Recently, we studied tea leaf management in Kyushu, Japan, and pondered an important question: Is hand-picked tea really tastier? This article will explore the transition from machine-picked tea in Japan to hand-picked tea in Taiwan.
In today`s tea leaf production, labor shortage has become very serious, especially in Japan, and Taiwan is also about to face the same challenge. Currently, large-scale machine harvesting has become the primary method of tea production in Japan, while Taiwan`s premium oolong teas are mainly hand-picked.
Although hand-picked tea leaves are also available in Japan, the price is quite astonishing, at around 200,000 Japanese yen per kilogram. One of the advantages of hand-picked tea leaves is that they are not damaged, but with the continuous advancement of technology, there are now more accurate tea leaf harvesting machines and automated equipment for tea leaf quality selection.
In the future, high-quality machine harvesting will become the trend in Taiwanese tea leaf production. It is worth noting that since Taiwan`s tea gardens are mostly located in hilly areas, it is not possible to use ride-on tea harvesting machinery, but rather single or double-person tea leaf harvesting equipment.
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