Yuchi bred a black tea and called it Ruby

One of the main cultivars on the slopes of Yuchi Township in Nantou is Taiwan Tea No. 18. The township's own tea research branch bred it from a Burmese large-leaf black tea plant and Taiwan's wild mountain tea, and named it in 1999; its bright red liquor earned it the name Ruby. Brewed, it is clean and sweet with a light, natural scent of cinnamon and mint, the note tea people call "Taiwan aroma".

In Yuchi Township the tea grows on gentle slopes. Only the bud at the tip of each shoot and the one or two soft leaves below it are picked. The leaves go down to the factories to be withered, rolled and oxidised into black tea. Black tea growing in Yuchi began under Japanese rule, when the Assam variety was introduced.

There are almost no straight roads around Sun Moon Lake. The road from Shuishe pier to Ita Thao follows the shoreline bend by bend. The Sun Moon Lake Ropeway climbs from the lakeside at Ita Thao to the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village. The trails go the same way: up, down, over a bridge, back to the shore.

By the Xuanguang Temple pier, a stall sells tea eggs simmered in local black tea.