Minjian Tea Farm

There is a very popular Tetra Pak drink sold in almost all of the stores in Taiwan, which is Pure Tea (純喫茶) by the brand Uni-President (統一). In Chinese, we call it “Chun-chi cha”. Chun means pure and chi means eat. It is because in Taiwanese, sometimes we use “eat” as the verb for drinking tea. Cha means tea.

The tea is one of the few food products taking the system of contract farming. One of the tea farms is here in Mingjian (名間). As you walk around this place, you will see fields of tea farms in front of you. All the greenery is soothing and providing fresh air. You can see parts of the tea tree caring process here. You will see shells of peanuts in the farm. It serves many purposes. They separate dirt so the shoes will not get dirty easily when farmers step in. The shells can reserve some water when the sun comes out. It also prevents other grass from growing and when they finally decompose, they can be the nutrient for the soil. Wisdom learned from generations of farmers!