Mid day, Wudong Mountain peak, approx 1300 meters, tea pickers out to harvest.
Introducing my newest favorite Phoenix tea of all time! Fell in…
Introducing my newest favorite Phoenix tea of all time! Fell in love at just tasting the leaves raw. Waiting for the finished roast. Today’s batch of 4 jins has been spoken for but I can get the next batch in 2 days… Can’t wait!
And the name of this tea? 鴨屎香 Duck Poop Fragrance. This apparently is a varietal only the locals appreciate. Forget the high flaunting Almond Fragrance or Song Zhong, name brand varietals. The locals know best- their favorite is this Duck Poop version. Apparently the ducks love to hide under these old trees and poop, fertilizing the trees but producing this unbelievably elegant and heavenly fragrance.
Of course Mr Wei was slightly embarassed. Tell people we have renamed it the Silver Flower Fragrance, he said. Nice name, but I prefer Duck Poop. I will have 1.5 jins available, as Mr. Wei’s tea is in super high demand.
This is a Communist country, which means you do not own anything,…
This is a Communist country, which means you do not own anything, everything belongs to the people / government. However the Grand Experiment did not work out, the country was in steep poverty and despair, so smartly, Chairman Deng kept his mouth shut until madman Mao died, and then instituted the ‘signal left but turn right’ policy. Quietly, everyone went back to capitalism. Somethings are eternal. The Chinese will always, for several thousand years now, do business, make money, grow tea, bribe very corrupt government officials. Vast corruption will never change. The word for official has two mouths. That means they have more say than you do.
You can buy property nowadays too, but you get to own it for 90, no wait, 50, no, wait, 60, years…? The regular Chinese person has lost track. The government changes policy constantly. I said that’s called ‘lease’, not ‘buy’, if you can only have it for a limited and ever changing amount of time. Besides, technically you still can not ‘own’ anything in China. You don’t own your own shirt.
When Confucius meets Karl Marx, watch out! Complete chaos is to put it lightly.
Above photo: the eternal blanket of grey smog completely smothering every city.
Heading out to Phoenix mountain, will hold my breath till then.
Day 7 harvest of the White Peony King and Day 4 of the White Down…
Day 7 harvest of the White Peony King and Day 4 of the White Down (Baihao Yinzhen) costs doubled this year, due to huge sudden demand for place of origin leaves. Word got around on the health benefits. In China, it’s just the opposite: good tea taste comes first, health benefits second. Place of origin is really important, since ‘white teas’ from anywhere other than Fuding origin white varietals can not claim those benefits, nor taste.
My face turned a scorching black. So, do we not import white teas this year, or make zero or lose money ? Raise the price? Sure. The Chinese economy clips along at a forced slowdown to 9% growth in GDP, while the US is lucky is we get to 3% growth. That and the currency exchange and other woes, pretty much gives us the following options:
1. Sell fake white teas like other tea merchants
2. Increase the price so we break even
3. Not raise the price and lose money
4. Not sell any white teas
Unlike green teas where I have numerous regions to choose from ( we are not carrying Taiping Houkui until prices get back to reasonable), only real white tea is what we will carry.
Stay tuned, our final prices will come in in a few days.
The subway in Guangzhou is clean and fast. That’s all due to such…
The subway in Guangzhou is clean and fast. That’s all due to such clear signage as this one, forbidding the following:
No spitting or littering
No lying
No chasing
No climbing
And my favorite: No swinging
Seems like it might work-by Oct 5, the fall/winter Wuyi harvest…
Seems like it might work-by Oct 5, the fall/winter Wuyi harvest will begin. We might be able to do a combination China/Taiwan tour.
Wuyi, said Mr Zhang, is the kingdom of the snakes and paradise of the birds. I ran into a nice snake just around this waterfall, and very loud birds and cicadas were in constant concert. I still haven’t found the Wuyi martial arts school specializing in swords yet. Well, that’s my kind of trip, but Wuyi is comfortably enabled for tourists now, so safe to bring folks maybe!