About · ChaTravel

A village, a century of tea,
and the people who stayed

Tea as a medium —
a way of introducing yourself.

ChaTravel is based in Lugao, a village in the hills above Sun Moon Lake where large-leaf black tea has been grown since the 1930s. We work with the farmers, the land, and the stories that most visitors never get to hear.

Lugao fieldwork / book photo

The beginning

The stories we heard in Lugao
became a book

It began with living in Lugao. After hearing one story after another about the old tea factories, we worked with the community development association — visiting elders, visiting factories, writing down what people remembered of the Japanese-era works and what a century of tea has meant to this village.

Those stories made us want the whole picture — how Lugao, Sun Moon Lake and Taiwan fit into the wider world of black tea. It became a local record.

臺灣紅色味道－鹿篙飄香的故事
First tea gathering photo

The name

A gathering of Sun Moon Lake tea,
and a story about living abroad

After coming home from Australia, we wanted a way of connecting with people that went through the senses. So we held a first tea gathering.

No elaborate ritual — just the Sun Moon Lake black teas we knew, blended and brewed, used to share the ups and downs of those years away: about being a stranger somewhere, about oneself, about the kind of days you hope for.

That gathering was called ChaTravel — tea says travel. The name stayed, and became the name for everything that followed.

What we're aiming at

Taiwanese tea as a way of
introducing yourself

Every tea region in Taiwan has its own background and its own flavour, the way every community has its own history. When we drink tea we talk about taste, about growing, about processing — but rarely about the culture behind it. Why is Sun Moon Lake black tea? How did high-mountain tea come to stand for Taiwanese tea? What actually produced these flavours?

We want to lower the threshold in a way that's enjoyable — to let people see the culture and the landscape of Taiwanese tea, rather than a world you need to be an expert to enter.

We started from Lugao by Sun Moon Lake, moved through the wider Nantou region, and we keep heading towards more of Taiwan's tea-growing places. The destination is a language in which Taiwanese tea can speak to the world.

What we do

Four ways in, one idea

Field Trips

Walk into the tea gardens of Lugao, taste what grows there, or learn to brew it — whichever way suits you.

See experiences →

Exhibitions & Collaborations

Cross-field work with artists, restaurant kitchens and organisations, so that tea takes on new meaning in each setting.

View projects →

Gift Sets

Sun Moon Lake tea paired with snacks from friendly-farmed Nantou produce — the place, in a box you can take home.

Browse gift sets →

Podcast

Our tea programme 茶說旅行的窸窸窣窣, in Mandarin — each episode starts from one region, one step of the process, or one person.

Listen on Spotify →
Book cover photo

Published record

Taiwan's Red Taste:
The Fragrant Story of Lugao

臺灣紅色味道－鹿篙飄香的故事 · in Traditional Chinese

The history of the Mochiki Tea Factory in the village of Lugao, the memories of the elders who live there, and how all of it connects to the development of black tea in Taiwan and beyond.