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Tea Adventures

Late night at the farm. Suddenly, everyone realized that what I…

Tea Adventures

Late night at the farm. Suddenly, everyone realized that what I said was true- you don’t actually get to buy property in China, it’s called ‘leasing’ in the rest of the world. However, one is told by the Communist government that one is purchasing, so down payment, mortgage, renovations etc are all yours to pay. Then the government gets to repossess it by year 50/60/70. So how is that ownership?

The more everyone thought about it, the worst the mood. Out came the Mal Tai, the rice wine, the domestic red table wine, and the snake soup. A round of cigarettes later and everyone is less depressed about being Chinese.

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There’s a lot of idle time at the farm when it’s not peak season…

Tea Adventures

There’s a lot of idle time at the farm when it’s not peak season yet. Here at Anxi, peak harvest and production season won’t really start for another 2 weeks, waiting for the leaves to grow a bit more mature. There’s a lot of standing around， sitting and drinking tea and smoking and shooting the breeze. Often neighbors will drop in and sit and not say a word. Mr. Lin, formerly the village doctor, is attempting to do the all natural farm, including using no chemical fertilizers. His Red Guanyin and Golden Robe saw their first appearance in the US with us last year. This year, we hope to ask him to tweak and custom make those teas for us a bit， adjusting fire levels and depth.
Here at 赤石 Red Rock Village where a Tieguanyin was first discovered by a fellow villager in the early 1700s， every family is related and everyone makes tea.

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I could never take care of a dog in the U.S., they are far too…

Tea Adventures

I could never take care of a dog in the U.S., they are far too high maintenance for me. But the tea farm dogs are different. They are somehow more dog like, silent, strong, contemplative, sitting and watching the clouds go by with you on top of the tea mountain. The tea farm dogs could be Winnie’s best friend. They need no attention and yet, they quietly appreciate the same things as me. Farm animals, like farm people, are just so much easier to deal with.

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Mr Lin says real organic teas can not really live on really low…

Tea Adventures

Mr Lin says real organic teas can not really live on really low mountain either. The bugs will eat them alive. If they are grown on any sort of slope, then the price automatically surpasses the export price requirement. There is no cheap, real organic tea, and forget about tasting good. So how do they do it？ Low mountain farmers would buy 10 jins or so from Mr Lin, take it to the lab, pass…

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Here you’ve got everything! High elevation! Misty cool air! Wild…

Tea Adventures

Here you’ve got everything! High elevation! Misty cool air! Wild trees and flowers! Top of the mountain far from pollution! EU, USDA, JAS Organic certified tea garden with hand pulled weeding! Beautiful young red-heart varietal Tieguanyin bushes! There’s more: Warbling birds! Wild boars! Huge snakes! Water jetting out between mountain rocks! Is that good enough for the Western Market? They asked. Nope, I said. Your prices need to be below $15 p/lb. Mr Lin : ‘but that’s how much we pay our tea pickers! We need to charge 5 times that amount!’ here’s how it works: For it to get to the West, first you have to sell it to Germany import monopoly. They will then export to the other countries like France, or the US. Then, your importer gets a cut, then your distributor, then your retailer, before it gets to you, the consumer. By then it’s 5-6 times its original cost. As a result, only low mountain, polluted flat areas with machine cut teas, can make it out West as ‘organic’. No problem, said Mr Lin. The highrollers in China now want good taste AND health, they can afford the good stuff, no need to export.

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