Today the God’s generous is over, standing in the room, the raining sounds like one thousand bulls are kicking the drum, no sun no good tea, but I can see vegetables, rice and trees are sucking the sweet dew so greedily, I can say no more than thanks, so generously the spring tea season is over, let’s walk through what tea we get, this report will not looks like a report, it’s just based on the farmers I talked to, the mountain my feet trod.
First thing first, how is the quality and price? the answer is quite simple, better and higher, I will explain the reason later.
This year we will have no more Zhenghe Gongfu black tea (Zhenghe is one of two most important white tea production towns besides Fuding), although it’s one of my favorites, it’s made up of Zhenghe Big White varietal that ends a very mellow taste, even for this heaven good quality, people will laugh at you if make it into black tea, it can be made into white tea for much higher price, but if you insist your black tea probably can’t get sold as the cost is a lot higher than last year.
One secret about Zhenghe White tea, it might not be made up of Zhenghe Big White varietal but Fu’An Big White, the previous can counts for 1/5 only of the total output, because the Fu’An Big White sprouts earlier and finishes later than Zhenghe Big White, total output and profit is much higher.
So how crazy of white tea could be this time? On April 15, one kilogram fresh leaves still needs 35RMB, that’s already the tail for spring white tea, over doubled price than last year. And on the street no matter in town or village is fulfilled of cars which mostly came from other states. Actually Fuding is a very small town with a lot of mountains and long coastline, food there is very yummy, especially a Panxi Bamboo Bridge Noodle, so maybe some of the guests just came for its food.
To the tea point, white tea this time is like a sweet girl, so sweet, most of the white teas I tasted are, it’s not a selling point any more, at least not for me. I’m looking forward to Shou Mei from this season, store it for 3 years we might get amazing taste, sweet plus a sense of hierarchy.
I don’t want to get bored with this sweetness, so we continue to create something new, a super white tea based on last year’s successful experiment, it has powerful aroma and not-dying freshness, and organic but shame of no certificate, maybe you want the paper but not my concern, I just love it. Mei Zan is an amazing cultivar, we didn’t sure it can be made into white, so you can make a Super White tea too if you have Mei Zan tea bush, good luck.
A friend ever said ‘white tea is kind of borning’, even include our Super White tea, fortunately we didn’t leak our secret weapon to him. As a tea enthusiast I totall get his point, white tea is a nice but simple tea, it doesn’t have so complicated characters like Oolong. We people is a very strange species, we can have so hot love in the begining, then in short time forget that feeling. There is a sentence in The Book of Changes which was written over one thousand years ago, ’the only last forever thing in the world is to change forever.’ Maybe that’s the thing push us forward and better.
But still black tea is kind of borning to me recently, especially after the birth of Jin Junmei, no matter in the South or North all want to copy it except one, the Yunnan old tree black tea, the Qi inside is spectacular and easily be recognized.
Yes I personally like surprise much more than good, or we are stubborn to persuing excellence, that’s one of the key moves that keep us in the tea industry, life will be borning without love, passion and a little faith.
When we believe it, good thing happens. There are several surprisings this year, including Huang Jin Gui black tea, Jin Guanyin black tea, Dan Cong black tea and even a hybrid crafts with Assam, I am sure Ruby 18 this Summer should be excellent too. The possibility is unlimited, we people are more creative and bolder than before.
Tenderness, freshness and a taste of the spring, green tea is an ambassador of new year, and so many famous green teas available in China, 2018 is a good year except the production half-cut caused by frosting. Long Jing is so great, but the new queen is Anji white tea, his competitor is Lan green tea originated from Anhui province.
The earliest tea in one year is the Lantern tea, available at January 15 on the lunar calendar, surprisingly its come from Xia Pu town of Fujian province, Fujian has white tea, oolong tea, black tea, jasmine tea and green tea, the first four teas is also the birthplace of that four, so if you want to learn making tea, I will suggest you live in Fuzhou city, an ideal spot to learn every tea.
The storage of green tea is a problem, normally it’s better to put it in icebox to keep fresh. Several hundred years ago, someboy forgot to dry it but got covered tightly, the end is a yellow tea. I wonder why so many cool thing invented by accidant, since then no icebox needed.
Where can you find an authintic yellow tea? most people don’t, me ditto, luckily I have book of Tea Making which is the first version written in 1979. There is detailed description of how to make yellow tea, so we made an experiment, not so great, I have to admit it, if you wanna try a sample, drop me an line.
4 days ago Bill witnessed the birth of this Spicy Wulong tea with us, we made two versions, he took the greener one, after four days fire release, the other one version or the roasted one is fantastic. It’s eco planted, over 800m high, plucking leaves as young as possibile that ends to be a tiny pearl.
Bottle water? no problem, just put 2 grams into it, ice it, then you will have a spicy ice tea. Gaiwan is ok too, 4-5 grams can make the best use of its sweetness & spicy flavor. It’s an easy but no quality lose tea.
As Oolong is my favorite, I like Wuyi Big Red Robe, as well as Iron Godness of Mercy and Dan Cong too, but also I want to make something more special and affordable too. My dream comes true, to share my excitment, welcome to request a free sample of this Spicy Oolong.