Biluoyuan lies on the south-facing slopes of Luye Highlands. It is one of the area's major suppliers of raw tea leaves, and its tea garden, planted with more than seven tea cultivars, stretches alongside Longtian's green tunnel. As the second-largest tea factory in Luye, it provides second-generation tea maker Kuo Ching-Wei with a strong foundation to infuse Red Oolong with innovative flavors. Through a blend of cultivars and techniques, he demonstrates a unique ability to "design flavor," showcasing the true value of Luye's tea craftsmanship.
The Luye tea region began developing in the 1970s, initiated by tea merchants from western Taiwan. They invested in land, hired locals to cultivate tea trees, and processed the harvest into finished tea. Over time, this formed an upstream–downstream division of labor. Even today, contract farming and OEM processing remain common in Luye: tea farm owners don't always run their own factories, and factory owners may not grow their own tea.
Biluoyuan stands out by operating both its own tea farms and production facilities. Its founder Ko Hsiu-Chih and her husband originally ran a tea shop near Taipei's Brother Hotel. One day, a customer brought them a tea from Luye, and they were astonished that its flavor could rival that of Alishan's famed high-mountain teas. Inspired, they decided to invest in this up-and-coming tea region.
Unlike traditional tea farmers or processors, Biluoyuan began as a tea merchant. This background shaped its distinctive approach to tea and sharpened its discerning eye for quality.
Hot-air withering helps overcome weather challenges, but success lies in the details—layer thickness and turning technique make all the difference.
A Tea Sense Shaped by Economics
Over 30 years ago, Ko Hsiu-Chih and her husband moved to Luye and began by purchasing fresh tea leaves from farmers, commissioning them for processing, and then wholesaling the final product. But as Taiwan faced a series of food safety scandals, she decided to personally manage tea cultivation to ensure quality through eco-friendly farming. In order to craft unique flavors, she also ventured into tea processing, gradually building her own tea-picking team and processing facility. This strict control from the source steadily raised the quality of their teas, earning them a wall full of awards.
At the time, their son, Kuo Ching-Wei was still in elementary school, but he vividly remembers those years. His childhood bore witness to the rise and fall of Luye's tea industry. "At its peak, there were 50 or 60 tea factories here. But under pressure from imported teas, the total cultivation area shrank from 600 hectares to just over 100. Our own farm declined from 40 hectares to less than 10." Before Red Oolong came into the picture, Luye's tea scene went into a steep decline. Many turned to other crops or industries. Even his father's mentor eventually left tea to open a restaurant.
Seeing his parents' struggles, Kuo decided to join the family business after graduation. But with his background in economics, he viewed tea with a different perspective. "I couldn't understand why with so many cultivars of tea, everyone ends up making the same thing." Approaching the issue from the perspective of B2B and B2C needs, he strongly advocated for transformation. He stepped into the front lines, creating a flavor framework and product lineup unique to their brand.
As one of the top tea factories in Luye, every harvest season sees the tea baskets stacked full with fresh tea leaves set out for indoor withering.
Moving from Taipei to Taitung for tea, Ko Hsiu-Chih established the large-scale raw tea factory, Biluoyuan. Today, together with her son, she has built the factory into a fully integrated operation.
From raw material onward, strict control of flavor systems and product lines has steadily raised quality and filled the walls with awards.
At its peak, Biluoyuan once spanned 40 hectares of tea fields in Luye—a scale hard to imagine today.
To expand the flavor profiles, Kuo Ching-Wei added new cultivars this year, such as “Shanyun” and “Shuixian,” with plans to plant the large-leaf “Ziyun” in the future.
Mastering Cultivars Is Mastering Flavor
Kuo Ching-Wei recalls how his parents managed to operate on two tracks — producing both award-winning teas and commercial teas. This dual approach was possible because of their refined ability to control flavor; a skill developed through years of experience working directly with the land.
Walking through the family's 12-hectare tea garden, Kuo points out the many cultivars planted in different eras to meet market demands: Jhinshuan, Large-leaf Oolong, Chin-Shin-Dapan, Yingxiang and Qinyu — cultivars commonly used for Pouchong. More recently, he began experimenting with Taiwan's native Shanyun, as well as Shuixian from Fujian's northern region, and plans to grow the large-leaf Ziyun. With nearly ten cultivars, this may be the most diverse tea garden in Luye.
Kuo sees cultivars as the foundation of tea flavor. When combined with withering and roasting techniques, they create a wide array of flavor profiles. This growing database of "flavor samples" is, in his view, the family's most valuable asset. "The more samples you have," he asserts, "the more potential you have to blend something truly unique."
More than any single cultivar or roast profile, Kuo highlights the importance of blending. But blending, to him, is not just mixing different teas. It's designing them. It's about envisioning the interplay of cultivar, oxidation level, and roasting intensity, and using this vision to construct a cup of tea with distinct and tangible flavor.
Kuo Ching-Wei blends teas with different cultivars, fermentation levels, and roasting degrees. For him, blending is not mere mixing, but an act of “designing tea.”
Designing the Right Red Oolong for Every Brand and Customer
Kuo Ching-Wei approaches Red Oolong flavor development by analyzing consumer preferences and market demands. Some tea cultivars offer prominent aromas, some provide a lingering finish, and others carry stories that deepen the experience. Based on these traits, he began designing Red Oolong flavor profiles suited to different drinking contexts.
For example, in cold brew applications, traditional Red Oolong often lacks strength. Kuo responds by increasing the roast level, sometimes approaching a smoky finish to ensure that the fragrance remains prominent even when brewed cold.
He also leverages Red Oolong's versatility to develop a "comfort blend" product line. By combining aged Red Oolong with aromatic ingredients like French organic lavender, dried rose petals from Pingtung, wild chrysanthemum from Taimali or Chike Mountain, and slices of ginger, he creates herbal tea blends with a distinct regional identity, making Red Oolong's fruit-forward profile more accessible and recognizable to a wider audience.
Inspired by Red Oolong’s versatility, Kuo has created wellness-style products for younger drinkers—blends infused with lavender, rose petals, and more.
Unlike most, Kuo begins by imagining the drinking setting when thinking about tea.
He believes the more flavor samples, the more creative potential, and that roasting is essential to shaping distinction.
At tea gatherings, hot brew is the norm. Kuo Ching-Wei, however, “thinks in reverse,” designing cold-brew teas that successfully captured the youth market.
With a diverse customer base and a range of branding needs, Biluoyuan positions itself as a "tea flavor design center," crafting customized Red Oolong blends for different businesses and individuals, helping each person find their perfect match in the world of Taiwanese tea.
His mother, Ko Hsiu-Chih, shifted from running a tea shop to growing and making tea—one of the rare women driving the region’s tea industry.
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