In order to show gratitude for a good harvest after a year of efforts cultivating tea, the Maokong Recreation Area launches a "Tea Harvest Festival" that features tea sealing ceremonies and tea tasting activities that not only promote local tea culture but also deliver a feeling of gratitude. Under the leadership of Director Zhang You-lin of Maokong Recreation Industry & Community Development Association, everyone is invited to learn more about the local tea culture as well as the beautiful natural landscape and humanistic cultural activities that come along with it.
Tea Harvest Festival: A Time for Tea Sealing Ceremony in Pray for Blessing
Ever since 2015, the Tea Harvest Festival has been held sometime before and after winter solstice every year with regular God of Tea pilgrimage that proceeds throughout the entire recreation area and tea sealing ceremony in pray for blessing. According to Consultant WENG,CHAO-LIANG of Maokong Recreation Industry & Community Development Association, the tea sealing ceremony features using an ink brush to write the wish and expectation on a piece of rice paper before storing it along with the tealeaves in a tea can. Once properly sealed, the tea can is preserved with the passage of time and space. After several years, the tea can may be unsealed before the content is poured out and boiled into fine tea to share with family and friends. Like a new form of a time capsule, some special meaning is attached to the tea as the family and friends share the same pot of tea together.
Experience the Tea Tasting Culture in Maokong
Once a sleepless town in which everyone stays up late all through the night, Maokong is still one of the most important bases that produce tea in Taiwan even though the novelty has worn off a bit. While taking a leisure walk in the recreation area, you will come across some foreign friends who visit this place to experience the local tea culture. To learn more about the local tea culture, you may pay visit to the Taipei Tea Promotion Center to get to know the Tie Guanyin Tea and Baozhong Tea that are cultivated in the Muzha District. Every day, a local tea company will introduce its product and brew its tea for the general public to taste.
Hansheh Tea House: An Ideal Place to Enjoy Organic Tea in Maokong
Born to a family that cultivates tea for generations in Muzha District of Taipei City, Zhang Fu-qin learned a lot about the tea by osmosis especially from his grandfather. After completing his military service at the army, Zhang returned to the Hansheh Tea House to grow tea, make tea, and serve tea. As the first organic tea house certified in Maokong, Hansheh Tea House is a place where visitors may brew tea while looking far into the distance at the organic tea farm located on the top of the terrace on the opposite side.
As we entered the tea making room, we saw some tea leaves tightly wrapped into cloth balls and asked what they were. In response, the tea house owner Zhang skillfully used his hands and feet to unwrap the cloth ball before wrapping it back into a cloth ball again. We were utterly surprised by his demonstration. Things turn out that after blanching, the tea becomes soft and puffy and appears to be in the shape of tea leaves instead of wrinkled strips. The damp tea leaves are then rolled to be formed into wrinkled strips by hand or using a rolling machine which causes the tea to wrap around itself. This rolling action also causes some of the sap, essential oils, and juices inside the leaves to ooze out, which further enhances the taste of the tea. These tea making processes are important in the formation of unique flavors of semi-fermented tea.
When brewing tea at Hansheh Tea House, the most recommended is the Tie Guanyin Tea that the teahouse grown by itself. You may choose to take a seat at any one of the pavilions outdoors and brew the tea while chatting with your families and friends to your heart’s fullest content. If you are a tea expert, you may also find the tea house owner for tea tasting, tea drinking, and talk everything about tea.
Maokong Tea Master: A Teahouse that Welcomes Foreign Friends
As an old tea house, “Maokong Tea Master” is located in the core area within a 10-minute-walk from Maokong Gondola. It is a teahouse that almost all visitors come across when paying a visit to Maokong Agricultural Recreation Area. Known for his outstanding tea-making skills, the first generation of teahouse owner collects tea products from tea farmers who share the same business principles all over Taiwan. Cumulating stable customer bases over the years, the teahouse provides tea to the customers who picked tea products on the day of our visiting. Aside from Tie Guanyin Tea, the teahouse also provides good tea from all over Taiwan such as Lishan Oolong Tea, Alishan High Mountain Oolong Tea, and more so that you may buy whatever tea you want in just one go.
After returning back to Taiwan, the second generation of teahouse owner expands his customer base to include foreign friends with his foreign language proficiency. On regular day, the business owner would stand by the doorway, inviting customers to come into the teahouse so that they can drink tea and chat happily together. By introducing tea culture in Taiwan, the business owner interacts with the customers to learn their tastes and interests. As a matter of fact, the business owner does not care if the customer does not buy any tea at all. All he hopes is that the customers are able to bring home wonderful memories about his teahouse.
Take a Leisure Walk on the Hiking Trail in Search of Sumptuous Cuisines
Connecting the foot of the mountain and Maokong Agricultural Recreation Area, Maokong Gondola not only relieves the local traffic but also brings in a large crowd of tourists. For the first-timer, you may take a ride on the crystal cabin (glass-bottom cars) as long as you're physically fit to enjoy the fun of ascending slowly over the treetop before arriving at Maokong Agricultural Recreation Area in less than half an hour.
The Camphor Trail is a popular destination in Maokong Agricultural Recreation Area. The trail boasts a wide range of natural wonders and is paved with nice bricks most of the way up without stairs, making it very accessible for visitors of all ages. On the way, you will be fully immersed in the rustic countryside landscapes such as Feet Dangling Pavilion, Rotating Barn House and more. Under the guidance of Master Yi, we finally arrive at the Camphor Mountain Temple where we get a birds-eye-view on the entire Taipei City which is worthy of our sweat along the way.
Maokong Potholes are the reason why the place first gets its name. Created by the rushing waters, the potholes in the rock of the streambed look like cat paw imprints which is literally translated into English as the "cat holes". The Pothole Trail follows a cascading creek with the sound of running water providing a simple and natural environment.
Teas are added to most of the dishes in Maokong Agricultural Recreation Area that are worthy of your try. Take Maokong Ching Chuen Square for example, the refreshing tea seed oil is added to the Three Cup Chicken which is traditionally cooked based on the 3 cups - 1 cup of soy sauce, 1 cup of rice wine, and 1 cup of sesame oil. Under the chef’s mastery of the duration and degree of cooking fire, the 3 cup chicken is crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside that delivers great aroma and flavor. For another example, tealeaves from a friend of the teahouse owner are added to the clam chicken soup so that the visitors are able to taste the freshness of the clams and the fragrance of the tealeaves at the same time. By adding refreshing Japanese salad dressing to the fiddlehead fern salad, the chef carefully removes the rough stems from the salad so that the visitors always crave for more after their first bite.
Chef A-Yi's Big Teapot Tea Restaurant combines local crops and tea to develop a wide variety of creative tea cuisines. For example, tealeaves are ground into powder before added to the fried rice with egg so that the fried rice delivers tea aroma without any tea residues. Additionally, four season spring tea is also added to the egg tofu so that the visitors are able to taste the tenderness of the tofu and the aroma of the four season spring tea at the same time. Furthermore, Maokong Tie Guanyin Tea and Wuyishan Rock Tea are applied to make the Tea Smoked Chicken Leg; rose pedals are added to the fried shrimp to improve the aroma, and Tie Guanyin Tea is added to the mixed mushroom soup that is both regimen and delicious.
Ching Chuen Square and Chef A-Yi's Big Teapot Tea Restaurant are such popular restaurants that they are sometimes fully booked on holidays. You are advised to make a reservation in advance so that the restaurant can save a seat for you.
Just like a small backyard for Taipei citizens, Maokong Agricultural Recreation Area is home to many teahouses that work together to promote tea culture to the general public. With the development of tea products, Cat's Café provides tea ice-cream and pizza with tea fragrance to its visitors. If you don’t want to drink tea, Cat’s Café may be a good alternative for you to enjoy café and waffles while admiring the beautiful sceneries and find total relaxation.
If it has been a long time since you last visited Maokong to enjoy a good cup of tea or if you have never experienced the natural and cultural landscapes of Maokong, you are invited to pay a visit to the Maokong Agricultural Recreation Area to write down your own wishes and seal your own tea can. You may also take a leisure walk on the hiking trail in search of good tea restaurant along the way or enjoy a good cup of Tie Guanyin Tea that Muzha is widely famous for.
Hansheh Tea House
Address: No. 6, Ln. 40, Sec. 3, Zhinan Rd., Wenshan Dist., Taipei City, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
TEL: 02-2938-4934
FB Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/MaokongHanser
Maokong Tea Master
Address: No. 33-1, Ln. 38, Sec. 3, Zhinan Rd., Wenshan Dist., Taipei City, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
TEL: 02-2936-2517
FB Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/maokongteamaster29362517
Ching Chuen Square
Address: No. 33-1, Ln. 38, Sec. 3, Zhinan Rd., Wenshan Dist., Taipei City, Taiwan (R.O.C.) (on the top of the opposite side)
TEL: 02-2938-3222
FB Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/QingquanSquare
Chef A-Yi's Big Teapot Tea Restaurant
Address: 1 F, No. 37-1, Ln. 38, Sec. 3, Zhinan Rd., Wenshan Dist., Taipei City, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
TEL: 02-2939-5615
FB Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/貓空阿義師的大茶壺茶餐廳-144449565591674
Cat’s Café (Cat’s got nothing to do café)
Address: Next to No. 33, Ln. 38, Sec. 3, Zhinan Rd., Wenshan Dist., Taipei City, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
TEL: 0912-359345
FB Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/貓空閒-cats-cafe-164732883575769
Cha-Tei
Address: No. 228, Sec. 1, Muzha Rd., Wenshan Dist., Taipei City, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
TEL: 02-8661-5299
FB Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/CHATEItea