品茶 :: 木柵鐵觀音和文山包種

In the 25-minute 'gondola' ride to Maokong on Getou Mountains (犁頭山貓空).

In many ways, the teahouses at Maokong (貓空) felt raw-ish. They seem to focus more on techniques of tea farming and production. I could be entirely wrong. What do I know, as a tourist? The biggest issue, I only had hours there instead of three days. It wasn't enough to explore every teahouse and their chosen plantation's production of Muzha Tie Guan Yin (木柵鐵觀音) and Wenshan Pouchong (文山包種).

Every teahouse offers local food. Filling enough, but I'm sorry, I'm really really not fond of whatever's on the menu. It's just very odd cuisine to me. Not my cup of tea. (Pun not intended) Leaving A out of this trek, H and I wandered around Maokong tasting its tea. We had recommendations in hand and contacts. But we weren't very impressed with what we had. The water offered at the teahouses was really crappy. Too hard. The pipes that held potable water were perhaps not completely free of rust and mineral built-up. It made the tea taste awful. A pity, because some tea leaves were decent.

Of course in Taiwan, you brew your own tea at whichever teahouse you land in. In Maokong, of the many, this photo sums up the basic tea sets given. They're unimaginative and utilitarian, and hmmm...neither pretty nor conducive to how we brew tea. But we made do. We improvised. There was a tea holder in clay, which worked as a conduit to filter water straight out of that metal, unfriendly electric kettle. Often, in total contrast to our lessons, we didn't understand why people use boiling water to brew tea. Oh well.