Chinese news reports about Starbucks selling tea in China

My father showed me a series of news reports from China about Starbucks starting to sell tea in China. I thought they are interesting to share. These interviews are from TV and newspapers. Since I can't memorize exact words, I paraphrase most of them. Light colored texts are my comments.

Interview with a Starbucks manager -

Reporter: What makes Starbucks start selling tea?
Manager: (talking about market, culture, bla bla bla...) In major cities of China, Starbucks is still the largest coffee chain store, but there is more and more competition from European and Southeastern Asian coffee chain stores. 
Manager: Some of our customers enjoy our cafe environment more than enjoying coffee (that's funny and true). Therefore including more Chinese elements in our products attract more consumers.

Reporter: How confident are you about Starbucks selling tea to Chinese?
Manager: Well, I am more cautious about selling tea than selling coffee. Most Chinese are not picky about coffee (That's very true, and it's funny that Starbucks coffee still sells well in China for about $3.7 per cup, which is the price of a decent restaurant meal in China.) but people are surely pickier about tea. So far sales records are excellent. Currently tea is 15%-20% of our sales. (I am impressed by the power of Starbucks! Starbucks tea is about $2.8 - $3.4 per small cup, still price of a decent restaurant meal in China! I am impressed that Chinese are still willing to pay this price for Starbucks tea while they can get tea all over the city in much lower prices.)




Interview with consumers -


Reporter: What's your comment about Starbucks selling tea?
Consumer 1: It's nice that Starbucks tries to include Chinese elements. That's a good thing! Well, it's good, as long as they don't get too Chinese. (I guess he made a point. Who would pay for $3.4 a cup if it's totally Chinese AND it's in China!)


Consumer 2: I guess it will attract some older people to Starbucks. I am not interested. Starbucks coffee sounds cool. Starbucks tea sounds odd. (I read this from paper, but guess it must be a young guy.)

Consumer 3: I am sure the tea they sell is foreigners' tea. Nothing like what I would drink daily. Why would one go to Starbucks for tea? (This one sounds like my mother. She always call teabags "tea for foreigners". Although I haven't tasted it, and may not want to spend $3 to taste it, I do think the starbucks tea looks and sounds better than teabags.)

Consumer 4: In my opinion, what you drink in a cafe is not important. What's important to me is the relaxing environment of a cafe. (In China, most cafe chain stores like Starbucks are expensive and considered "decent".) Then of course it's great when there are more choices and tea options. (I believe what he says represents opinions of many business consumers. In China, many business conversations carry out in restaurants and cafes like Starbucks. Going to Starbucks is an expenditure standard for some businessmen. Then for those who don't really enjoy coffee, tea options are good news.)


Interview with teahouse owner -

Reporter: Will Starbucks selling tea cause impacts on business of local teahouses? (To be honest, when I lived in Beijing, I never really cared about "local teahouses". Most of them are simply too expensive for ordinary people. A pot of tea often costs you many decent restaurant meals.)


Teahouse owner: I believe it's good influence. Young people like Starbucks more than traditional teahouses. If Starbucks gets more young people interested in tea, it's good news to all of us. After all, when people know more about tea, they will seek for more tea and tea of higher quality. Then they can possibly become our customers. (That's a good point. Or people buy loose leaf tea and make tea at home.)

2007 Da Hong Pao by Hui Yuan Yan Cha Tea Factory

Tealogged at Steepster. 

First infusion:

Easter, Passover and Qing Ming

I always believe, festivals in human societies are directly related to natural phenomena. No matter what religion or culture background a society has, the holidays and festivals are not independent from its natural environment.

For example, Easter and Passover, in my eyes, are very similar to Qing Ming in Asian societies, although Easter and Passover came from religion history while Qing Ming is largely rooted in agriculture history. They have totally different stories for their origins. But all of them, to certain degree, are about respecting the deceased and acknowledging life from death. And early spring is just so right for both of them. Qing Ming is always April 4th or 5th on western calendar. Easter and Passover may be a little earlier or later, and this year Qing Ming is right on Easter Monday.

Qing Ming, in Chinese, means clear and bright, or to be more specific, Tian (heavens) Qing (clear) Di (earth) Ming (bright) - The heavens are clear and the Earth is bright. Exactly how it feels at this time of the year. In most of Chinese climate belts, there is often shower or drizzling on or around the day of Qing Ming. After that, Spring comes with a lot of sunshine. Climate in North America is quite different from that in China. But still, in New England, April showers bring May flowers!

A list of Chinese festivals on western calendar is here.

In my opinion, other connections between holidays across cultures include:

Christmas -- Winter Solstice (To me, this is the most hopeful time of a year, when you know day time starts to get longer!)

Thanksgiving -- Moon Festival (not exactly the same time period, but the idea is, people need a festival after autumn harvest!)

In Tea Calendar, it's not coincidence that most early spring teas are green, white or yellow teas. As we know, all tea varieties are made with leaves from different cultivar of the same species. The light or none oxidation tea varieties have flavors most people yearn for in this season. Besides, according to traditional Chinese medical theories, Spring is the season of waking up, growth, activities and rising of warmth. Light oxidation teas have the most de-oxidants and relatively higher caffein contents (this is based on view of most Chinese tea professionals and may not be consistent with results of chemical analysis of all tea products), which yield energizing power. Meantime, these teas are what people believe to cool down and balance the "inner fire" in one's body.

2010 Shincha News (5) - April Madness

Shincha news (4) is here:
http://gingkobay.blogspot.com/2010/03/2010-shincha-news-4.html

Crazy tea drinkers order $400-per-500g pre-QingMing (harvested before April 5) Shi Feng Long Jing as if it were free. Year after year, the fever never cools down. I am staying up till 2am ordering Shi Feng Long Jing for a group of American tea drinkers, because no one knows if it will be out of stock tomorrow.

The pre-QingMing Shi Feng Long Jing will not be out of stock in Gong Brand, a brand-name Long Jing company that sells it for about $1000-per-500g. It will not be out of stock in Wu Yu Tai, Ten Fu, or Zhang Yi Yuan, reputable tea houses that sell it for over $800-per-500g. Compared with these price tags, $400 sounds like a good deal. It's just slightly higher than the price a big tea company would pay to buy tea from farmers. Personally I think $400 is still a lot of money to pay for 500 grams of tea, but it's somewhat understandable why people are buying like there is no tomorrow.

If you don't plan to join the luxurious craziness of Hang Zhou Long Jing (Shi Feng, Meijiawu, and West Lake), then remember there is still other Zhejiang Long Jing (harvested about the same time), there is still Huang Shan Mao Feng (high mountain harvest started last week and large scale harvest will start in the next a few days) and numerous other green teas.

Due to the early March cold current, Tai Ping Hou Kui's harvest is predicted to be around April 20, which is said to be "a week later than the past years". (To my knowledge, traditionally Tai Ping Hou Kui's standard harvest time used to be April 20. But from who knows what year, it became earlier than April 15!)

Xin Yang Mao Jian's harvest started from yesterday, April 3 in China. Xin Yang Mao Jian suffered a lot more than Long Jing and most Fujian oolong (except for Feng Huang Dan Cong which suffered the most) from the early March snow and frost. The price will increase a lot. However, because it's not a current "hotspot" tea varietal, price will not likely increase to the extent to cover tea farmers' economic loss.

Tie Guan Yin and Ben Shan are slightly affected by the March cold weather, and their harvest will be slightly postponed to after May 10. But there is always oolong from last autumn!

Huang Jin Gui (golden osmanthus) is an early harvest cultivar, compared with most other Fujian oolong. Its growth and harvest has been dramatically impacted by the early March snow and frost this year. Personally I've given up spring Huang Jin Gui of this year. But the tea from last autumn is pretty good. Besides, I've stocked up some Huang Jin Gui from the past winter season, which many people believe is the best season of a year for Huang Jin Gui.

2004 Xia Guan Jia Ji (Grade I) Tuo Sheng 100g

Tealogged this at Steepsters.

cool tea videos

Saw two cool tea videos recently.

One is made by Leafbox Tea, a relatively new organization. I enjoy their editorials very much and their tea forum is rapidly growing. It's great to have a promotional video generally for tea!

Another is made by Chico Grande. I don't know who they are but this is probably the best Gongfu video clip I've seen in a long time. I have to say I can't bear with the pretty girl type of Gongfu session show, which is more commonly seen on TV and YouTube. The girls are always pretty, but in those videos everything about Gongfu ceremony looks just so pretentious. This one, in my eyes, has the true Gongfu spirit in it.

2006 Guan Zi Zai Sheng Puerh Meng Ku Bing Dao

A recent favorite puerh of mine. Tealogged on steepster.

2005 Guan Zi Zai Sheng Yi Wu Jing Xuan

A tea shouldn't be judged by its name, price, or outfit. That being said, I just can't help being a visual tea drinker!

People say Guan Zi Zai puerh is often over-priced for its pretty wrap. Probably that's true. But I just can't help loving the pretty wraps of Guan Zi Zai. This is a relative plain design for Guan Zi Zai. But I love it as always! As for tea quality, I am not experienced enough to judge. But my heart often leans toward successful, small factories like Guan Zi Zai. Puerh market can't be without the good old Xia Guan and Da Yi. But as in all other tea genres, the perpetual vitality is from small factories.

When it comes to tea leaves, again the visual sense kicks in. Many people said it, and I agree, that in puerh, pretty leaves are not that important. But probably because I grew up as a green tea drinker, I just can't stop being judgmental on outlook of tea leaves.

This is not my favorite puerh, but I have to say, I started to admire it the first moment it was unwrapped. Look at those big leaves! It is generously made with nice big leaves from old tea tree, inside and out consistent (although it's a common practice nowadays that better leaves are spread on the surface of a tea cake to make it look better).

The tea cake is quite easy to break. And I did it very carefully so that most leaves are uncrushed. Love the big leaves!

Ok! Puerh is not about pretty leaves. But I just can't help admiring these beautiful, long leaves. 

The taste is almost like some green tea with rich flavor, which may or may not be appreciated by people depending on what they are looking for. I like it very much, but suspect some seasoned puerh drinkers will think it's not strong or aggressive enough. The flavor is very mellow, no astringency or bitterness (with 15-20 sec. for initial infusions). But again, some of my friends would say, "A tea (especially puerh) is not worth it if it's neither bitter nor astringent!" It all depends on what you are looking for. The tea tastes rich, dark, vegetal, with immediate prominent sweet aftertaste.

Overall I think it's a great beginners' tea for people who want to try puerh but don't want to handle the astringency or  bitterness. It may also be appreciated by people who have a heavier taste on green tea. Besides, for a 5-year-old sheng, it's one of the most drinkable. On the other hand, it may not have the "kick" demanded by seasoned puerh drinkers who are after a strong taste that hits you all the way into the throat. After all, puerh, by origin and basic characters, is a tea of nomads and warriors. This one, in my eyes, is more of a tea of literati.

2001 An Xi Tie Guan Yin traditional medium roast style

In my journey of looking for teas, I always feel grateful how lucky sometimes I am. I got this tea entirely out of luck. I was never looking for vintage oolong. Vintage oolong is just not an appealing concept to most mainland China tea professionals. However, this tea found me. It's not like any other Tie Guan Yin I had tasted before, and it definitely changed my view on vintage oolong.

This is a traditional medium roast tea, which is very much different from the modern greener style that dominates the market today.

(A previous blog entry here provides various styles of Tie Guan Yin to compare with this tea.)

What's unique about this vintage tea is, it has never been re-roasted. I don't know how they managed to store the tea so well in humid Fujian, that the tea has never really needed a re-roast. Obviously the tea was well-sealed, and was stored in a very dry condition. 

Initial flavor of the tea is very charming. Although I have had some oolongs that were described of having "honey-peachy" flavor, when I took the first sip of this tea, I immediately knew, this is THE "honey-peachy" flavor that the old tea people talk about. It is something we can barely find nowadays, because the processing of Tie Guan Yin is different in so many aspects compared with 10-20 years ago.

The traditional processing doesn't damage the leaves as modern style processing. Therefore, even in the first infusion, unfiltered liquor, there are not many broken leaf bits.

The aroma of this tea is not as aggressive as most modern Tie Guan Yin. The tea lasts just about 7 infusions, but I am sure it would yield more infusions when this tea was new. After 7 infusions, I kept brewing it for several more infusions. The flavor gets weaker and weaker. But the liquor tastes so "clean" however long the infusion time is. In modern Tie Guan Yin, low oxidation sometimes is a source of bitterness. In tradtional Tie Guan Yin, higher oxidation may take away some fresh fragrance from the tea leaves. A traditional Tie Guan Yin at the best balance will yield clean and prominent fruity aroma. Such balance requires optimal leaf type, leaf quality and a skillful Shi Fu (artisan tea worker). 

The spent tea leaves.

And finally, this is also what makes this tea unique. The tea leaves are significantly bigger than those used in modern days. Tea leaves in the picture were laid on a gaiwan lid, whose diameter is 2.75". 

Although I don't have the knowledge to judge age of tea tree based on its leaf, a tea professional could tell the leaves were not from young tea trees. Traditionally, old-bush concept was not emphasized as much in Tie Guan Yin as in Yan Cha. However, most best tea leaves were not from the youngest trees. Nowadays, fresh aroma is valued the most in modern green style Tie Guan Yin (under the influence of Taiwan High Mountain Oolongs and Chinese green tea), and therefore, new tea bushes are valued the most in southern Fujian. High quality modern style Tie Guan Yin products are all made with leaves from new bushes. A sad result of this is, within the past 10 years, many older Tie Guan Yin tea bushes have been chopped down to make place for growing new bushes.  

I know a small group of southern Fujian tea professionals who are committed to making the best traditional style Tie Guan Yin. They say, it's now or never to reserve the tradition, since the most skillful tea workers are getting in their 70s, and very few tea trees are being cultivated for traditional style tea processing. 

I discussed with some southern Fujian tea professionals about this tea. None of them is a big fan of vintage tea (they do like vintage tea as a healthy beverage, but don't believe it's superior to new tea), but everyone showed interests in this tea. Here are some questions I asked and their answers. These are just these people's opinions, which may or may not represent most Tie Guan Yin professionals. (ligher-colored texts are my comments)

Q: What quality level is this tea?

Some said - very high quality from the beginning; Some said, medium to high quality when it was new (not the highest level because back then there were more tea products with solid, high quality.)

Q: Where else can I get tea of this style?

Most of them said - I have no idea, because I don't see it in market. Where did you get this one? (Interesting answer. Well, it's understandable answer, since I had never seen such tea either.)

Q: Did aging contribute much to its taste?

Most of them said - No. The tea tasted good when it was new, and it was stored well. That's why it tastes good now. One of them said - Dry storage may help to generate some good, fruity flavor in this tea.

Q: If we give a grade 100 to this tea when it was new, will aging make its quality up to 120, 150, or will aging cause its quality to fade to 80?

Some of them said - Traditional style Tie Guan Yin (both greener style and charcoal roasted) may reach a quality peak (probably a grade of 120) in 1-2 years, but may not improve more. 

Overall, I feel they all like this tea very much, but they are not as amazed as I am about this tea. I guess it's because they had a lot of tea of this style when they were younger, but I never had the opportunity. 

Many people would feel a little sentimental about fading of the real traditional style Tie Guan Yin. However, some are working hard on making better and better traditional style Tie Guan Yin. Their products are not exactly the same as tea of 10 years ago (because even the tea trees are not the same). But I have full confidence in their work, and it seems their charcoal roast Tie Guan Yin have gained kind acknowledgment among North American drinkers, as showed in tealogs.

http://www.teaviews.com/category/tea-brands/life-in-teacup/

http://steepster.com/teas/life-in-teacup/9712-an-xi-tie-guan-yin-traditional-charcoal-roast

This is just a start, and more traditional tea is coming. 

At the end, I did stock up some  of  the 2001 Tie Guan Yin, just because it's a "why not!" Why not keep it if it's one of the very few real traditional Tie Guan Yin I can ever see in this decade. But I am optimistic about the future and expect to see more Tie Guan Yin traditional style in the years to come.

The ultimatum of pre-treating a Yixing teapot

No, it's not what I do. I am a simple, lazy person, and I don't have super expensive teapots that deserve such attention. But I always love hearing people discussing on pre-seasoning of Yixing. Sometimes it's just fun to look at complications behind a simple procedure. Besides, however unbelievable it may look like, it is part of Yixing tradition and it was how people pre-treated their teapots in Qing dynasty (I bet most people skip steps though). I've heard many discussions on the full procedure of pre-treating a Yixing, but have never seen anybody acting it out. I wonder how many people are still doing it. Then, I spotted this group of pictures, and believe it's something fun to share. This is a photo demonstration of pre-treating Yixing in traditional way. Not that I would do it. But it's fun to watch!

(The fun part starts from the 5th photo)

http://cy222.cn/Article/Print.asp?ID=1237

or

http://www.82348.cn/?thread-1231-1.html

According to the article, here are the steps (light-colored texts are my comments).

Step 1. Inspect the teapot and certificate. (Picture 1-3)
This step wasn't inherited from Qing dynasty :-p 


Step 2. Boil the teapot in water for 5-10 min. (Picture 4)
This step is what most people would do. But I have to admit I am so lazy that I don't even do this. I usually let a new teapot take hot water "shower" with my tea session. I would fill it with hot water and pour hot water on it from time to time while I drink tea with other vessels. I let it take showers with a few dozens of my tea sessions and then tell myself the teapot is ready to be used :D


For this step, many people would say 1 hour instead of 5-10 min. 


Step 3. Take the teapot out of hot water bath, and let it cool down by itself in room temperature. Stuff the teapot with firm tofu, put it in cold water, bring the water to boiling point, and let it boil for 5-10 min. (Picture 5-6)

For this step, again, many people would say 1 hour instead of 5-10 min.


Why firm tofu? Some say it balances yin and yang of the teapot, and bring down the fire (used as a medical term) which is from the kiln. Besides all this, I believe an important reason for this step is to make the teapot more sturdy. Traditionally Chinese people treated kitchen earthenware with rice soup for the same reason. In the old days, when people expected to use every household item for a life time or even pass it on to the next generation. Therefore, pre-treating to strengthen the item was always important. Traditionally Chinese people believe it's a virtue taking good care of your household items and use them for a long, long time. In modern day society, there are too many disposable items and people are using up the earth. 


In addition, many people believe tofu is very absorbing. It helps remove impurities from the pores of Yixing clay. Therefore in future use, the teapot can be seasoned beautifully. 


Step 4. Take the teapot out of hot tofu water bath, and let it cool down in room temperature. Put teapot back to a pot of cold water with sugarcane stem tip, bring the water to boiling point and let it boil for 5-10 min. (Picture 7)

For this step, again, many people would say 1 hour instead of 5-10 min. 

The sugarcane used in the photo is not "stem tip". I won't blame him. Most people don't know where to get any sugarcane.

Why sugarcane? Many people believe the sugar content in sugarcane can bring a natural moisture and "blush" on the surface of the Yixing. What can be used to replace the sugarcane? Some people recommend bamboo bottom stem (dah! like it's easier to obtain than sugarcane?!) or water with table sugar. I would say, don't bother. I believe this step is ritual fun, but not a must.

Step 5. Take the teapot out of hot sugarcane water bath, and let it cool down in room temperature. Put teapot back to a pot of cold water with some of your favorite best tea, bring the water to boiling point and let it boil for 5-10 min. (Picture 8)

I crossed out part of the sentence because I am really against it. I just hate wasting tea. Traditionally it was not tea, but tea leaf stems or debris that were used. In other words, the ends and bits of tea that can't be brewed. Well, if there are no tea stems to use, then use some least expensive tea leaves. I am against using top notch tea for just treating the teapot. There is nothing wrong about luxury. But luxury doesn't mean wasting stuff. 

Besides, I believe this step is skippable too, because all the purpose is to season the teapot with your tea. Isn't it what you will do all the time with this teapot anyway? :-p

2010 Shincha News (4)

2010 Shincha News (3) is here.

The first flush pre-Qing Ming (Qing Ming is around April 5 on western calendar) high mountain Da Fo Long Jing has just been harvested! We are excited and looking forward to this tea arriving here in a few weeks!

After the disastrous snow in early March, the weather turned warm and normal soon in Zhejiang province. Tea quality is maintained stable, while overall production of Zhejiang green teas is predicted to drop.

A few weeks ago, right after the snow in southeastern China, I asked a green tea plantation owner if the overall market price would increased a lot this year. He said, "Whether or not there is upswing in prices, it's not up to tea farmers." There is much to think about his words! Good news is, the small tea factory harvests tea leaves right from their own plantation, hence doesn't suffer from increased raw tea leaves costs. Lower tea production will cause a gap between supply and demand. But we expect to experience minimum market impacts on Da Fo Long Jing, because the tea is directly from plantation to factory, and then, to us.

Hangzhou Long Jing (including Xi Hu Long Jing, Shi Feng Long Jing and Mei Jia Wu Long Jing) start to hits the market these a few days. And there is more to come!

Gongfu vs. mug brewing (2) - Yong Chun Fo Shou greener style

Introduction and index of these experiment series of Gongfu vs. mug brewing is here.


Mug Brewing:
I tried mug brewing of the greener style Yong Chun Fo Shou a few weeks ago, and logged it on Steepster.


Brewed in mug, the tea is very enjoyable. But flavor is much lighter than in Gongfu brewing. However, I was conservative in leaf amount for that mug brewing session, as seen in the photo. I counted 15 grains of tea leaves and threw them in the mug. Now I think 25 leaf grains probably is a better amount for mug brewing. In mug brewing, the flavor is light in one dimension but more prominent in another sense. The tongue taste is not strong. However, the tea does give a prominent vegetal and metallic taste. I think, very possibly green tea lovers would enjoy this tea more, mug brewed.











Gongfu Brewing:
Overall, I prefer Gongfu brewing much more for this tea. With more leaves brewed in a smaller vessel, the flavor is more condensed, and the cultivar characteristics of this tea stands out. This tea is called Fo Shou (Buddha Hand). The tea is named after Chinese bergamot. Bergamot in China is not an edible fruit, but was traditionally used as a perfuming fruit. Bergamot is produced in Fujian, but the fruit was extensively used in affluent families throughout China. The fruit would be cut in halves and presented in the sitting room of the family, as a decoration and an aroma source.

The origin of Fo Shou tea cultivar is a mystery. Many people say it was obtained by engrafting tea tree with Fo Shou (bergamot) tree - before I got my Fo Shou oolong for the first time, just this idea of engrafting fascinated me. Bergamot is from the plant family of Rutaceae, genus citrus. Most of my favorite fragrant essential oils are from this family! The engrafting theory of Fo Shou oolong has never been proved. But the characteristics of this tea do remind a drinker of fragrance of Fo Shou fruits.  


When I brew this tea in a small gaiwan, I use a 60ml (2oz.) gaiwan, and lay 2 layers of tea leaf grains at the bottom of the gaiwan. After a warm-up infusion, the first a few infusions are 20 seconds each. After the first infusion, tea leaves expand to half volume of the gaiwan (showed in above picture). And after the 5-7th infusion, the tea leaves expand to loosely fill the entire gaiwan (showed in the picture below). 


A bonus of Gongfu brewing is, at the end, you can always invert the gaiwan and let leaves pile up on the lid, so that a few minutes can be dedicated to leaf appreciation. Greener style southern Fujian oolongs are mostly made from young tea bushes (this is very different from traditional style oolongs from the same region). Their leaves always look so fresh and alive!


Summary:

If I arbitrarily assign a grade A for this tea in gongfu brewing, then I will give mug brewing a B.

Will I mug brew it again? - Not enthusiastically. I prefer this tea gongfu brewed much better.

Will I recommend mug brewing of this tea to other people? - I would recommend it to people who love light-flavor green teas. While I would more strongly recommend gongfu brewing of this tea, it is understandable that not everybody has the proper vessel or is ready to accept the idea of gongfu brewing. I believe mug brewing is the second best idea for this tea, if gongfu brewing can't be used.

Later on, I will also try mug brewing a charcoal roast version of Yong Chun Fo Shou and see how it turns out!

2010 Shincha News (3) - some bad news

In the past a few days:

Mt. Wu Dong - snowy and frosty. Significant disaster for spring high mountain Dan Cong :-(

Northern Zhejiang - a lot of snow (a lot for Zhejiang, not comparable to New England winter snow though). An Ji Bai Cha, Zhejiang Long Jing (including Da Fo Long Jing) and some other green teas' growth is temporarily set back. Production may decrease. As long as it becomes warm and normal spring weather, tea quality will not be largely affected.

Hangzhou, Zhejiang - some snow. Production may decrease a bit, but over all quality shouldn't be affected (finger crossed, as long as weather becomes spring-like from now on).

Tie Guan Yin - safe! Although there was some snow in southern Fujian, the tea buds have not come out yet so the tea trees were not affected by the snow.

Ben Shan, Huang Jin Gui and some other early season Se Zhong oolong - suffered a lot.

Overall, the climate fluctuation is not disastrous to most teas but may cause significant loss for Dan Cong farmers.

2010 Shincha News (2) - Long Jing Village (photos from a Long Jing blogger)

2010 Shincha News (1) is here.

Long Jing Village in early March - Lots of photos from this Long Jing Village resident!

A cup of Xihu Long Jing from long time ago -

Earliest green tea of 2010 - Frosty Spring Yunnan Roast Green

I’ve been to Yunnan only once, but I am very sure it’s one of my favorite Chinese provinces, top 3, at least. It’s the most diverse province of China, ethnically, culturally, geographically, geologically, and tea-wise. Yunnan is where human beings first ever discovered, harvested and made tea.

The subtropical region of Yunnan has a winter warm enough for tea trees to grow, but cold enough to slow down the growing process with frequent frost. After a whole winter of bright sunshine and frosty nights, the spring tea leaves are extremely fresh and flavorful. Among thousands of Chinese green tea varietals, Yunnan green has never been very famous. This is not surprising, if consider in the old days how difficult it was to transport green tea out of mountainous Yunnan. Even the Mandarin emperors didn’t have the luck we have today, to sip the freshness of early spring Yunnan green in February! Actually, you could have it in January if you wish, thanks to modern transportation. 

This tea, Frosty Spring Yunnan Roast Green, is from a renowned small tea factory in Yunnan, Guan Zi Zai. The factory is famous as a small producer of high quality puerh. The tea is made with leaves from large-leaf tea cultivar, the same tea tree type for puerh.

This tea is the earliest green tea of 2010. Earliest, no exaggeration! The tea was harvested on the morning of January 1, 2010 in Xi Shuang Ban Na, Yunnan, China. It was processed on the same day till late night. Fine leaves were selected and packaged on January 2, 2010. Ha ha, I don’t think any other tea can beat it on time. Oh well, I am sure the tea trees were ready to be harvested on Dec. 31, 2009. But then it wouldn’t have been a 2010 tea. Chinese people love to see meanings in numbers. It sounds so cool to harvest on a new tea on the first day of a new year!

I’ve been drinking this tea all day today. I’ve started sending out samples for people to taste, and won’t describe too much of the tastes here (besides “it rocks” haha) so as not to affect people’s mind before they taste it themselves. I’ve set aside some samples for fellow bloggers. Please see recent events for blogger free sample information (you will need to scroll down to the bottom of the linked page).

Gongfu vs. mug brewing (1) – Mt. Wu Dong Zhi Lan Dan Cong

Last year I did some recording of gongfu brewing of this tea here.

First mug brewing

In mug brewing that I did yesterday, I used about 20 long strip leaves of my High Mountain Zhi Lan (orchid) Dan Cong to cover 2/3 of the bottom of my glass mug, and brew the tea with boiling water.

The outcome was a nice surprise. Tea leaves “danced” for a couple of minutes and then all sank to the bottom of the mug. Initially the liquor was a very light honey brown color.

The first a few sips were rather light flavor. I guess I could have waited for longer to allow more infusion, and I could have used more leaves. By the time when I nearly finished the first infusion, the liquor started to yield very rich and interesting flavor. The flavor immediately made me think of lychee and sweet, juicy peach. The aroma rose all the way to nasal cavity and the sweet aftertaste lingered in the mouth.

The second and the third infusions were the best, fruity and sweet. After that, the fruity aroma became weaker, but still long lasting. I re-infused the same leaves in the mug again and again, for 10+ infusions. By the end, the flavor was much weaker, but never seemed to be exhausted. Some tea leaves were still half curled, not completely spent yet. That’s what’s great about high mountain dan cong – after a dozen infusions, some of their leaves still look very new. Another prominent feature of dan cong is the lingering sweet aftertaste. By the end, I couldn’t tell if the flavor was from the tea liquor, or from the sweet aftertaste in my mouth which resulted from previous infusion.

The main reasons I had rarely thought of mug brewing dan cong are, first I thought long infusion might cause bitterness; and secondly I thought diluted liquor would fail to bring out the unique fragrance of dan cong. But it turned out the diluted liquor just eliminated the possibility of bitterness. I wonder if it’s because some contents in the tea are fragrant and even sweet when diluted, but are bitter when highly concentrated. Besides, dan cong’s aggressive aroma can hardly be overshadowed by anything, not even when the tea is brewed in a diluted way. Overall, it was a very pleasant experience! For people who have heavy flavor on dan cong, probably mug brewing will be a little bland to them. But I guess if one likes green tea, s/he will find mug-brewed dan cong very flavorful.

Second mug brewing:

I brewed it again today. This time I put in more leaves, didn’t count, but let leaves almost cover the bottom of the mug. Still the leaf amount is not larger than my regular green tea brewing. This time, the first infusion yielded prominent flavor, very fruity. Near the end of the first infusion and near the end of the second infusion, the liquor got stronger and I could taste a hint of bitterness. But it was just a small bite of bitterness, dissolved very fast and left sweet aftertaste. I totally enjoyed it.

I guess what’s tricky in mug brewing of this tea is control of leaf amount. When there are fewer leaves, people with lighter taste may enjoy it more than people with heavier taste. When there are more leaves, the stronger tongue feeling may be favored by some people who likes sheng puerh, but may be too much for some people who naturally like green tea and very green oolong. For mug brewing, I believe today’s leaf amount is near the upper limit, although they don’t look like many leaves at all. 

Also I have to say, even when brewed in a relatively diluted level, dan cong is still very strong and lasts many infusions. The 20 something dan cong leaves kept me up long after the midnight yesterday. Today it’s keeping me up too.

Summary

If I arbitrarily assign gongfu brewing of this tea a grade A, then I would give mug brewing a B+

Will I mug brew it again? – I already did it twice in two days, enjoyed it very much and will do it again.

Will I recommend mug brewing of this tea to other people? – Definitely. And with a reminder against using too much leaves when mug brewing it.

Gongfu vs. mug brewing (0)

Index:
Introduction - this piece
Gongfu vs. mug brewing (1) -- Mt. Wudong Zhi Lan Dan Cong;
Gongfu vs. mug brewing (2) -- Yong Chun Fo Shou;
Gongfu vs mug brewing (3) -  Oriental Beauty;

I love glass mug, and use it for green tea all the time. But for oolong, I had almost always used a small teapot (or gaiwan). Recently I tried more glass mug brewing of oolong, curious in finding out how well can mug brewing illicit flavors of oolong.

Overall I prefer gongfu brewing for most oolong teas. But there are a few reasons why I would like to find out about mug brewing. First of all, I guess when I send teas to other people, I can’t assume everyone uses the same brewing method as I do, and it’s important for me to find out how the tea turns out when not gongfu-brewed.

Secondly, when I introduce tea to non-frequent drinkers, I prefer to introduce an easy way of brewing which doesn’t require immediate shopping of equipment. A mug is what I first think of. I always like glass mug, know it usually doesn’t ruin a tea, but am very interested in finding out how well a tea can taste in mug brewing.

Thirdly, although I assume it can hardly be comparable to gongfu brewing, I somewhat believe it will work better for oolong than brewing with a big teapot (larger than several ounces). Consider its convenience to most people, I think it’s worth trying if the outcome of mug brewing is 70% as good as gongfu brewing.

In addition, I have to admit sometimes I feel a bit guilty spending so much time on tea drinking. I would be happy if I can do more casual drinking without sacrificing much taste.

Before I start recording some gongfu vs. mug brewing comparisons, let me define the terms first.

By Gongfu brewing, I mean small vessel, boiling water, and short infusions. In my typical gongfu session, I use 110ml (4oz.) vessel (teapot or gaiwan), 5 grams leaves, hottest possible water, and short initial infusions (5-30 seconds).

The typical glass mug I use holds 150ml (5oz.) to 200ml (6.8oz.) water when 70% full. I plan to always use hottest possible water. Like in green tea brewing, infusion time will be a few minutes; drinking starts when leaves naturally sink to the bottom or expands to certain extent. Mug will be refilled when liquor is down to the 1/3 mug volume.

Subject teas: I plan to try out various oolongs.

So far I’ve tried comparing Gongfu vs. mug brewing of a few teas. My first report is on a Dan Cong, which I had never thought of mug brewing in the past. 

2010 Shincha News - Da Fo Long Jing

Exciting! Exciting! Mouth watering... heart beating... :-D

According to CCTV news report on Feb. 25, 2010, harvest on Da Fo Long Jing started on that day! To be more specific, the Wu Niu Zao (Black Buffalo Early) cultivar's harvest has started. We are still patiently waiting for our "real" Long Jing cultivar. But it won't be long before it's harvested too!

Let me mention our Da Fo Long Jing 2010 pre-order/group purchase, before I move on to write about the confusing situation of Long Jing - because sometimes even I myself would feel a bit exhausted after going over this issue :-p

I wrote a blog entry about Da Fo Long Jing a few weeks ago. Here is a little more explanation about the cultivars of Da Fo Long Jing.

Long Jing, sometimes is taken as a tea processing method, and sometimes is taken as name of a tea cultivar named Long Jing (actually a few similar cultivars). The second definition is surely less confusing, but both definitions are commonly in use in China now. I personally always prefer to use the term Long Jing only for Long Jing cultivar.

Wu Niu Zao (Black Buffalo Early) is a historically famous tea cultivar. It's from the Black Buffalo town of Zhejiang province, and the earliest green tea of Zhejiang - hence comes its name. It's a good tea, but coming out early means it's usually very expensive. The tea leaves are usually very young and refreshing, but most people believe its inner characters are not comparable to Long Jing cultivar. Wu Niu Zao is cultivated in Hangzhou (the central producing region of Zhejiang) tea plantations too, and the Wu Niu Zao products from Hangzhou will be labeled Hangzhou Long Jing, or Xi Hu (West Lake) Long Jing. However, I believe there is great discrepancy between Hangzhou Long Jing that's made with Wu Niu Zao and Hangzhou Long Jing that's made with Long Jing cultivar.

Currently, management on Long Jing title is stricter in the aspect of geographic origins. Only Long Jing from Hangzhou can be called Hangzhou Long Jing, and only Long Jing from within Zhejiang can be called Zhejiang Long Jing. Such regulation is helpful for consumer to recognize the "authentic" Long Jing, but it focuses more on geographic patent than cultivar labeling.

Now back to the above-mentioned Da Fo Long Jing. For price's sake, I plan to stick to Da Fo Long Jing rather than Hangzhou Long Jing in future a few years. And for flavor's sake, I plan to stick to the Long Jing cultivar rather than Wu Niu Zao cultivar. But for people who are really eager to get the shincha early, Wu Niu Zao does provide the fresh spring flavor the earliest, and spares you almost 6 weeks' time.

Another granny tea (or huang pian, yellow flake)

This is the second granny tea (huang pian) I've ever had. The first one was a "granny" of a king grade Shui Xian. Behind every Yan Cha product, there is "granny tea", the older leaves that are selected out. Since there are not many Yan Cha teabag products, I guess most granny tea is consumed by tea farmers, if it's still good.

Compared to the last one, this one is more interesting to me, because I happen to have the fine product of this tea, a gold medal Rou Gui. As someone who is not particularly enthusiastic about Rou Gui, I instantly fell in love with this gold medal Rou Gui. I was gifted only one 7g pack, and am still drooping for more.

The granny tea of this Rou Gui has larger, greener and yellower leaves. The leaves have not been highly roasted. After all, who will pay the effort to roast a huang pian. It looks and smells like a greener style Yan Cha. At the beginning, the look and smell of the tea leaves worried me a bit. I've seen some poorly made greener style Yan Cha that smells very good but tastes bitter, which, I guess, is due to inadequate oxidation. But it turned out pretty good.

I used a 120ml gaiwan, and moderately filled the gaiwan with tea leaves. After rinsing, time for each of the first infusions was about 10 seconds. 

Tea color of the first infusion is darker than modern greener style Yan Cha, but much lighter than normal Yan Cha, and it's a big contrast to the final product of the gold medal Rou Gui. The flavor is light fruity, with slight peppery taste. The overall aroma is not as strong as a typical fully roasted Yan Cha, and not typical Rou Gui flavor, but is quite nice and prominent. The liquor is mellow, without any bitterness or astringency. But I didn't attempt to give it long infusions, so I don't know how tolerant it can be. The following a few infusions yield mild but consistent flavors. 

Later I ran out of time and stopped after 5 infusions, although I believe it could go a little longer, not as long as a typical Yan Cha, but maybe 7-8 infusions. As a granny tea, I think its leaf conditions are admirable. The spent leaves after 5 infusions look almost like some normal product tea, very in shape and vibrant. This is indeed a generous granny tea!

I've ordered some sealable tea bags, and will make some tasty cheap tea and crushed tea leaves into teabags. This tea probably makes excellent teabag materials :D

amazed by all this growth

Look at all this growth in tea communities! I am amazed.

From time to time, some people would ask where to find more online tea forums. As I remember, just a couple of years ago, the answer would be, not many. Now, there are more, and more. I've been keeping a list of online forums. In recent month, I had to update it for a few times. And the list doesn't even include forums that are not actively attended by North Americans. Well, there are only nine forums on my list, and not all of them are equally active. But I think this is really a lot more than a couple of years ago. A few of them are fairly new, growing rapidly and with neat forum features. I can't predict how many more will appear in the coming months!

In China, from late 1990s, Tie Guan Yin has become popularized, with full support of its local government. Wuyi government and tea farmers soon caught up. Then more tea regions and more tea varieties join them. Such movements, I believe, mean a lot to tea communities, even in China where tea has been always abundant. These movements help promote national trends of specific tea varietals such as TGY and Wuyi Rock Tea. Before that, tea drinking in China had distinctive regional patterns, with specific teas restrictively consumed in specific provinces. Before mid-1990s, in Beijing (where no tea is agriculturally grown), good TGY and Wuyi could be found in market, but just a few representative products carried by the few renowned vendors. Today, there is at least one "tea city (mall)" in every city district of Beijing, with dozens of TGY and Wuyi sellers, along with other specialist vendors. Well, as a Chinese tea drinker in mid-30s, I do have many reasons to have nostalgia for the pre-1990s tea market. But I have no doubt that today's tea market is the best for tea drinkers.

I believe this is just the start. There are still so many teas recorded in books but can be hardly found in market. Meantime, there are so many popular teas that are not yet covered by academic tea books. A tea book I have in hands records about 200 types of Chinese tea, but only lists Wuyi Yan Cha and Feng Huang Dan Cong as 2 entries. It takes another book to go over just Yan Cha and yet another book to go over just Dan Cong. A tea drinker's pursuit of new flavors can be endless. When it becomes easier and easier for tea drinkers to buy tea of great variety, small tea producers and farmers of small tea varietals enjoy better market opportunities. Therefore, even with all the emerging problems in today's tea world, I still believe we are the luckiest tea drinkers ever.

A tuition shoe paste yixing

Additional words on 02/16/10
These photos were induced by this discussion. Many people experience a few pieces of crappy tea ware and bad tea along the way. People call them tuition tea ware and tuition tea (as for tea, I guess, mostly happens on puerh).

Some fake Yixing teapots are treated with paint oil (shoe paste or something of its kind) to mimic color of good clay. Once the teapot arrived, it wasn't hard to tell. In short, after I casually touched the inside of the teapot, for the whole afternoon, I couldn't wash my fingers clean :-p I should have taken a photo of my black fingers!

I took the photos a couple of months ago to show a friend and ask "can you tell what's wrong with this just by the photo". Well, I knew he knew so much better than me and could tell anyway. This teapot, I still think the shape looks nice. I washed it a bit so the "makeup" on the lid was largely "damaged". Otherwise it would "look better". Just from the photo, I am not qualified to judge the quality of clay. What's amazing (I think) about this teapot is, in the photo, the surface looks healthy sandy (of course in my unprofessional eyes). But felt in hands, the surface is actually glass smooth. Inside of the teapot appears crude clay structure like that of bricks. Maybe it was made by mixing sand and crude clay, and then polished.

Lesson learned: avoid any hint of suspicious black color!
_________________________

Uploading the photos in order to get a small size image and paste the image link on a tea forum. I've found it a relevant convenient way to post photos on tea forums :D

And by the way this is my tuition shoe paste Yixing teapot. Luckily so far this happened only twice, so it's not that painful to look back. I am generally a conservative buyer, but I swear this one looked really nice in photo of the selling page. The seller was not a tea/teapot specialized seller (an expensive seller though...) so I thought there wasn't much common ground to argue with them about the clay materials. So I just kept it as a decor piece on shelf. Most of my friends are not frequent tea drinkers, so they don't realize this is an evidence that I goofed :D

Meng Ku Rong Shi （勐库戎氏）2007 shu puerh loose tea

I am not a big fan of puerh. But when it comes to health needs, puerh is what I think of the first. For a long time (maybe even up to today) in my mind is the tea in soy sauce color, without much taste, no offensive taste, that people drink during dim sum sessions but rarely else where. Later on I tried some sheng puerh, and (relatively) liked some of them. Shu puerh in my mind kind of stays where it was. But I turn to shu puerh when there are real needs. When I have a really big meal and need some tea to facilitate digestion, when I have a stomach upset but still want hot fluid, and when I need something to drink at night, I would go for shu puerh.

This tea from Meng Ku Rong Shi is one of the loose puerh that I relatively like. Still I think it's not very flavorful (as most shu puerh without mold flavor). But it does have very smooth and soupy liquor texture, and the tea lasts for good several infusions. The tea leaves look very clean (cleanness of shu puerh is a big issue for me), and taste very clean (no mold or "wodui" flavor).

Friday morning I got a little stomach upset. I didn't want to go shopping with the condition because I don't want to miss my routine cappuccino and canoli in the nice farm store. So I postponed the shopping trip to the afternoon and had this puerh all morning. First it made me burp for a few times, which is a good sign (according to my mom) for one to be released from stomach pain. The hot, rice-soup like liquor was very soothing. I have to say, after 5 infusions or so, I felt much better. But I also have to say, when I took the first sip of my cappuccino with the first bite of canoli in the dear farm store, I felt entirely well. I know these things are supposed to upset the stomach when one already feels some stomachache. But oddly and mysteriously, they just instantly cured me :D