18th Century Origins: Fujian Immigrants and Their Tea
The Han Chinese immigration into Taiwan during the Qing dynasty (17th–19th century) brought primarily Fujian province settlers. These immigrants from the Anxi, Wuyi, and Zhangzhou tea-growing areas naturally planted their familiar tea cultivars in Taiwan's similar subtropical mountain climate. The cultivars they brought — including the ancestor of Qingxin Oolong ("soft branch oolong"), still Taiwan's most planted variety — proved exceptionally well-adapted to Taiwan's higher altitude terrain.
Formosa Oolong and the British Tea Trade
The Scottish merchant John Dodd arrived in Taiwan (then known as Formosa) in the 1860s and identified commercial opportunity in the island's existing artisan oolong production. Working with local producer Li Chun Sheng, Dodd created the first export-grade "Formosa Oolong" — a lightly oxidised, partial-ball-rolled oolong with a distinctive floral, honeyed character — and sold it to the New York market in 1869. It was received with enthusiasm; Taiwan rapidly became a significant tea exporter.
🧠 Expert Tip: Formosa Vintage
The 19th-century Formosa Oolong exported by Dodd represented a moment when Taiwan's terroir and traditional Fujian processing combined without industrialisation or external interference. Some tea historians argue that those original Formosa Oolongs — produced by artisan tea farmers in pre-industrial conditions — represented unseen quality benchmarks that contemporary production is still trying to match.
Japanese Period: Industrialisation and New Cultivars
Japanese colonisation (1895–1945) brought ambitious tea industry transformation. The colonial government established research stations (particularly the Taoyuan Tea Research Station), introduced Japanese green tea production methods alongside the existing oolong tradition, and systematically bred new cultivars adapted to different Taiwanese altitudes and climates. The ALS (Agricultural Research) cultivar breeding programme produced TTES No. 12 (Jin Xuan, developed 1981 — just after the Japanese period's influence era), TTES No. 18 (Red Jade), and others that now dominate commercial production.
Bubble Tea: Taiwan's Global Beverage Invention
In 1988, two Tainan establishments claim to have independently invented bubble tea (珍珠奶茶, zhēnzhū nǎichá, "pearl milk tea"): Chun Shui Tang (mixing tapioca pearls with cold milk tea) and Han Lin Tea Room. Both stories are credible; both establishments sold the beverage commercially at approximately the same time. What is certain is that bubble tea — sweetened milk tea (typically black or oolong) with chewy tapioca starch pearls consumed through a wide straw — spread from Taiwan globally and is now a $3 billion+ global market with hundreds of national variants.
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