Da Yu Ling
The highest commercial tea gardens in Taiwan, strung along the Central Cross-Island Highway near the Hehuan pass on the boundary of Taichung, Nantou and Hualien. At this altitude there are only one or two harvests a year and the leaf grows very slowly, which is the standard explanation for the tea’s thickness and long finish. Much of the original planting sat on expiring forestry leases and has been progressively cleared, so the name now covers considerably less ground than it once did.
Elevation
Recorded at 2000–2600 metres.
How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it. Plot numbers along the highway are used as informal elevation markers; the range given is indicative.
When it is picked
The shortest season of any Taiwanese district: at the top of the high-mountain range, two picks are the maximum and in cold years the winter one is marginal. The tea's price is a direct function of how little of it the mountain allows.
How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.
How the name is written
Also transliterated as da yu ling, dayuling. Romanisations of a district name vary by system and by vendor, and a packet spelling one way is not describing a different place.
Teas this region is known for
- Da Yu Ling — The most concentrated expression of the high-mountain style: thick, sweet, with almost no astringency and a markedly long cooling finish. Whether it is meaningfully better than good Li Shan is a matter genuine drinkers disagree about.
Other growing regions in Taiwan
The neighbouring districts are the useful comparison: they share a country, a grading convention and often a cultivar, so what differs between them is closer to terroir than anything a cross-border comparison can isolate.
Sources
- TeaHQ editorial synthesis — TeaHQ
This page is TeaHQ’s own synthesis throughout. No external document stands behind the elevation band, the climate note or the character described above, which is why each carries its confidence in the open.
Written comparisons
Where TeaHQ has set this region against something it is routinely confused with, and argued the differences out in full.
- Da Yu Ling vs Li Shan — The two highest commercial tea areas in Taiwan, and the point at which altitude stops being a marketing adjective and becomes an agricultural constraint. Both crop once or twice a year rather than four or five times, and both are priced accordingly.