Warsaw Asia-Pacific Museum Tea Festival: Tasting Taiwan Oolong from Tradition to Modernity

The Museum of Asia and the Pacific in Warsaw held its first "Tea Festival" on the 25th, featuring a series of lectures, workshops, and a tea market that attracted large crowds. A highlight of the event was a deep-dive analysis of Taiwan Oolong tea by Professor Marcin Jacoby, a renowned Polish Sinologist, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at SWPS University, and author of "Taiwan: Tea Party on a Powder Keg." He guided the audience through the history and current state of Taiwan's society via the lens of a tea cup. Jacoby introduced Taiwan's unique climate and tea varieties, emphasizing the uniqueness of Taiwan Oolong in the international market. He recalled that during his stay in Taiwan around the turn of the 21st century, Oolong tea was affordable, but prices have risen with Taiwan's economic development and pursuit of high quality. He humorously noted that "Yunnan Oolong" often found in Poland is actually black tea and warned about low-quality Vietnamese tea labeled as Taiwanese. Regarding brewing culture, Jacoby pointed out that Taiwan's logic is purely about flavor rather than religious ritual. He noted that Taiwanese social interaction around a tea tray is a synchronous art of brewing and chatting. While traditional tea culture is less common among younger generations, its essence continues in modern bubble tea, an invention from the 1980s economic boom. Almost all attendees raised their hands when asked if they had tried bubble tea. The lecture concluded with discussions on tea's evolution from ancient medicinal use to modern climate-controlled processing. Regarding environmental concerns, Jacoby reassured the audience that certified Taiwan tea in Poland generally meets high ecological standards.