Lugu Names a Dong Ding Champion From a Shrunken Field
Drought cut entries to Lugu's spring Dong Ding Oolong competition to 3,711 from 4,401.
Lugu Township Farmers' Association named Su Yu-lun the grand-prize winner of its spring Dong Ding Oolong competition at a June 6 ceremony. Judges scored 3,711 entries in the 50th anniversary year of the association's tea contests. Nantou County agricultural affairs director Su Jui-hsiang said the competition stayed "quite fierce" this year even as a drought cut both output and entries. Entries fell from 4,401 a year earlier; judges eliminated about 47.43 percent of them, against 44.17 percent in 2025.
Su's winning lot scored on a round, dark green, oil-sheened roll, a golden, bright liquor with a rich floral-fruit aroma from fermentation, a sweet and mellow taste, and a long finish that lingered in the empty cup, the association said.
The association marked the anniversary with a promotion: buyers of competition tea gift sets received scratch cards for a chance at a Mercedes-Benz, on top of prize tea sets and tickets to Fenghuang Valley Bird Park and Xitou and Shanlinxi. Legislator You Hao, Lugu township chief Qiu Ru-ping, and Tea and Beverage Research Station director Su Tsung-chen also attended the June 6 ceremony.
Sources: ETtoday, 鹿谷鄉春季凍頂烏龍茶賽50周年「抽賓士催買氣」 特等獎出爐; 新民生報, 鹿谷農會茶賽50週年擴大登場 凍頂烏龍茶特等獎出爐; ETtoday, 鹿谷鄉春季凍頂烏龍茶2大獎同日登場 特等獎、特等茶王出爐.
Correction, October 10, 2026: An earlier version called this the 50th spring Dong Ding Oolong competition; it marked the 50th anniversary of the Lugu Township Farmers' Association's tea contests, which began in 1976. It also gave a 3,714-entry figure not in this item's sources, tied a prize value to the tea sets that the sources list separately, named the promotion with a title the sources do not give, set the two years' elimination rates against each other past what the sources state, and misnamed the Tea and Beverage Research Station.