(Photo credit: Rixin Tea Plantation)
Chinese name: 日新茶園
Located at: Miaoli County (Northern Taiwan)
Address: 29-1 Shangping, Neighborhood 5, Xinglong Village, Toufen City,
Miaoli County
Situated in Miaoli
County’s Toufen City, Rixin Tea Plantation (日新茶園) is about one hundred
years old. The fourth-generation owner Hsu Shih-wen (許時穩) has devoted himself to
the tea industry for more than three decades. More than twenty years ago, Hsu
started organic tea cultivation. Different from a tea plantation relying on pesticides
and chemical fertilizers, Rixin Tea Plantation refuses any artificial
chemicals. Organic farming is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and low-yielding
because tea workers have more difficulty in weeding and repelling insects.
Despite that, Hsu persists in growing organic tea.
(Photo credit: Rixin Tea Plantation)
The owner’s perseverance
and investment have not been in vain. Hsu got a national
non-toxic certificate and an MOA organic certificate. In 2008, his black tea
won the gold medal in the national organic tea
tasting competition. He has become one of organic tea suppliers for big drinks companies. Moreover, Hsu promoted his own tea
on television or in print media. As a result, Rixin Tea Plantation draws
public’s attention and earns a good reputation. Having fine qualities and
receiving many awards, its Oriental Beauty tea, honey black tea, and bitter orange
tea are widely popular with domestic and overseas customers. Among these teas, bitter
orange tea, Rixin’s signature product, is a characteristic of Hakka heritage.
As a Hakka descendant, Hsu
uses his grandfather’s method to make bitter orange tea by mixing tea leaves
into the fruits of Hutou Gan (虎頭柑), a kind of orange used as
an ornament during
Lunar New Year. Hutou Gan is usually destined to be discarded due to its
bitterness. In earlier times, wasting food was the last thing Hakka ancestors
would do since they were faced with the harsh living conditions. Therefore,
those immigrants invented bitter orange tea.
(Photo credit: Rixin Tea Plantation)
However, the process of
making bitter orange tea is much more complicated
than expected. Because fewer and fewer tea farmers are willing to invest
massive amounts of time and energy in this complex tea processing, bitter
orange tea is gradually disappearing. Fortunately, Hsu has produced bitter
orange tea for ten years. On account of Rixin’s prestige, bitter orange tea is
also exported to many countries, such as Japan, China, and Germany. At Hsu’s
insistence, the Hakka legacy of wisdom can be preserved.