Tainan's hills are coffee country. For tea, you head north into the Alishan foothills of Chiayi County, where family tea farms along the Alishan Highway (Provincial Highway 18) open their gardens and factories to visitors. You can walk the rows, pick leaves in season, roll them by hand, sit down to a proper tasting, and buy straight from the people who made the tea. It's a long but easy day out from Tainan, and every place below runs its experiences by booking, so plan a few days ahead.
Plan it right
- Distance: the Xiding and Shizhuo tea villages are roughly 100 km from the old town, and plan on about two hours each way by car. Ruili is further in.
- Book ahead: all three Chiayi farms below run hands-on sessions by reservation only, with group minimums and seasons.
- Season: May to October is when all three Chiayi farms take bookings. Outside those months, check first.
- Weather: these mountain roads cloud over in the afternoon, so start early. → Our Ching Ye coffee page has more on the drive.
Sheng Li Farm (生力農場), Xiding
A family tea farm, tea factory, cafe and homestay at about 1,250 meters, right on the Alishan Highway. The farm's own site describes sitting down to taste Alishan tea while the owner talks you through it. The booked tea-making session takes you out to pick, then through the processing steps, from withering and rolling to drying, with a tasting of six Alishan teas, and you take home tea you made yourself. The farm also cooks with its tea, and a tea-themed lunch can be booked alongside.
- What you can do: pick, see the processing, taste, have lunch, buy tea.
- Sessions: 09:00 to 12:00 or 13:00 to 16:00, about 3 to 4 hours, minimum 2 people.
- Price: NT$600 per person for the tea-making experience and tour, plus NT$600 for lunch (2026 press reports).
- Booking: required, at least 7 days ahead. The Alishan Easy Go listing says the hands-on session is paused from November to March.
- Address: No. 9-5, Xiding, Gongtian Village, Fanlu Township, Chiayi County (嘉義縣番路鄉公田村隙頂9-5號), at about km 55.6 of the Alishan Highway. Phone 05-258-6785.
Lin Yuan Tea Factory (林園製茶), Shizhuo
A few kilometers further up the highway, Shizhuo is an important high-mountain tea area, and Lin Yuan's founders were among the first to plant tea here. The family grows, processes, roasts and sells its own tea, including the local Zhulu tea (珠露茶), high-mountain oolong, Jin Xuan and honey-scented black tea. It is certified under Taiwan's Special Agro-tourism Spot scheme, and in September 2026 the Alishan National Scenic Area reported a group of international students arriving by shuttle bus to pick, hand-roll tea and tour the factory.
The listed experience is about two and a half hours: a walk through the oolong and Jin Xuan gardens, picking, pan-firing and rolling, decorating your own tea bag, then a tasting with fried tea leaves and tea jelly. You leave with the tea you picked, finished.
- What you can do: garden tour, pick and roll, taste, buy tea.
- Season: bookable 10 April to 31 December, weekdays and weekends.
- Price: listed at NT$1,000 per person (NT$900 with a farm-tour voucher), October 2026.
- Booking: phone the farm at least 3 days ahead; minimum 4 people.
- Address: No. 19-57, Shizhuo, Zhonghe Village, Zhuqi Township, Chiayi County (嘉義縣竹崎鄉中和村石棹19-57號). Phone 05-256-1523.
- No car? The Taiwan Tourist Shuttle Alishan line stops at Shizhuo.
Cha San Dai, Ming Yuan Tea (茶叄代 茗園製茶所), Ruili
Up in Ruili, in Meishan Township, three generations of one family have grown tea since 1980. The second generation won Taiwan's Shennong Award for farmers, and the third now runs tea experiences from a bright tasting room over the terraced gardens. Sessions cover the gardens, how withering and rolling work, hand-rolling your own tea, and a "little tea taster" cupping. Their teas include Alishan oolong, Jin Xuan and black tea.
- What you can do: garden walk, see processing, hand-roll tea, cup and taste, buy tea.
- Sessions: about 90 to 120 minutes; the hand-rolling session alone is about an hour.
- Season: bookable May to October.
- Booking: reservation only, minimum 4 people.
- Address: No. 89, Neighborhood 5, Ruili Village, Meishan Township, Chiayi County (嘉義縣梅山鄉瑞里村5鄰89號). Phone 05-250-1796.
- Getting there: Ruili is the same mountain country as Ching Ye Coffee Estate, so read the driving notes there first. → Ching Ye coffee day trip
A southern option: Xin Yuan Tea (欣園製茶), Liugui
Not every Taiwanese tea is Alishan oolong. In Liugui, in the Kaohsiung hills about 80 km from the old town, Xin Yuan makes tea from Taiwan's native wild mountain tea (山茶), grown without chemical fertilizer or pesticide, made into native mountain tea, white tea and black tea. The family's third generation offers tea rolling, tea-mat tastings, and tea ice cream. It is also a certified Special Agro-tourism Spot. The listing gives no hours or prices, so phone before you go.
- What you can do: hand-roll tea, taste, buy tea.
- Address: No. 43, Heping Road, Xinfa Village, Liugui District, Kaohsiung (高雄市六龜區新發里和平路43號). Phone 07-679-1527.
How we'd run the day
Leave Tainan early, book one hands-on session for the morning, and keep the afternoon loose for a tea-garden walk and the drive down before the mist. Shizhuo and Xiding are close together on the same highway, so a tasting at one and a stroll through the gardens around the other fits in a day. Ruili makes more sense as part of a longer Alishan trip.
Prefer coffee? Tainan's own hills grow it. → Dongshan 175 Coffee Road · All day trips
Want help planning it?
The tricky parts are the bookings, the group minimums and the seasons. If you'd like a hand lining it up, or a driver for the day, we're happy to help. → Work with us
Sources
Farm details and experiences from each farm's listing with the Taiwan Leisure Farms Development Association's Special Agro-tourism Spot certification, the booking listing on its farm-tour market, Sheng Li Farm's own site and its Alishan Easy Go listing. Prices for Sheng Li Farm from UDN and Commercial Times (2026). Lin Yuan and the Shizhuo shuttle stop from Liberty Times (September 2026). Checked October 2026.