Mingjian Puchung Tea: The Unsung Hero Supplying 80% of Taiwan's Bubble Tea Base

30-second overview:
That cup of bubble tea you drink every day has an 80% chance of coming from Nantou's Mingjian. This tea-growing area — which once rivaled Lugu's Dongding in reputation as "Puchung Tea" — took a path of standardization and scale after being renamed "Songbai Evergreen Tea" in 1975. However, an incinerator siting plan that erupted at the end of 2024 has put this "invisible heart" of Taiwan's bubble tea kingdom on the front lines of an unprecedented battle for food safety and survival.

"First Yanlu, second Dongding, third Puchung." ¹

This saying that circulated among tea merchants in central and southern Taiwan during the Qing dynasty ranked the prestige of Taiwanese tea at the time: first was Jiayi Meishan Longyan Forest, second was Lugu's Dongding Mountain, and third was Nantou Mingjian's Puchung Village. However, today when you walk into a chain bubble tea shop, you might hear of Alishan oolong or Lishan green tea, but few people order "Mingjian Puchung Tea."

In January 2025, the Nantou County Government planned to build a "waste treatment center" (incinerator) in Mingjian Township, triggering fierce resistance from local tea farmers and residents. The controversy accidentally revealed Taiwan's tea industry's bottom card: Mingjian Township has over 2,200 hectares of tea gardens, producing 40% of Taiwan's commercial tea, and supplying 80% of the base tea for Taiwan's bubble tea industry.^{2 3}

This hillside at barely 400 meters elevation is the invisible heart supporting Taiwan's bubble tea kingdom — and at this moment, that heart is beating violently under environmental threat.

Red Clay and Heavy Fog: A Low-Altitude Survival Battle

Mingjian Township's Songbai Ridge is located at the southern tip of the Bagua Mountain range, with soil consisting of highly acidic red clay with excellent drainage. Although Mingjian is dry and water-scarce, the Zhuoshui River at the foot of the mountains provides stable moisture. Every night into the early morning, the water vapor from the Zhuoshui River rises, forming thick fog on the southern slopes of the Bagua Mountains, dissipating only when the midday sun appears. This "morning fog, evening dew, ample sunlight" environment lets Mingjian tea develop a tough, robust character that blends perfectly with milk and sugar.

Curator's Note: Mingjian tea doesn't pursue the cool clarity of high-mountain tea — it grows in the red clay of low hills, becoming the most familiar flavor in Taiwanese people's daily lives.

From "Puchung Tea" to "Songbai Evergreen Tea": A Name Disappears

Before 1975, the tea here was called "Puchung Tea" or "Songbai Keng Tea." The Mingjian tea of that era was known for hand-crafted production — particularly the Qingxin Oolong spring tea, with a distinctive caramel and grain-rice fragrance.¹

In 1975, then Premier Chiang Ching-kuo visited Songbai Ridge, tasted the tea, and named it "Songbai Evergreen Tea."⁵ From then on, "Songbai Evergreen Tea" became the official brand name, while the rustic "Puchung Tea" gradually retreated to historical background. In the 1980s, Mingjian Township was among the first to introduce mechanized tea harvesting technology, shifting toward standardized production, becoming the only production area in Taiwan capable of stably and massively supplying high-quality base tea.⁶

The 2025 Incinerator Storm: The Tea Country's SOS

However, this invisible prosperity faced a severe blow at the end of 2024. The Nantou County Government selected a 7.5-hectare special agricultural zone in Mingjian Township's Xinmin Village to build an incinerator. When the news broke, Mingjian's tea farmers fell into collective anxiety.

"The incinerator won't produce ash fall... it won't affect tea leaves" — facing the Environmental Protection Bureau Director's statement, the Mingjian Township Anti-Incinerator Self-Rescue Association expressed strong protest, believing this was treating tea farmers as fools.¹⁰ Tea farmers worried that if incinerator ash fall affected tea leaf inspection results, Mingjian tea's reputation as "high-quality commercial tea" would instantly collapse.

Timeline and tensions of the protest:

• January 1, 2026: The Self-Rescue Association arranged red umbrellas in a tea garden to spell out a giant "SOS," pleading for the tea trees and Taiwan's leopard cats.⁴
• March 2026: At the second-stage environmental impact assessment scope definition meeting, protesting crowds threw "doomsday pineapple cakes" and "doomsday bubble teas," satirizing how the incinerator would end Mingjian's agricultural miracle.⁹
• April 2026: As protests intensified, farmers were forced to abandon their tea gardens during the busiest spring tea harvest period to petition in Taipei or scatter fresh tea leaves in protest outside meeting venues.^{12 13}

"Putting down work to protest — just to allow the next generation to continue making tea on this land."¹³ This contradiction between livelihood and homeland defense filled Mingjian's tea country air with the smell of smoke alongside the scent of tea.

Guardian of Tradition: Chen Mao-Chun and Hand-Crafted Tea

In the gap between mechanization and protest, there are still those guarding the vanishing "rice flavor." In 2019, the Nantou County Government officially registered "Mingjian Puchung Tea" as intangible cultural heritage, with deceased master tea-maker Chen Mao-Chun as the custodian.⁷

"Tea made traditionally by hand has a deeper fragrance, with layers of flavor when you drink it."⁸ Master Chen devoted his life to hand-crafted tea — that distinctive "rice flavor" wind-terroir characteristic is a soul that mechanized production cannot replicate.

Curator's Note: When tea farmers cry out in the streets for their right to survive, they are defending 2,200 hectares of tea gardens — and also the dignity of the hand-crafted tea tradition that Master Chen's generation passed down.

Conclusion: Reading Mingjian in Every Cup of Bubble Tea

Next time you hold a cup of Four Seasons Spring green tea, remember this aroma has an origin: the Mingjian tea farmers who arranged that "SOS" in red umbrellas in the tea gardens in the cold of 2025's winter. Mingjian Puchung Tea has long since stepped down from the "famous highland tea" auction stage, nourishing Taiwan's bubble tea industry in the most everyday way — while also fighting for its own right to survive.