Teance Fine Teas Blog

Tea Adventures

My trifecta of indisposable items that has served up thousands,…

Tea Adventures

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.

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Arrived into Shantou, the city of Phoenix Mountain, one of my…

Tea Adventures

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!

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Same photo of Sai Wan Ho, HK island, every year, at sunrise….

Tea Adventures

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.

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Landed into Hong Kong, the essential hub to all of Asia. Still…

Tea Adventures

Landed into Hong Kong, the essential hub to all of Asia. Still the best airport in the world. Octopus cards working: check. Hong Kong Cantonese slang spoken: check. Mandarin spoken to me by customs officer for the first time: sad. I must have stopped looking Hong Konger and crossed over to the lesser cool mainlander Chinese. That or I don’t sport the HK fashion: glasses, bad skin, Louis Vuitton bag. J/k. I love HK, still.

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As often said, good teas come from high mountains. How high is…

Tea Adventures

As often said, good teas come from high mountains. How high is high, and for that matter, how steep? Here in Taiwan, San Lin She, things are taken to extremes! At 2000 meters with 60 degree inclines,so steep that mere vertigo does not approach how scary it can make one feel, amidst blind white cloud, one might wonder, did I pay the right price for these teas? Just how much effort does this High Mountain oolong really take? Someone planted these on the 60 degree hills. Someone carried up equipment to prune and weed and fertilizer, at 2000 meters. A lot of 70 and 80 year olds harvested the leaves all by hand, in the blinding fog. And that’s all just raw leaves. Here, we were merely tourists.

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