Do You Know: Eco-Cha

1-year old tea company Eco-Cha sells responsibly produced, high quality Taiwanese tea. The teas are produced on small family farms that are often overshadowed by the large scale operations nearby. The folks at Eco-Cha are trying to help the small farmers succeed in this competitive industry. I've recently had the chance to communicate with Eco-Cha's managing director and learned all about their indiegogo campaign to help preserve this small scale tea production in Taiwan. They are working with Mr. Lin, an organic tea farmer. From their website:

"This project is the culmination of 20 years of exploring Taiwan tea. Our recent connection with Mr. Lin, however, is what has brought this campaign into being. Eco-Cha was initially conceived to support sustainability in the local tea industry. We soon realized that the traditional industry that predated large-scale tea production is synonymous with sustainable practice – particularly now that responsible farming practices have been recovered and innovated. We see Mr. Lin’s current work in growing organic tea on his repurposed family land and building a refurbished factory in his home for organic tea production as a prototype of our mission."

To learn more about Mr. Lin and his farm, please visit this page. This campaign has been so successful the original fundraising goals have been reached and they added a stretch goal to create an educational field classroom for students, farmers, and individuals visiting the farm. It's such a joy to see how successful this campaign has become! I love how generous tea enthusiasts are in supporting the small farms that work so hard to produce the best tasting tea.

There is so much that can be said about the importance of small scale organic tea farming, and Eco-Cha has provided a wealth of information. Visit their website to learn more about how you can contribute and make this campaign a success. Also be sure to check out this page for answers to just about any question you may have regarding Eco-Cha and small scale oolong tea farming. I encourage you to take a peek through the various pages, there is quite a bit of interesting and useful information. I will also be posting reviews of Eco-Cha tea in the near future. Stay tuned!