With gut busting effort, and using all the weight lifting…
With gut busting effort, and using all the weight lifting techniques I knew, I could barely lift this 60 lb stone for pressing the Bing Cha. The guy working there lifts one with one hand.
Pile fermentation for 40 days, an initial spritz of water and a…
Pile fermentation for 40 days, an initial spritz of water and a room of 60 degrees C, turned every 7 days. This is Shu Pu-erh in the making. Raw material is chosen for different lots of Bing or Brick. You can custom order: which mountain? They all taste different amongst the fabled 6. Elevation?1400 or 2000 meters or higher? Tree ages- old trees are plentiful here. Leaf ages and combinations of bud and leaf or more buds? Sheng for natural aging? Or Shu for instant gratification? Bing round disks? Bricks? Or 2kg bricks?
Miss Bai, formerly of the State owned Menghai Factory, was raised…
Miss Bai, formerly of the State owned Menghai Factory, was raised making tea in the factory since she was 14. For the past 20 years, she’s been making her own Pu-erh, both Sheng and Shu types. The spring time harvests from the Six Ancient Mountains can’t be beat- the scent of papaya, bamboo, earthy mushrooms all rolled into one. Here: Maocha, just sun dried after a whole day.
The sky at Menghai. Hot 40 C. Here, all 4 seasons are summer.
At Xishuanbanna, Yunnan, place of origin for tea on earth,…
At Xishuanbanna, Yunnan, place of origin for tea on earth, arguably. Killing time this morning and went to pay respects to the 49 meter tall Buddha statute at the Dai tribal temple. The Dai tribe is one of 13-14 tribes here in Xishuanbanna, and being border to Thailand, these are basically Thai people with the Theravada tradition. Beautiful gold and red everywhere. The language is interesting- one of the many, many languages in the world I wish I could read. Large library of sutras here all written in this almost extinct script.