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A Refined Tea Worth the Wait In 1978, driven by a deep passion for tea, Chen Jian-hong left his career as a wood-carver and founded Ming Xiang Tea House. At 28, in an era of scarce information, he spent three years poring over books, journals, and tea-farmers’ know-how, teaching himself the art of roasting tea. “The first three years the shop was open, nothing sold; I went hungry,” he recalls with a quiet smile. What sustained him was love for the leaf. That devotion prompted him, in 2008, to copy out by brush a sincere letter of self-recommendation to Prof. Tseng Chih-cheng of National Chung Hsing University’s Institute of Biotechnology after reading the scholar’s paper. The next day the professor telephoned, inviting Chen to Taichung; their charming partnership began. Through industry-academia collaboration—knowledge from the professor, craft from Chen—they spent six years developing the shop’s signature tea: “Zhen” Oolong. A traditional aged tea once required six years; they condensed it to two, using Qingxin Oolong to create a leaf rich in beneficial “tea catechin metabolites” and gallic acid. Marketed as “caffeine-free and non-irritating, gentle on the stomach,” Zhen Oolong was born. Renovated in 2017, Ming Xiang now greets visitors with bright, minimalist Japanese aesthetics. Every tea on the shelves is roasted by Chen’s own hands. During roasting season he stands eight hours a day by the kiln, never leaving its side, for twenty straight days to coax the perfect leaf. His single-minded devotion stems from seeing tea not as merchandise but as art—art he weaves into his life, yielding pot after pot of liquor steeped in the essence of time. Recommended: Zhen Oolong, Gold-Envy Beauty