Beipu Leicha DIY

• By dokuya
• 24 December, 2015
• No Comments

Beipu Leicha DIY….what is that?  Beipu is a Hakka town in Hsinchu County.  Hakka is a major ethnic group in Taiwan and they have their own traditional foods one of which is Leicha.  Leicha is traditional Hakka style ground tea.  DIY is do it yourself.  So we were in Beipu at a traditional Hakka tea shop making our own Hakka style ground tea.

We started with a mortar and pestle and some ingredients that I think were tea, peanuts and sesame seeds.  The ingredients were put in the mortar and we were given instructions on how to use the pestle to grind it into a paste.  I think that the problem that most people have doing this is that it takes way longer and more effort that you would think.  We all took turns and got a work out.  Once you get it into a paste hot water and other ingredients are added.

I love DIY projects as well as ethnic and cultural type of things so this was great experience.  It was so nice of our friends Jessica and Tori for introducing this to us.  The tea shop had a lot of personality and the owner was friendly.  It is located on the Old Street in Beipu.