Wild Ginger Flowers
A time capsule
Here in Wenshan, Mr. Lee, our Baochong farmer, keeps bees and collects the tea seeds to crush for oil. The bees will harvest the pollen from the tea flowers and they will be particularly sweet this year. The tea flowers were plentiful and one can suck on the pollen, like honeysuckle. Mr. Chen makes his Jia Long Oolong, and his wife deep fries some super delicious tea leaf tempura and makes a wild…
Paradise to some of us: Mr. Chen’s Jia Long garden
Jia Long, the good dragon tea
Mr. Chen calls his invention ‘Jia Long’, or the good dragon tea. It was made GABA tea style, oxidized without oxygen. Exactly how it’s made is unknown, as he is hoping to obtain a patent some day. In any case, after knowing him for 3 years, he has finally decided to let us visit his farm.
It’s about quality, he said, not quantity. He barely fertilizes his bushes , intentionally letting them…
Quality first, not quantity: Mr. Chen at his Jia Long farm. Only…
Quality first, not quantity: Mr. Chen at his Jia Long farm. Only 80 jins of tea produced per year!
Who cares about real tea?
Each year, as we concerned ourselves about the fact that artisan teas are rapidly disappearing, we are overlooking the fact that tea in America is comprised mostly of commodity teas. Who really cares about real artisan made teas hailing from century old traditions? Who really cares if harvesting the Baochong leaves one by one means that the leaf texture and size and shape will fit a certain…