenging for many companies. While not unique to Taiwanese tea by any means, the divergence did seem to accelerate this year. Some of the things we noticed: 1. We found no new teas or exciting innovations during our visit this year. We couldn't even find the rumored new 'orange' style of tea to try. In the past, experimental cakes, new and interesting hybrid processing styles and unique cultivars were all available to try, evaluate and discuss. This year we didn’t find...
Some great distilled wisdom in this one! Those traveling to Taiwan for tea often get caught out by the sheer size, complexity and skill of the local tea market. Especially those in search of good, cheap tea for their business. The blog post below, although more on the Chinese tea side of things, has a great set of perspectives to temper expectations and prepare you for your tea trip to Taiwan. It isn't easy to navigate the market here, especially on your first trip. Or your second. Read it here: https://taiwanteaodyssey.com/what-to-expect-when-visiting-taiwan/ This blog is a great one if you haven't seen it yet and https://www.instagram.com/alexbtw886/ is a worthwhile follow on Instagram as well. Especially if you enjoy the post-fermented side...
Fresh Fall Tea And More Mountain Stream Teas Teaducation Subscription Service September, 2025 The late summer and fall season of tea in Taiwan is upon us and in this month’s box are some of the freshest teas we have. This season’s teas are a favorite of ours and we hope that you enjoy them as well! What are the teas we will look at this month? We found some great examples of Fall teas this year. Included this month are: Fall Pear Mountain, 2000m elevation, 25% Oxidization, hand picked on August 20th, 2025, Lishan, Nantou County, Qinxin Tasting notes: Balanced sweet vegetal, stone fruit, thick mouthfeel and floral perfume Alpine White, 1200m elevation, 0% Oxidization, hand picked in April, 2025,...
