Tea: A Cultural and Economic Powerhouse of Taiwan

Introduction

Tea has always been an important part of Taiwanese culture and history. With the native, fragrant, and unique oolong tea being its major tea export, Taiwan has always been an important player in the global tea trade. In addition to its native crop and influences from the Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, and British Tea Company, the Taiwanese have ingrained tea as an important part of Taiwanese culture and history. Even with its vast history of growing and exporting tea, it was not until the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) that the Taiwanese firmly developed and integrated a tea culture into their society. This was mostly through influences from nearby China, from which Taiwan had experienced mass immigration since the year 1661. Tea had transformed from being just an exported commodity into a beverage that was part of the Taiwanese’s daily life. With these cultural and religious influences from China, tea had also become a beverage that was ceremoniously used for rituals and offered to gods and guests during important events such as funerals, worship, and weddings (Tea From Taiwan, The Tea Culture of Taiwan, 2020). 

However, with the modernization and industrialization of Taiwan, this ancient practice has reached a decline in importance, both culturally and economically, as Taiwan shifted to focus on exporting modern technologies such as integrated circuits, office machine parts, computers, etc (The Observatory of Economic Complexity). While not as significant as it once was, tea still makes up a large part of the Taiwanese identity and economy, with Taiwan being one of the largest exporters of tea in the world. This is in part due to the resurgence of the tea industry in Taiwan with the introduction of boba (bubble) milk tea and the popularization of experiencing traditional tea houses and the tea ceremony as a point of tourism. Tea has a large impact on Taiwanese culture and its economy, therefore even with the declining weight that tea has had on the Taiwanese economy, tea still carries a large importance on Taiwanese culture and history, whose preservation is vital. Through the modernization of the tea industry, with a larger focus on expanding the tea industry and proper marketing of tea as a symbol of cultural significance, tea can once again be a key player in the Taiwanese economy and increase global interest in the country and its history. 

Background

Tea has always been a crop grown by natives of the island, but largely overlooked as a commodity of little significance. However, through the Dutch colonization of the island from 1624 to 1662, and many visits from English merchants, most notably John Dodd starting 1865, tea had become a crop for exports early on in Taiwanese history. The Japanese occupation of Taiwan brought the introduction of numerous varieties of tea such as assam black tea from India, a variety of green teas (Etherington and Forster, The Structural Transformation of Taiwan’s Tea Industry, 1992), and the introduction of cassava plants, imported from South America, which is a starch used to make tapioca, an ingredient that would prove its great importance later on. In addition to the inception of new ingredients to the island, Japanese occupation, coupled with the influx of Chinese settlers, influenced the type of tea, architecture of teahouses, and the tea culture established in Taiwan, reflecting this complex and rich history of the island. Although the art of tea started to decline in Taiwan, the rising global popularity of bubble milk tea, which is a fusion of both Asian and European tea cultures as experienced by the Taiwanese, has revived the public interest in tea and tea as an art form. I have conducted my investigation on this phenomenon through extensive research on Taiwanese tea culture and economic revival through research on Taiwanese history with peer reviewed sources and data collection from The Observatory of Economic Complexity, Fortune Business Insights, and Grand View Research. Through my research, I hope to provide concrete examples and methods in which tea can help raise the Taiwanese economy and increase public interest and awareness of the small island country.

A Culture in Tea

Taiwan has a deep-rooted history and culture in tea, with influences largely from nearby China, the Dutch and Japanese occupation of the island, and the British trade interests in the country. Tea first became a crop on the island of Taiwan when settlers from Fujian and Guangdong, provinces in mainland China, had brought these tea seeds and created the first tea gardens on the island (Etherington and Forster, 1992, 403). Near the end of the 1600s, the earliest records of a tea industry in Taiwan had appeared, in which it was noted that the island’s frontiers were extremely suitable for cultivation, and through much fighting between the Han civilization and the indigenous Taiwanese, the practice of sharecropping tea by small peasant families and farmers was established (Etherington and Forster, 1992, 403). Although tea was a valuable crop, both monetarily and culturally, it was not until the English involvement in which, the British Merchant, John Dodd, took much interest in developing Taiwan’s tea industry in 1865, building tea factories to further develop Taiwan’s oolong tea crop into a more processed and finished product that was able to be transported and sold in England (Etherington and Forster, 404). With the trademark of Taiwan’s oolong tea as something that is a semi-fermented, aromatic tea that is unique to the island, the mass industrialization and globalization of the Taiwanese Tea economy had been kickstarted. 

In Taiwan’s tea culture, both Japanese and Chinese influences are also deeply rooted. This is due to Japanese colonization of the island from 1895 to 1945, and both the proximity and mass immigration to Taiwan from China starting from 1661, during which the conception of tea houses were brought to Taiwan from Chinese immigrants (Jolliffe, Tea and Tourism: Tourists, Traditions, and Transformations, 2007, 60). In China, tea culture has been greatly influenced by the dominant belief systems surrounding its culture such as Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Each of these sects have their individual tea ceremonies, which promote different virtues, and are widely practiced for different reasons. For example, the Confucian tea ceremony focuses on socialization, the Taoist tea ceremony is to seek quietness in solitude, away from the busy life, and the Buddhist tea ceremony is to clear one’s mind in meditation (Wu, What Makes Bubble Tea Popular? Interaction Between Chinese and British Tea Culture, 2020, 97). Although there were many versions of the tea ceremony widely practiced in China at the time, the one that remained popular and widely practiced in Taiwan was the Gong Fu Cha ceremony, a subset of the Confucian tea ceremony (Kurganska, The History of Taiwanese Tea Culture, 2018). Even though the Taiwanese tea ceremony takes origins from the Chinese, Japanese influence is still extremely evident with the presence of Japanese traditional teaware and architecture, which have largely influenced the structure of Taiwanese tea houses. In addition, similar to the wagashi, or sweets, typically offered in Japanese tea ceremonies, it is not uncommon for tea to be served in Taiwan with other traditional Taiwanese snacks and sweets (Kurganska, 2018) such as a pineapple cake depicted in Figure 1. Therefore, although the Taiwanese tea ceremony has large influences from both China and Japan, the Taiwanese tea culture has created a very interesting amalgamation of both cultures, morphing into something that is purely Taiwanese.

Perhaps due to the unique and dynamic history and culture of tea in Taiwan, the Taiwanese also view its tea as a source of food nationalism in the country. As explained in Chapter 8, titled Identity, of Alejandro Colas et al. book, food nationalism tends to be more prominent in societies in which once belonged to an old empire and has reached independence as a means to construct a history and tradition for said society, and food is often at the center of such cultures, as it “has the added importance of connecting the people to the soil, the terroir” (Colas, Food Politics, and Society, 2018, 132). This notion of terroir, a French term used to describe the unique flavors crops have as a result of their environmental factors, is not a foreign concept to the Taiwanese, as they have their own version of this term, bentu or bendi, which is a term that emphasizes the concept of localness or grown on Taiwanese soil in terms of food and agriculture. This term is most commonly used in the Taiwanese tea industry, expressing the inseparable relationship between food nationalism and the movement of food throughout the country and around the world (Hung and Lien, Anxiety of Food Nationalism: Dilemmas of Bordering in the Vietnam-Taiwan Tea Trade, 2019). The most notable example of this concept dominating Taiwanese food nationalism in regards to tea is the relationship and stigma that the Taiwanese have over Vietnamese tea. In the 1990s, with attempts for mass industrialization and globalization of the tea industry, many Taiwanese tea merchants and entrepreneurs had established factories and plantations in Vietnam. However, the tea grown and packaged in Vietnam has always been stereotyped as inferior to the bentu, locally grown, Taiwanese tea, as there is the stigma of less quality control and more pesticide residue in the teas imported from Vietnam (Hung and Lien, 2019). In addition, with the recent resurgence of the Taiwanese tea industry, the Taiwanese have also placed a much higher emphasis on the quality and authenticity of the tea itself, as tea has started to become a symbol of the island country and an element of food nationalism. The most recent case of this was in 2021, when health authorities had discovered that Costco had sold oolong tea, advertising it as Taiwanese, when over 90% of the tea leaves were Vietnamese tea leaves (Chiang, Taiwan News, Costco Supplier Sells ‘Taiwanese’ Tea Leaves Containing over 90% Vietnamese Tea, 2022). This event, along with many other cases of “lower” quality tea being smuggled into, labeled, and sold as Taiwanese tea, eventually led to the establishment of a mandatory traceability system for Taiwanese tea, starting January 1, 2023, and the talks of the eventual adding of agricultural and fishery products into this traceability system as well (Tzu-ti, Taiwan News, Mandatory Traceability for Taiwan Tea Takes Effect in 2023, 2022). These cases depict the added importance that the Taiwanese government and society as a whole have placed on the authenticity and quality of tea, as it has now formed into a source of food nationalism and identity for the country. 

Economics of Tea Throughout the Years

Even though tea has always had much cultural significance in Taiwan, tea does not hold the same economic significance as it does culturally. Although tea once was the island’s principal export commodity, it has transformed into a trivial export over time. However, with the increased global interest in Taiwanese tea, this is slowly starting to change as well, as tea now holds a much larger portion of the Taiwanese economy than it did in the year 2000. With an industry that is over 100 years old, it is no surprise that there have been many changes to it. The Taiwanese tea industry is a case in which an export industry “has experienced phases of rapid growth, relative stability, and dramatic decline” (Etherington and Forster, 1992, 417). Starting from 1952, the gross national product of Taiwan began to grow at an annual rate of 7.5%, with all of their exports growing at an annual rate of 8.5%. However, tea production during this time was only growing at an annual rate of 5.1%, and tea exports were growing at 6%. Therefore, starting from 1952 to 1961, the tea industry had begun to grow at a much slower rate than the rest of the Taiwanese economy, making it become less important and with less emphasis on expansion in exportation (Etherington and Forster, 1992, 407-8). With the rapid downturn in exports, Taiwan had shifted to advertising their tea to the domestic market, as depicted in Figure 2. Starting from the year 1977, exports started to rapidly decline, while the domestic consumption had started to increase rapidly, with 1982 being the year in which domestic consumption had reached a greater percentage of the tea industry than exports had. Therefore, although there was a much less emphasis on exporting tea, the Taiwanese still saw and continued their growth on tea output and consumption domestically. 

Even with the decline of tea exportation starting from the 1950s, the start of the new century had seen a recent upward trend in exporting tea again. In the year 2000, Taiwan saw $17.9M in tea exports, and at the start of the new decade in 2010, Taiwan saw $24.6M in tea exports, a number much higher than the beginning of the century and previous years. Starting from 2010, that number has only increased, and in 2019, Taiwan saw a record high of $121M in tea exports (The Observatory of Economic Complexity). Although that number has dropped to $98.5M in 2020, mostly due to the Coronavirus pandemic, it is safe to say that the tea industry in Taiwan is reaching an economic resurgence with the country realizing the importance and significance of the industry. According to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, in 2020, Taiwan was the 13th largest exporter of tea in the world, with tea being the 259th most exported product in Taiwan. The main tea export destinations from Taiwan were “China ($40.6M), United States ($14.8M), Hong Kong ($7.37M), Japan ($6.28M), and Canada ($3.71M)” (The Observatory of Economic Complexity). The fastest growing export markets of Taiwan in regards to tea between 2019 and 2020, as depicted in Figure 3, were Hong Kong (+$1.46M, +24.7%), Germany (+$429k, +32.9%), and Switzerland ($40.2k, +72.8%), and the fastest declining markets of Taiwan in regards to tea between the same years were China (-$9.57M, -19.1%), Japan, (-$3.85M, -38%), and Malaysia (-$2.19M, -43.1%) (The Observatory of Economic Complexity). As aforementioned, although tea is still not considered a premier export commodity in Taiwan, as the country focuses most of its export efforts on technologies such as integrated circuits, which made up 36.9% and $138B in Taiwan’s exports in 2020, and office machine parts, which made up another 4.29% and $16.1B in Taiwan’s exports in 2020, the increased production, consumption, and exporting of tea is not to be ignored or underestimated, as tea has a cultural and historical significance to the country that these other exports do not.

Modernization and Resurrection of Tea: Globalization of Boba Milk Tea

With its attempts to modernize the tea industry, Taiwan had created a global phenomenon, bubble tea. Bubble tea, or boba milk tea, was thought to have been created by Liu Han-Chieh, the founder of renowned Taiwanese tea shop, Chun Shui Tang, in 1980, introducing the concept of a cold tea to Taiwan (Caballero, 9 Most Popular Bubble Tea Flavors in Taiwan, 2022). Although novel, this invention is not surprising, considering Taiwan’s extensive tea history. With the Dutch colonization of Taiwan, the European method of adding milk and sugar to tea was introduced to Taiwan early on in its history. Although the Chinese and Japanese ways of drinking tea were more popular and widely practiced throughout Taiwanese history, this early introduction had laid a foundation for the creation and popularization of boba milk tea (Wu, 2020, 101). In addition, the usage of tapioca pearls inside a cold drink was a strange addition to a cold, sugary, drink that was traditionally consumed hot and plain, can be attributed to the introduction of the cassava plant during the era of Japanese colonization of Taiwan. This period of colonization also brought the introduction of a variety of teas such as the popular jasmine green tea and the standardized base for milk tea, assam black tea. Thus, although a novel creation at the time, much of the modernization steps for tea can be traced back to the deep history of the island. 

As part of its attempts to modernize, the Taiwanese had combined eastern and modern elements with its traditional and cultural icon, tea. With its vast global popularity and expansion, its consistent integration of the dietary customs and preferences of other cultures and societies, bubble tea has become a form of gastrodiplomacy and a symbol of the country’s food innovation and global cultural exchange powers (Wu, 2020, 102). First and foremost, bubble tea is an extremely versatile product. Boba shops have allowed for much customization and varieties for the product, such as sugar percentage, type of milk, temperature, flavor, and adaptations such as a slush version as well. This adaptability has made bubble tea able to glocalize into many consumer markets around the world. Glocalization, “is the process by which differences in local cultures emerge from sharing a commonality with one or more global cultures” (Simi and Matusitz, Glocalization of Subway in India: How a US Giant Has Adapted in the Asian Subcontinent, 2015, 574). Although having tapioca pearls in one’s drink was a foreign concept to many in the United States, having a cold, flavored, sugary drink, was not. As explained by Simi et al., in the United States’ experience, failures, and successes in glocalization, there must be a sense of adaptation, adjustment, and adopting of local values and habits in order to achieve success (Simi and Matusitz, 2015). Part of this is the creation of a trend, where this new product is seen as trendy, cool, and desirable, which the Taiwanese tea industry has successfully done. According to Grand View Research, the bubble tea market in the United States earned $414.8M in 2016, with an upward trend, as the industry has only been growing, a projected compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.2% from 2020 to 2027, and an estimated doubling of earnings by 2027, in comparison to 2016 (Grand View Research), as depicted in Figure 4. As seen in many blogs ranking popular boba flavors in the United States, staple and popular flavors include a variety of fruit flavors including strawberry and mango, vanilla bean, chocolate, coffee, and the traditional pearl milk tea flavor (Fanale Drinks). This listing does not come as a surprise, as the demographic in the United States are typically more accustomed to such flavors in their drinks, which suppliers and shop owners in the United States have recognized, developed, and promoted in their shops.  In contrast, the more popular flavors in Taiwan include the traditional pearl milk tea, light oolong tea with boba and/or coconut jelly, oolong milk tea, milk tea with grass jelly, pudding, and boba, fresh fruit tea, taro milk tea, and black sesame tea (Caballero, 2022), which is also not a surprise, considering the local palate and traditions of the country. These flavors and iterations of the milk tea all include traditional and local ingredients often used in Taiwanese snacks and desserts, and thus have been popularized and promoted by boba shop owners in Taiwan. 

In addition to its adaptability, bubble tea is also very convenient. This is extremely representative of Taiwan’s societal change, as it has moved towards modernization and industrialization, people have inhabited a fast-paced lifestyle, and are no longer accustomed to or are willing to give up the time to drink their hot oolong tea in tea ceremonies, which required a long time to prepare. The development of bubble tea, which could be ordered and prepared within three minutes have become much more suitable towards the new lifestyle of the Taiwanese, and have thus become increasingly popular and convenient for the younger, working generation (Syrbe, Bubble Tea Strengthens Taiwan’s Presence in World Beverage Market, 2021). This convenience, along with the adaptability of the product, has led to an extreme boom in popularity in the Asia Pacific market as well, as many of the countries have more recently developed into a more fast-paced, industrialized society. According to Fortune Business Insights, as depicted in Figure 5, the global bubble tea market has been projected to grow at a CAGR of 7.40% between the years 2022 and 2029. There is also a projected growth of the global bubble tea market from $2.29B to $3.78B by 2029 (Fortune Business Insights).

Finally, the Taiwanese industry has also led a level of standardization in bubble tea, even with all of the customization options, through the popularity and promotion of the traditional bubble milk tea, which includes an assam black tea base with milk and brown sugar tapioca pearls, as depicted in Figure 6. This has allowed the production and preparation process of boba milk tea extremely cost effective and efficient. Taiwanese companies have also generated and collected a vast amount of expertise in the art of bubble tea making, making them the prime consultant to entrepreneurs all over the world, looking to build their own boba shops. This knowledge is also openly shared by these Taiwanese companies, and companies have also created a “one-stop service”, in which new shop owners are provided direct access to machinery, raw materials, preparation manuals, and shop design and menu advice from these Taiwanese companies, making Taiwan a key supplier and seller for bubble tea products and businesses globally (Sybre, 2021). Through its attempts to modernize its tea industry, Taiwan has created a food product that is adaptable, convenient, and standardized in a way that has allowed for the success of bubble tea, and the vast growth of Taiwan’s tea industry. 

Modernization and Resurrection of Tea: Tea Tourism

With the resurgence of the tea industry, through the creation of a convenient, quick to make bubble tea, it is no surprise that traditional Taiwanese tea, teahouses, and tea ceremonies have also started to rise in popularity amongst the younger generations and tourists. With the mass building of bubble tea shops around the country, many traditional tea houses had to close down, and artisanal tea crafters have started to become more scarce. However, there has also been a recent revival of bubble tea shops emphasizing the importance of locally sourced, high-quality tea in their sold drinks (Kurganska, 2018). The unity of the traditional high quality of tea with the convenience of the milk tea drink has become a way for tea shop owners to keep the traditional culture alive while still accommodating to the modern, fast-paced lifestyle of the Taiwanese. 

With the added importance of using high quality, locally sourced, artisanal teas in boba milk tea, tea tourism emphasizing the terroir of the variety of teas grown in different regions of Taiwan have started to be greatly promoted by the Taiwanese government. As pictured in Figure 7, there are five major tea counties throughout Taiwan, each of which specializes in their own strain of tea leaves. In Taipei County, where the capital of Taiwan is located, the Biluochun Green Tea, a soft leaf tea with floral notes and a fruity flavor is grown. Miaoli County specializes in the Miaoli White Oolong, a tea with an orange blossom and malty undertone, floral aroma, and a scent that is often used in quality perfumes. In Chiayi county, perhaps the most famous of the Taiwanese teas, the Alishan High Mountain Oolong, a tea with apricot notes and golden in color, often referred to as the champagne of teas, is cultivated on higher grounds, allowing for a richer accumulation of flavors with the slow growth process. The Lugwei Black Tea, a citrusy tea with notes of black licorice, is grown in the urban maritime capital of Taiwan, Kaohsiung County. Lastly, Pingtung County grows the Gunko Oolong Tea, a tea with floral notes and a salty splash, reminiscent of the coastal region in which it grows (Vargas, Tea Island Around Taiwan in Five Teas, 2022). With a variety of teas, each unique to the region they are grown in, the Taiwanese government has been very adamant and successful on emphasizing the unique terroir each of these teas have when promoting tea tourism on the island. Although small in size, each region of Taiwan has its unique lifestyle and history, and each tea represents the different terrain, subculture, uniqueness, and cultivation method of the individual counties they are grown in. 

In congruence to the emphasis on terroir on Taiwanese teas, traditional Taiwanese tea houses, the experience of tea ceremonies, and touring tea plantations have started to become used as points of tourism. As previously mentioned, with the boom of bubble tea shops, many traditional tea houses started to be less frequented by locals, causing many to close down. These traditional tea houses were also typically promoted to the elder generation, and were seen as “a leisure and social event…the act of patrons chatting with one another forms a critical part of the occasion” (Jolliffe, 2007, 60). Due to the social and leisurely nature of these traditional tea houses, the younger generation and bustling tourists often steered away from visiting tea houses, as their busy schedules and fast paced lifestyles made the time consuming nature of tea houses and tea ceremonies not as appealing to them. In addition, the Taiwanese government had also not been promoting its tea houses as tourist attractions, as they were unaware of the appeal these traditional tea houses could have in tourism, as bubble tea had been their main focus in gastrodiplomacy. But more recently, traditional tea houses have started to appear in travel books and guides, and have started to be promoted as must-see attractions and experiences for tourists (Jolliffe, 2007, 61). For example, Figure 8 pictures a popular tea house in Jiufen, an old gold mining town located just outside of the capital, Taipei City, and is advertised and popularized as the inspiration for the backdrop of the popular Studio Ghibli movie, Spirited Away. Although it is just a rumor that this tea house was the inspiration for a famous animated movie, this is an example of successful marketing and promotion done by the Taiwanese in order to promote public knowledge and interest in visiting these traditional Taiwanese tea houses. In addition to just visiting and experiencing the tea ceremonies, traditional tea houses have also started to conduct seminars and demonstrations for tea production and preparation as part of the experience of the attraction. Tea plantation tours have also started to become popular, as plantations have started to open up to the public. The newly emphasized importance of tea culture depicts the strength of the Taiwanese tea industry, as they have brought about a newfound appreciation for the extensive culture, history, and art of making tea. 

Conclusion

Tea has always played a unique role in the culture and history of Taiwan, with it starting as a minor crop grown by natives of the island, to a massive economic sector under Dutch colonization and English involvement, to the expansion of the industry to include a variety of teas during Japanese colonization and Chinese influence. Throughout the century old industry, there had been many changes to the Taiwanese tea market, as once it was a major exportation commodity with its fragrant and unique oolong tea, it has over time, has declined in importance, with the government focusing more on creating and exporting technologies. Nevertheless, Taiwan is still one of the major exporters of tea throughout the world. Although the art of tea and its ceremony has been declining in appreciation, the popularity of a modernized milk tea (bubble tea) and the marketing of tea as a tourist attraction in Taiwan has put Taiwan on the map again as a global powerhouse for tea, and has allowed for the resurgence of the popularity and appreciation for tea by the Taiwanese.

The rich culture and history surrounding the tea industry has provided Taiwan with a great advantage in modernization, as they have unrivaled expertise in the art of tea making, the ability to locally source quality tea leaves, and the historical influence of many cultures and ideas, which has allowed them much creativity and novelty as seen in the creation of boba milk tea. Through the ever-changing conditions of Taiwanese society, the country and people as a whole have become extremely adaptable, as seen in their drinks and economics of the tea industry, as once exportation of tea leaves started to decline, the country had almost simultaneously shifted towards a focus on domestic consumption. In addition, with the added public interest in experiencing history and tradition, the Taiwanese government has quickly and successfully advertised traditional tea houses, creating another popular sector of Taiwanese tourism. The continuity and change over time of the Taiwanese tea industry has shown the incredibly resilient and highly adaptable society and industry that is worth watching and investing in by the Tawianese government to further expand and develop the tea industry into the cultural and economic powerhouse it once was. 

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