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.
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.
The Bailin Gongfu will have to wait. Today’s samples were made from white tea varietals, lacking the intense chocolate notes that using the Fujian green varietals make. Will wait for tomorrow’s batch. Don’t get me wrong, these were excellent. But again, the curse of the long and nuanced palate memory…..
Mr. Lin of Fuding is particularly proud of his invention, a new twist in making green tea adapted to the small leaf Fujian varietal. An unbelievable jade green with what appears to be rough rolling, he says that he’s got a new technique that removes all the grassy acrid quality that often plaques green teas. Not even 1% bitterness, this green tea has both the fiery sun, and yet misty fog, qualities, with squash sweetness. Unbelievable! We must have some- and the winner is April 1, day 1 harvest.
White Peony King: pure honey water. Harvested on the 2nd day (March 28). The suffering is over, folks. This year’s crop is the absolute best in a decade. I am both blessed and cursed, with a very long palate memory…
