Everywhere: Articles: The Tea Ladies of Taiwan

Old and young women with keen eyes and skilled fingers make up the famous Tea Ladies of Taiwan, picking tea along the slopes of mountains throughout Taiwan

Tea Lady of Taiwan wearing a Miss Kitty outfil by rich and ruth carlson (aka Axel Olson)

The young and old make of the elite group of Tea Ladies who have the eyes and skill to pick the finest top three leaf arrangement that make the best quality Black Tea.

In the Alishan National Scenic Area of Taiwan, dozens of tea pickers known as The Tea Ladies, pick the prized three leaf stems from the famous Black Tea bushes in this region. The photos in this essay are from two farms in the area, the Yun Sa and the Ten Long farms. From dawn to dusk in the middle of April while the weather pattern of early morning sun and late afternoon fog create just the exact time to pick, dozens of the Tea Ladies flock to the fields, fill their baskets, take to the scales, then start all over again until sunset. Their keen eyes and nimble fingers make them the prized workers in the area of Taiwan. Once all the three leaf stems are picked, they'll come back and pick the lesser quality leaves from the plants that too will be part of the Black Tea from the Alishan Region, just less expensive.