The tea gods are once again blessing me with undeserved grace. I arrive atop Phoenix Mountain, Wudong Peak at 1400 meters, in one of the best days of harvest, in one of the best years’ crops ever. Hot sun and cool breeze sway the brilliant green beak like leaf sprouts. The tea I am here for: Duck Poop Oolong,made by the best of the best, Mr. Wei.
It is a scene, the bringing in of raw leaves by harvestors every few minutes, the buyers piling in every hour to taste the crops, Mr. Wei’s 2 year old copying everything mom, or dad, or grandma, does. The buyers are the ones with the loud shirts and well fed stomachs. They buy the top of the line Ya Sai in 30 lb increments, and if I didn’t put my order in, they would have taken the entire day’s production. Price is no longer an object for the wealthy Chinese tea drinkers, who have the cash as well as the taste.
Some tea professionals, I heard, claimed that there was no such thing as Single Grove tea trees, nor that one has to climb the trees to harvest, or get on a ladder, or that there were these 600 year old trees. Whatever.
Today, the tea pickers were all in a good mood, because Mr. Wei’s 65 year old mom was personally climbing the 600 year old tree to do the harvesting.
My trifecta of indisposable items that has served up thousands, or maybe millions by now, of teas. The Gai, lid, to hold the steam in and drain the tea. The Wan, bowl that steeps the tea. The Bei, cup, that the liquid tea is poured into enjoy. A familiar sight, also, is the 10 gms of leaves packed into a 3 oz Gaiwan, the Chao Zhou style of Gongfu tea service, parsing down flavors into 5 second steeps at a time. This is the polar opposite of British style tea service of 3 gms of leaves and a 36 oz tea pot and steeped 10 minutes. Which is preferred? One would not mix Chardonnay, Merlot, and Burgundy altogether in a glass and drink it, would they? Because that’s what steeping for 10 minutes does- mixing up all the intricate layers of fragrances and flavors into one cup.
Arrived into Shantou, the city of Phoenix Mountain, one of my favorite, and oldest, tea cultures in the world. Inhabited by centuries old arbor type camellia sinensis trees, these are some formidable teas.
Pictured here: Mid mountain 700 meter Ya Sai, or Duck Poop Phoenix Oolong. Only the locals drink this tea and not everyone can afford the peak mountain old trees. But where there is demand, there is a way- the ducks didn’t migrate, the branches of the original trees did, midway down the mountain for faster growth and more yield. Last year, we got the Duck Poop Phoenix from the 1400 meter high, original trees of course. It’s not the same without the ducks!
Same photo of Sai Wan Ho, HK island, every year, at sunrise. Appearances are deceiving. Although HK still appears functional, with bustling harbour activities, midnight street food vendors making wonton noodles, and some of the highest level of civic efficiency, the destruction has long begun. Converted back to China since 1997, Mandarin is now the second language, not English. The young kids of this new generation are in general, rather demotivated. Cantonese, the coolest language around, is marginalized rapidly. The lawlessness of China and its absolute rule against individual freedoms, such as not allowing usage of Gmail in China for one small example, pitches the Hong Kongers into a new level of despair. As oft said, no one in the international community cares and will stand up for Hong Kong, a little island of peace, mahjong, outrageous kung fu flicks, and the most obsessively delicious cuisine. One goes to war for oil but most certainly not wonton noodles.