A Bud N One Leaf

new tea and old book

two building blocks

of

a Chinese bookworm's ivory tower

an oil painting by Zhu zhiren

Now Spring comes to it's full blossom, and our tea class moves to a now chapter: Oolong Tea.

The class will cover specaility Oolong tea portfolio, Oolong and weight management, special Oolong brewing technique, purple clay tea pot...  

Let the fragrance of Oolong tea cheer up your mood in this April. 

Taiwan is famous for its oolong tea. Oolong technique was originated in Fujian province across the strait, and brought to Taiwan by immigrants to the island hundreds of years ago. Through centuries of development and experimentation, Taiwan forms its unique speciality oolong tea.

Oolong tea has a wild range of oxidation level, for 15% - 70%. the lightly fermented Oolongs are more close to green tea, with floral aroma, and bright yellowish liquor color; the heavily fermented types has more body in taste, liquor color close to black tea (light liquor black tea such as Darjeeling, Uva).

Taiwan's oolong brewing set was also originated from Fujian, but with modification: e.g adding an aroma cup, a long and narrow cup facilitating appreciation of aroma.

When serve, tea is first poured into the aroma cup, the drinker caps the tasting cup on top of the aroma cup, turn them upside down and put on a purple clay holder as shown in the picture. He then lifts the aroma cup and sniff for the fragrance, while tea liquor is flowed from the aroma cup into the tasting cup for later serving.

Personally, I prefer more straight-forward drinking style by pour tea direct into the tasting cup, drink up, and smell the tasting cup.  No aroma cups for me.  

A glance of some science discoveries on the health benefits of functional ingredients in tea

Dragon Well has being honored by Chinese tea drinkers for centuries. This spciality green tea is acclaimed as one of the top 10 Chinese speciality green tea. It has a smooth flat appearance, tastes mellow and sweet, with a pleasant aroma slightly resemble Chinese chestnut.

Top grade Dragon Well is only available in early spring (from the first budding to early April), and is made by hand, its plucking standard is "a bud and one leaf"; Followed by Premium grade Dragon Well, the plucking standard is from "a bud and two leaves" to "a bud and two leaves", plucked before late April; Ordinary grade Dragon Well is made in late April to Early May, it has more mature leaves, and has more strength and less mellowness.

Skillful tea makers hand-fry the tea in a wok throughout the making process. The temperature of the wok is adjusted in response to changes in the fried leaves, the tea are fried with different levels of "pressure-release" introduced by subtle changes in hand movements. Normally it needs 3-5 years hand-on learning to become a qualified Dragon Well tea maker, tea makers continue refine their skills and build expertise thereafter.

Making Dragon Well is a very tedious job, younger generations are not keen to learn this skill, with the booming of China's economy, they have better choices and opportunities. Now in Hangzhou, the hometown of Dragon Well, Dragon Well makers are all above age 40.

Turn to machine making is one choice, to date, Dragon Well Machine could produce the tea with excellent appearance, however, machine made Dragon Well still can't achieve the characteristic taste of traditional Dragon Well. To preserve the unique taste and the same unique manual processing technique, Hangzhou is taking proactive measures this year: including apply China intangible cultural heritage for the processing technique, organize young people to take free training sessions, and hold yearly tea making contest.

The ritual is called "Dai" Bamboo Tea

The girl is a native "Dai" ethnic minority, who came to Shanghai to study tea and ritual. "Dai" people lives in China's southern border. In this contest, all the decoration items are hand made by herself, such as the bamboo baskets, the bamboo tea ware, the peacock feather fan on the wall...

She is dressed in a traditional Chinese "Dai" ethnic minority dress, which is a small sleeveless top paired with a narrow long skirt.

The theme is sub-tropical passion. Tea ware are bamboo tubes, made by cutting different size of bamboo shots to desired length. Bamboo tube is a handy container for the "Dai" people, who use them to cock rice, drink water, etc.

"Dai" bamboo tea is roasted and brewed in bamboo tubes, which tastes both the fresh flavor of bamboo, and the fragrance of tea.

Spring tea is on now. After a year's hibernation, tea bushes sprout new buds and leaves, first flush of tea has the highest amino acid contents of the year, so the tea tastes delicately sweet and mellow.

Pluckers are busily plucking fresh tea leaves, in China, 1st flush of spring tea are normally hand plucked. Spring is the peak season for a tea farmer.

Hand rolling to make the special shape of a fine green tea named "Bi Luo Chun" (Spring Snail). The best quality of this tea is from Jiangsu, where tea bushes are grown underneath loquat trees.

"Bi Luo Chun" (碧螺春) - a tea has the same esteem as LongJing (Dragon Well) in China. With tiny curly appearance, frosted with white pekoe, has a special fruity tone.

On 5th of March, we hold our first English tea class at Community Center Shanghai, attendants enjoyed the specialty "Jasmine Green Pearl".

Here is an aesthetic comments about the appearance:

"Greenish gray and cream-striped balls"

Well-done!

In 13th century, a Japanese monk came to China to study tea rituals and later brought back the practice to Japan, Japanese tea ceremony was gradually developed since then. Later in the 16th century, Japanese tea ceremony was fully established.

The tea used in a traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony is powdered form of green tea, called "Matcha" in Japanese. The color of the liquor is bright green when the tea powder are fully dissolved. It tastes a bit grassy, resemble the freshness of spring.

Traditional Japanese clothes are worn on such a formal and solemn occasion. There is a set of strict protocols to follow, including the movement of body, arrangement of seats, and order of serving, etc.

The first picture is stirring Matcha (tea in powder form) to make it well mixed with water.

The other picture is Matcha (the hue of the picture is a yellower due to light, actual Matcha are greener)