Tea Grown to Safeguard Water Sources

How Tse-Xin’s Work in Pinglin Brings People, Land, and Ecology into Balance

Cathy Teng　/　photos Jimmy Lin

June 2026

中文

Rich vegetation between the rows of tea bushes supports a lively organic tea-farm ecosystem.

For many international visitors, bubble tea—with its rich tea-and-milk fragrance and chewy tapioca pearls—has become a shorthand for Taiwan. But bubble tea is only one facet of Taiwan’s tea culture. In the mountain district of Pinglin in northern Taiwan, a group of people is giving Taiwan tea a different meaning: What might it look like if a cup of tea were not only delicious, but also helped protect water sources and biodiversity?

Life on an organic tea farm

Pinglin in New Taipei City is an important production area for Taiwan’s Paochong (Baozhong) tea and lies upstream from Feitsui Reservoir, which supplies drinking water to about six million people in Greater Taipei. For more than a century, growing and making tea has been the local livelihood, deeply tied to these mountain forests and water sources.

Guided by someone from the Tse-Xin Organic Agriculture Foundation (TOAF; hereafter Tse-Xin), we step into an organic tea farm. Besides the lush green tea bushes, wild grasses and weeds grow freely in the fields, and the land between the tea rows is covered with abundant vegetation. Birdsong and the hum of insects drift in. Without the neatly uniform rows and bare ground of conventional tea farms, this one seems a little “messy”—but it is full of life. Compared with the orderly landscapes created by conventional tea cultivation, this vibrant organic tea farm leaves us with a most vivid first impression of what such an operation can be.

In Pinglin, the Tse-Xin Organic Agriculture Foundation promotes the “Jingyuan [Clean Source] Project,” encouraging tea farmers to transition to organic cultivation so that a cup of tea can also carry the idea of environmental sustainability. (left photo courtesy of Tse-Xin Organic Agriculture Foundation)

The sustainability work behind tea

In 2007, Tse-Xin launched the “Jingyuan [Clean Source] Project” in Pinglin to encourage local tea farmers to transition to organic cultivation. It later established “Ching Yuan [Jingyuan] Tea Factory,” using contract farming and guaranteed purchase prices for fresh tea leaves to reduce farmers’ risk during the transition and promote the organic tea industry.

From tea farm to teacup, Ching Yuan Tea Factory connects tea-growing, processing, and sales, giving more tea farmers the confidence to invest in organic cultivation.

Tse-Xin CEO Su Murong says that transitioning to organic cultivation requires more labor and entails yield risk. Contract farming and guaranteed purchase prices are therefore necessary to help farmers take the first step toward change.

Over the past 18 years, the project has helped Pinglin’s organic tea industry grow. From one farmer and five hectares of tea fields at the beginning to 36 participating farmers and about 57 hectares of organic tea farms today, Pinglin has become an important demonstration area for organic tea promotion in Taiwan.

This work has also earned recognition. In 2026, Ching Yuan Tea Factory received an award for outstanding contributions to the tea industry from the Tea and Beverage Research Station of the Ministry of Agriculture, highlighting Tse-Xin’s years of work and accomplishments in the areas of organic tea and environmental sustainability.

In 2026, Ching Yuan Tea Factory received an award from the Tea and Beverage Research Station of the Ministry of Agriculture for its outstanding contributions to the tea industry. (courtesy of Tse-Xin Organic Agriculture Foundation)

Ching Yuan Tea Factory created the Ching Yuan Tea brand, incorporating features of the local Pinglin ecology such as emerald green treefrogs and Swinhoe’s pheasants into its packaging design to convey the idea of coexistence between organic tea and nature.

Tea with a sense of terroir

The ideals behind organic tea are certainly appealing, but whether the market will embrace it ultimately has to be proven in the cup.

Liao Xiangang, a master tea processor and tea farmer at Ching Yuan Tea Factory, was once a sommelier. In his view, tea is like wine: Flavor comes from the land, the climate, and time. He has continually refined his tea-making craft so that organic tea is not only an environmental choice, but also a drink worth savoring.

Liao Xiangang, formerly a sommelier, now works in the tea industry. To him, tea and wine are alike: Flavor comes from the land, climate, and time.

Over the past 18 years, Pinglin’s experience has shown that agriculture and the environment do not have to stand in opposition to each other. Goals that seem to conflict—protecting water sources, restoring ecosystems, and sustaining livelihoods—are finding a balance in the same tea farms.

In Pinglin, people are using tea to tell a story of how this island’s residents can coexist with the land. In the brewed tea there is not only flavor, but also respect for nature and an imaginative conception of the future.

Tea farmers bend to pluck tender buds. Surrounded by layered mountains, Pinglin’s tea farms bear witness to the everyday practice of coexistence between people and nature.

Read more about Pinglin’s organic tea story:

Capturing the Flavor of the Land Ecological Sustainability in Mountain Tea Plantations