What the average tea consumer is accustomed to is black dust inside a teabag, steeped once, tasting stringent and slightly bitter, and cream and sugar are quickly added to dilute the taste. No wonder, as the dust found inside the teabags are usually either fannings (ground up parts of the leaves) or twigs, and can be compared to spam meat or a hot dog as far as quality goes. Today, some newly popular ‘silken’ teabags are found in the market, boasting of full leaf teas. These bags are often made of polypropylene or some other nylon like material, and definitely not silk. The effects of steeping nylon in hotwater is at best, questionable. Besides, full leaf teas need room to unfurl, and the constrictive teabags makes no allowance for the full flavours of these teas to be experienced. That is why the best teas are experienced at the whole leaf…
On the ANA flight, where the ocha was the best quality airline…
On the ANA flight, where the ocha was the best quality airline tea ever, both hot and cold. The napkins are made from recycled tea leaves. Japan is so civilized it makes one weep. How I wish I lived in Japan rather than the U.S., rapidly turning into a third world country, or travel to China so often, that one must turn off all brain functions to tolerate, yet need all one’s wiles to survive!
The trips to China are far too strenous…. That said, don’t miss…
The trips to China are far too strenous….
That said, don’t miss the Harvest Party on May 23rd at Teance, sign up to taste some of these teas I procured along the way:
http://www.teance.com/product_p/eventmay23.htm
For those who can not attend, I will try to make a sampler kit of these teas to place on line, stay tuned!
I just wanted to say that I’ve really enjoyed your posts about this buying trip to China. Traveling…
Q: I just wanted to say that I’ve really enjoyed your posts about this buying trip to China. Traveling is never easy but your pictures are beautiful and I’m sure that the teas you are bringing back will be worth it.
Thank you, I almost died from exhaustion, China is not for the faint of hearted! I will try to put a sampler taste of the teas online for everyone.
If only such spectacular scenery (at Anxi mountains) could be…
If only such spectacular scenery (at Anxi mountains) could be viewed without such tremendous hardship…
The farmer’s name was Wei Yin. Not only did he have a name, he…
The farmer’s name was Wei Yin. Not only did he have a name, he lived in the time of the Yong Zheng Emperor, of the Qing Dynasty of the Manchurians. The villagers refer to him as the dreamer old guy. He had a dream he saw Guanyin who showed him where to find the tea bush that became Tieguanyin today. Since Tieguanyin started propagation around the 1730s, suspiciously this might be the real starting point story after all. Where’s the Guanyin temple he prayed to? No idea, none existed around there. The temple where the old bush lived is neither Taoist nor Buddhist, but a folk type religion. So did he pray to Guanyin, and she answered his prayers and showed up in a dream?
I believe so. Guanyin is a Bodhisattva who hears all the sounds of suffering. Though the old farmer might in reality have prayed to some weird dieties with firecrackers, still, she heard, she’s not discriminatory as to who you pray to or how many sticks of incense. A true Bodhisattva does not require conformity to a specific religion or ritual, is my view.
Anyway, it all worked out and today, we enjoy Tieguanyin, one of the most glorious teas known to mankind.
Besides, if one ever meets any of these farmers, you’ll see they are incapable of inventing any myths. Most teas are merely originally named ‘Big Leaf’, ‘Medium Leaf’, ‘Small Leaf’…..
So I was wrong. The legend of dreamer old farmer Wei was in fact, a fact.