Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
The sub-tropical climate and environment of Taiwan makes the island highly suitable for cultivating top quality tea.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Contracts
Complete specific requirements to earn rewards, income, or victory points.
Worker Placement
Commit limited workers to action spaces before opponents occupy them.
Tech Progression
Unlock or improve abilities by progressing through connected development paths.
Variable Player Powers
Each player has different abilities, restrictions, or strategic advantages.
Events
Triggered events alter the shared state, rules, or available choices.
Read the full game description
The sub-tropical climate and environment of Taiwan makes the island highly suitable for cultivating top quality tea. But it wasn't not until the 19th century after English businessman John Dodd discovered some amazing Oolong tea there that the Taiwanese tea business truly begin to bloom and "Formosa Tea" became world-reknowned. In Formosa Tea, players are tea farm owners competing to harvest the best tea leaves, improve their tea processing techniques, and produce tea of the highest quality for not only the domestic market but also for the international market. With the unique worker placement and worker advancement mechanisms, along with the tea dehydration and scenting processing, players must use their workers wisely to make the best tea in the market. A game of Formosa Tea is played in four rounds. In each round, players take turns to perform one of the five possible actions: Send a worker to harvest tea leaves Send a worker to a tea factory to process tea leaves Retrieve a worker from the tea factory after tea processing is completed Send a worker to sell tea in the domestic market Send a worker to sell tea to international merchants. After the end of the fourth round, the player who has the most prestige points wins!