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Tea Adventures

Staying in a 400 year old, old, Japanese temple and living with…

Tea Adventures

Staying in a 400 year old, old, Japanese temple and living with amenities from the 18th century. The grass is unkempt outside and the cicadas are loud with their pronouncement of summer. The bath is to pour your own water over your head. I keep wondering if I’ll run into a samurai ghost. It’s been really bizarre to merge all the elements of life anywhere. So far, I’ve been in places as disparate as a 5th century AD mud hovel in Yunnan, live and work tea production house on top of the mountain in Phoenix Mtn, lived with ducks under my feet at Anxi, on the 16th floor in Hong Kong Island, in a farm ‘hotel’ underneathe beetlenut trees in Nantou, and today, in a time capsule back to a tatami room in the Kannonji Temple, Kyoto. Been speaking China Mandarin, Cantonese, Hong Kong Canto slang, Taiwanese Mandarin, and today, Japanese, barely. And then writing it all down in English.

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In Kyoto today, after a long day of traveling and dealing with…

Tea Adventures

In Kyoto today, after a long day of traveling and dealing with wifi woes. It’s the second day of Shincha, so will see how it goes at Uji. Tonight, a friend’s welcoming kaiseki dinner, and with the bamboo leaf wrapped rice similar to the Chinese tradition for commemorating Chu Yuen, at the Dragon Boat Festival May 5th. Many of the cultural elements shared in ancient times remain intact in Japan, with their own twist. Japan is all about rules and following them. That’s how everything is kept in order. I wonder, how do the Chinese tourists fare in Japan, two extremes in observing etiquette and consideration? My friend says Chinese tourists have been welcome. Money talks above all.

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This year I decided on some top notch Four Seasons, a more or…

Tea Adventures

This year I decided on some top notch Four Seasons, a more or less entry level accessible intro to Taiwanese oolong, with all the aromas of a tropical island, spiciness, and dry fruit peel finish. It is a great year for tea drinkers and woeful one for the farmers. The price did not increase much though there is no quantity, the Taiwanese are fair. The teas are determined by elevation and so, they don’t inflate prices such as the way they do in China. So I encourage everyone to try Taiwanese Oolongs this year, at least even at an inexpensive Four Seasons. I always maintain- if you did the math on tea bags, you might cry. 1.5gm of tea dust at $45 per lb or $120 p/lb for those ‘silken’ teabags made with plastic and filled with- who knows what. You might as well support real artisans from places of origin! And I, for my part, can continue to travel, personally inspect and get to know, the artisans and their teas and never buy mass produced, possibly tainted, middlemen handled, mediocre tea at expensive quality vs. price ratios!

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My life with Mrs. Su is always spontaneous and just north of…

Tea Adventures

My life with Mrs. Su is always spontaneous and just north of wacky. Although a very accomplished tea grower and producer as well as expert in Charcoal Roasting, she has vegetable envy. Anytime anyone else in the village grows a bigger/prettier/more delicious, cabbage/squash/peas/bok choy, she gets super obsessed. So tonight, after exchanging news I already know (very little Tung Ting due to drought) she drags me out to check out, in the dark with a flash light, her neighbor’s kabocha patch, to compare the size of their leaves and pumpkins against hers. They are bigger than hers- ‘must be from fertilizers and pesticides!’. Whereas she refuses both, and carefully wraps each flower and squash. Her teas are exceptional, and her vegetables delicious- but those are just two small reasons why we love Mrs. Su.

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Four Seasons or Jin Shuan this season? Flower aroma or milky…

Tea Adventures

Four Seasons or Jin Shuan this season? Flower aroma or milky fragrance? Tea is scarce this spring due to drought, so quality is exceptional. But everyone’s got a long face. Production is 70% less than previous year. I assured them that we also have drought in California with just 1 year of water left. As for earthquakes, the tremors last week on the island have nothing on us in the Bay Area!
But the US is a country, they said. Taiwan is in indefinite limbo. It’s not recognized as a country by the international community, yet it is independent from China. Besides, Hong Kong is a great example of not going back to the fold. To have lived in freedom and then put in a cage, is much worst than being born and raised in captivity. So sadly, Taiwan, a warm, friendly island of great people, tea, and pineapples, remain with an uncertain future. Such a sad problem has to be glossed over. So the big news this week, the huge news, is that a chain of bubble tea cafés have tainted beverages!!

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Station master Wang of the Lugu Research Institute evaluates the…

Tea Adventures

Station master Wang of the Lugu Research Institute evaluates the Ruby Red I just got. He prefers a later summer crop which has more intensity. The unique Hinoki fragrance is an anomaly and not to be expected for the Ruby Red usually. Also, in about 6 months that fragrance will disappear and settle into a more mellow Red tea taste. Well, flower arrangements last a week and the seasons change in 3 months. We will celebrate the short duration regardless.
Stationmaster Wang is crazy busy today as a huge news storm involving some chain of cafés (Stornaway)were found to have DDT in the flowers and Ceylon and Assam used in their bubble tea drinks. Then, more digging ensued and found that many bubble tea cafés use tea that were tainted also. The press is all over it and the Stationmasters of all the research institutes in Taiwan are getting nonstop requests for information on pesticide levels in Taiwan teas. The problem is, according to Wang, there is only 13,000 tons of real Taiwan teas produced. The extra 30,000 tons of tea needed, and imported, are low quality cheap teas used for beverages for bubble tea, etc. They come from Vietnam and Thailand mostly, where pesticide control is tenuous. However, the tainted shops are finished. All the farms are clamoring to get their teas tested immediately as it is Spring harvest and they are worried about customer inquiries. The lab here is overloaded and can’t get the tests done fast enough. Taiwanese teas rarely have this problem- but the island is too small to fill the demand, particularly when it comes to cheap beverage teas. Low quality teas just don’t get produced here!

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