From tea country to coffee country
How Alishan's farmers carried one craft into another.
A crop that arrived late
Coffee reached Alishan long after tea, and never replaced it. The two crops share the slope, the labour calendar, and the same families.
The skills transferred: pruning, hand picking, careful drying, and a habit of sorting by hand that tea had already made normal.
The slope did not change. Only what was planted on it.
What tea taught coffee
The most obvious inheritance is the tasting vocabulary: clarity, aftertaste, body. Less obvious is the drying discipline, which is why Alishan lots are unusually clean.
The least obvious is patience. Tea punishes haste twice, once in the field and once in the cup.
Disclosure: this article contains no affiliate links. Prices and dates checked in October 2026. Our methodology.