And I've fallen in love with not only the people.

But the food as well.

Today I'm leveling up my taste buds.

And trying out something new.

Hi, everyone. It's me, Jenn.

And welcome back to my channel.

And welcome to Nantou.

And also welcome to CF Tea, Chuan Fa Tea.

As you can see, I'm surrounded by tea fields.

So I think you kind of know what today's video is going to be about.

But first, I want to tell you

how you can get here.

So let's rewind a little bit and go back.

From wherever you are in Taiwan,

to get to today's spot

you'll need to hop on to the HSR.

Once you reached Changhua Station,

get off and grab a taxi.

It's just a quick ride into Nantou County

and to CF Tea.

Right away I began my experience and immersion

into tea culture

by hopping into the back of a track

with the CF Tea family,

and we made our way farther into Nantou.

Okay. So we are on the way

to the main tea farm area,

which is not far from the main building.

How authentic is this. I love it

that we're sitting in the back of a truck.

We got hats.

We got the buckets to pick the tea leaves.

I'm all set. I'm excited.

Wow. Oh my god, there's many "Tonbo"

dragonflies.

Typically when you're picking the tea leaves,

you wear this kind of hat.

As everyone here is going to be wearing.

So I'm going to be wearing as well.

And you put this on.

Tie it and this is to help block the sun.

So where we're heading to is this middle one here.

You can see kind of like the curtain area right there.

That's black.

And that's to separate the farm.

Because something special about the farm we're on,

they do not use chemicals.

So it's to help protects

and know exactly where the lot is.

Alright, we're gonna pick some tea leaves here.

There's a certain way to harvest them.

So for example,

this leaf here.

You can see it's 1, 2, 3.

I think it was like, this is the heart.

And then the outside.

That's good.

Yay, okay. Let's go.

You can see that this field looks slightly different

than the other field that I was in.

This tea trees are about 40 years old.

That's a long time.

That's older than me.

You can tell they're organic by looking down here.

Some mulch.

The products used look slightly different.

And some of the leaves here have some like bug bites in them.

That's how you can tell it's organic.

Also, you can see the age of a tea tree

by the trunk shown here.

Do you see how many leaves are in this basket?

How many teapots do you think that these can make?

I'll let you think about it.

Five seconds.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Zero actually.

One basket is not even enough for one pot.

It's actually four baskets

make one teapot.

Can you believe that?

We're going to the next place

which is a temple.

Wow, look at the view.

It's a little bit cloudy today.

But on a really clear day.

You can see the Taiwan strait.

And I was told that

the view is the best after rain.

And actually I learned the word for rain today.

Xia yu, right? Okay.

So this temple, Shou Tian Gong.

And I was told that it has over

or about 300 years of history.

So we're going to bless some of the tea.

Normal body temperature.

Please wear your mask.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Okay. For an example,

for about one month,

the family will come here at least two times.

So it has to do with the lunar calender

with the first of the month and the 15th of the month.

But you know sometimes,

they could come here five times in a month

to have the tea blessed.

But also to wish for a good harvest.

Alright. Now we're heading back

to the main building.

And we're going to learn how to make the tea.

The family tradition here

is to rinse your hands with tea.

Because they say it helps you

after being busy all day outside.

And has a really nice smell on your hands afterwards.

Kind of helps you relax.

And next step, we have tea-making from scratch.

Normally, it's done with the assistance of machines

in modern times.

However, you can experience it

and make tea by hand at CF Tea.

You see the board behind me here.

That's how you make the tea leaves by machine.

But when you want to experience actual tea making,

we're gonna do it by hands.

Wo-ow, it's actually quite hot.

The tea leaves are slowly cooking from the middle.

So like the outside here isn't hot.

But the middle I can definitely feel the warmth.

And I can smell it already.

Even through the mask.

The boss can use no gloves.

But for me, I'm not an expert.

-Is this Oolong tea? -Yup.

It's Oolong Tea.

Actually CF Tea, this establishment

has won a lot of awards.

Even from back, from the year I was born

in 1989.

So, you roll the tea.

And then you take it apart.

And you have to do it again.

Massage it, roll it around.

And usually it's one hour intervals.

So you do it 20 times,

which means if one hour is in between.

It's a long time.

I want to try.

So, I open it first, right?

Okay.

You can see that this tea sticks together like this.

So, you pull it apart.

Right? It really does stick together.

I did it, yay!

Smells really nice.

You really smell the tea leaf.

Good smell.

Now comes the part my taste buds

have been looking forward to.

And that is tasting some of the delicious teas here on hand

at the tea farm.

So, we're gonna try five different teas today.

-This is green tea. -Okay.

So, each tea has been fermented differently.

So, it goes from lighter to darkest.

And then the 40-year-old tea plants.

Ready? Okay.

Very smooth, very delicious.

It's more lighter in flavor.

Ah.

Delicious. I don't want to waste.

This is white tea.

White tea.

Thank you.

She serves me first. How sweet is she.

A light flower fragrance

and the taste of honey.

It's a slightly heavier taste.

Still a little floral.

-Thank you so much. -This is honey black tea.

Honey black tea.

Thank you.

Ready? Okay.

This one has more of a honey flavor.

And they were saying it's because the insects that like

come to the leaves themselves.

Carry their own natural honey.

So you can taste it in the tea.

I like this one.

It's like sweet, but not too sweet.

This black Oolong tea.

The taste of black tea and Oolong tea.

Black tea and Oolong tea.

Thank you.

Not too bitter.

But a little bit more bitter than the other ones.

So this one is fermented longer than the other ones.

But not this one.

But that's probably why it tasted just a little bit more bitter

than the other ones.

This is old tea.

A 35-year-old tea.

So this tea is exactly 35 years old.

So, I'm in for a treat today.

I'm looking forward to this one.

Ready? Okay.

It tastes, it tastes luxurious.

This tea that we were mentioning

that is 35 years old.

It's kinda like aged, vintage tea.

And actually there's competitions in Taiwan

for this kind of tea in particular.

So, this shop itself has one award

for this particular tea itself.

So, about 600g of this

is about 10,000 to 15,000 NTD.

I'm so lucky today

to be able to even drink a little bit of this.

If you put all the cups together,

and you didn't tell me which was which,

I feel like I could still pick this one out.

Which tea do you like?

This one.

This one.

Ah, I also like this one.

That has the honey inside.

I also like this one.

I like this one too.

I spoke too soon.

We're gonna do a test.

And I'm gonna try to see if I can pick out my favorite,

which has like the honey flavor

and the luxurious one.

And we switched them to black cups.

So, I cannot see.

Which cup would you like to guess?

Hmm, let me try this one, the first one.

Thank you.

Is it this one?

-This one. -Ah.

It's the honey one.

How did I not know?

Oh no. Am I gonna fail this test?

Number two is up next.

Ready? Okay.

This is so difficult.

Is this one?

Yeah.

Number three.

She looks like she knows.

Is it this one?

Wait a minute.

It's this one.

Is it?

Yeah! Okay, that's what I originally thought.

Okay, thank you.

Oh no, the last two.

Before I choose,

I want to try the last one first.

It's this one.

Okay.

Which means the one before

which tasted more kind of more floral smooth

is this one.

Like this.

Finishing up my experience today.

I was served tea by a tea master in training.

While spending the day at CF Tea,

I really got to see how special this family business is.

They have been working together

for five generations.

And you can really feel how busy lively life is

being on the ground.