Mr. Wei, a more talented young tea maker I never saw. I have known him for just around 5-6 years now, and he was great to begin with, but reaching new levels every year. When I told him the Ya Sai plagiarism story, he chuckled and said maybe because there are tons of Ya Sai in the market in his town now, courtesy of the neighbors. By tons, he meant, like a few hundred low mountain lbs. He himself is partially guilty- he loves the Ya Sai so much his offspring clippings of the mother tree can now produce nearly a hundred lbs or more, if the weather was normal this year. The reverse marketing did not work out- Duck Poop tea is now a fashionable tea in his town at Phoenix Mountain because he made such a sensation! But sadly, I told him, the Forbes article was not about…
Know Your Tea: Pre-Ming and Pre-Rain Dragonwell, The First Picks of the Season
The most exciting season for tea is fast approaching. This year, the spring harvest will start as early as possibly March 20th, and the long, anticipated wait for the Dragonwell will be here. Dragonwell is legendary and unbelievably sought after, not only because of its scarcity, sophistication, and taste, but because of the difficulty in its hand processing – its status is unlike any other tea in the country. Grown in the literati area of Hangzhou, considered the most cultured and educated place in China, on rolling hills just overhanging a large, picturesque lake, the Dragonwell was conferred an official tribute tea to the emperor of the Manchurian Dynasty. To this day, only top government officials can access the highest quality Dragonwell crops.That top quality Dragonwell, reserved solely for government officials in China, is called Pre-Ming, or Ming Qian Longjing. The first flush crop is harvested before the early days of April before the Qing Ming Festival,…
Know Your Tea: How to Sniff, Slurp, and Taste Tea Like a Sommelier
Sommeliers, the professional wine tasters who are typically responsible for the wine pairings in your favorite restaurant, have an expertly developed sense of taste and an unbelievable ability to parse and articulate whatever they are tasting. But they have been trained rigorously, and worked hard to develop those senses. Smelling and tasting whatever they come across, they take note of the substance, its state, and the circumstances that they were experienced They commit the story to their memory. Once there was a beautiful sunset, noted one wine sommelier, that he would climb up the pine tree as a child to see. One day, he found a tea would evoke just that exact memory. Being able to recall flavors is a practice, and having the ability to taste and recognize the flavors, is the first step. So take note of what you taste carefully and mindfully, and rewards may be quite unexpected.For tea,…
Know Your Tea: Guanyin Red, a Hidden Gem in Our Collection
When Hongcha, or Red teas, were first developed, it was a laborious process that required extreme expertise, oxidizing intact whole tea leaves by hand, for what is sometimes 5-6 hours, and just by feel. This requires the tea master to be able to drive all the aromatic oils by flushing the veins of the tea leaves, while accounting for ambient humidity, the condition of the leaves after picking, and mindful not to break even one, fragile tea leaf. As a result, this type of tea was originally called ‘Gongfu Hongcha’, meaning the Red tea made by extreme skillset and patience. With the creation of machines that chop up the leaves to oxidize en masse by the British, the Gongfu Hongcha has all been forgotten. To this day, not many regions, even in China, retain the expertise to make these. In this era of the Tea Renaissance, many tea masters are challenging…
Know Your Tea: High Mountain Organic Oolongs
Before ‘organic’, there were mass produced, chemically sprayed crops. Before such industrialized production of our crops however, was traditional farming. Traditional farming means utilizing nature, planning, and symbiotic usage of other plants to improve the conditions needed to bolster crop health. The term ‘organic’ has varying definitions, and often, such conditions as aerial pollution, run offs from surrounding industries and crops, are not accounted for when determining a tea’s organic status.As far as tea is concerned, the best conditions for tea growing is on top of the mountain, away from any aerial pollution or industrial run off, where cool wind and misty fog cover to prevent pest attacks, on steep slopes to prevent pooling water. In fact, most certified organic teas do not have the best taste, because organic is a relatively new label, and traditional tea farms occupying the highest mountain peaks have been spoken for for centuries. Most organic teas are not only…
Know Your Tea: Zhengshan Xiaozong
Finally – the real thing. Zhengshan Xiaozong in its native place of production, now a nature preserve in the middle of Wuyi Mountain. In the middle of that preserve is a village called Tong Mu, surrounded by semi-wild bushes, waving tall bamboo,and rare species of butterflies for which UNESCO has declared the area a sancutary. The original tradition was to use huge logs of wood downstairs to heat up a giant room with vents upstairs to dry the tea leaves, one of the many ways to finish a tea. The proper way is to manage the smoke in a way that does not leave smokiness on the leaves, but allow the smoke to draw out the cooked plum and cherry notes of a rich dark black tea, or Hongcha, particular to the varietals in this region. Somehow, as the legend goes, long ago, one of the producers attempted to use pine logs and pine needles to…