Longjing Village, Hangzhou
One teapicker can hand pick 1 Jin of raw leaves a day: roughly 1 lb, and finished to 100g of Dragonwell. Just how much work is this business of topnotch teas? Hand making from start to finish, fertilized by vegetable cakes, and tended all year just for 20 days of harvest a year…not to mention picking 3,800 to 4,000 standard two-leaves-and-a bud to make that 1 lb.
Weather is unpredictable, but for the first time ever, snow and frost descended in Hangzhou, claiming vast amounts of the early buds. Waiting for regrowth, but hurrying to meet the peak season, the tea pickers were out in troves. The poor weather pattern means super low yield and many undrinkable leaves- which will make their way to restaurants and teahouses. Demand and competition for top Dragonwell is as fierce as ever amongst the elite, and the class of people above God- Communist government officials.
Absolutely gruesome- Mr. Dai says the blisters are so painful it keeps him awake at night. Putting your hand in the 150 degree C wok everyday to fire the tea, means not just blisters: he can’t apply ointment to treat them, or the smell will get into the tea. That’s why there is no next generation of tea artisans anymore!
Some tourist shots, just in case you thought I was using someone else’s photos- today, on Qing Ming Day, the slopes at Huo Shao mountain, one of the renowned Dragonwell hills- were slippery enough after untimely rains yesterday. There was snow just a couple weeks ago, killing all the leaf buds on the North facing hills. The prices were sky high, as if Dragonwell didn’t already command the highest green tea prices in the country.
The wok is 150 C, much hotter than what it takes to boil water. This is the third firing of each batch of Dragonwell, typically fired 3-4 times before it’s called completed. Each firing elicits more of its high fragrance. Tea master Mr. Dai is an old hand- literally, this is his 23rd year hand firing Dragonwell. It’s all by touch- machines can not feel the difference in dryness between all those little tiny leaves. But in the hands of Mr. Dai, every leaf is accounted for. As for me, I am meeting the most literati of teas to be ever considered the symbol of the educated elite, at the handmade, gritty farm level.