Tea picker shortage in China

In the past few months of Spring production period, there was a shortage for tea pickers. Many crops were delayed and reduced in quality for that matter, some were abandoned during picking season. The consequences are less high quality teas made it to the market and prices went up as well.

Reasons for the labor shortage can be sum up by a few:
1) Labor cost went up, many farms can not afford to hire sufficient number of tea pickers
2) There are more jobs available due to the Olympic game
3) Bad weather prevented farms from securing labor schedules

When to drink your teas light and strong?

My observation is females drink their teas light while males drink them strong.

Other than the fact that men want to be perceived as macho men, less of a wimp, it has a lot to do with life style.

Strong tea can clear excessive body heat, detox, nourish lung, clears mucus, induce urination, help digestion of fatty food. These are not the only health benefits of tea, but the part that many males need to counteract the effect on their bodies due to living habits. Males tend to drink more alcohol, smoke more, eat more meat than females. Strong tea can sober up a drunk fast, caffeine also signals kidneys to eliminate urine and toxin.

However, the old saying is moderation and moderation in everything you do. Light tea is more beneficial than strong tea in terms of health prevention, and prolong life. Light amount/strength can do only good to your body with little to none of the bad. Over drinking tea, especially strong tea can cause yellow skin complexion. No it's not because I am Asian! :P

Get to know Phoenix Dan Cong (6) - Kung Fu tea and Chao Zhou

Eastern Guang Dong province, China contains a terrain of mountains connecting one and other, among them are rivers and valleys. Phoenix Mountain has long been the home of tea plants before 0 AD. A tribal group named Lei Zu lived among Phoenix Mountain for centuries, their primary economy resource was cultivation, tea was a major part of their lives. During Sui dynasty (589 - 618 AD), a massive earthquake cause major wild fire which burnt down most of the plantations including tea trees in the area, only a couple of mountain tops escaped such tragedy, one of them is the now famous Wu Dong Mountain. Part of the Lei population migrated east into Fujian province due to lack of food source since the wild fire. Some local tea varietals followed the migration into Fujian province.

During Tang dynasty, 780 AD, Cha Jing (Tea Classic) already documented tea from Chao Zhou Phoenix mountain. Teas from this region became tribune tea to royal families since for many dynasties to come. Deng Siao Ping favored Phoenix teas during his reign.

Today, the term Song (dynasty) is often seen associated with Phoenix tea, why does it seem like Song dynasty was the beginning of Phoenix tea, when in fact tea history went much further back in time? We can say Song dynasty was the corner stone for future development and spread of Phoenix tea. The beginning of Southern Song dynasty, the entire central government migrated to the south, expanded to Hang Zhou, Wen Zhou and Fu Zhou (now Fujian). With such large populated migration, came with the central China culture, art, science and skills fueling the economy expansion in the south. Southern Song was one of the most prosperous time in Chinese history. Export business began uprising at this important time, which brought in more silver and gold that required to develop extravagant hobbies. Good tea and scholars don't stay far from each other. Tea during this time reached its high point in history. The style, tea ware, daily contest and craziness were at its max. Migration didn't stop there, many Hans moved from Fu Zhou (Fujian) into Guang Dong Chou Zhou, brought oolong tea culture into the area, including the preliminary Kung Fu tea. Kung fu refers to 2 concepts, the processing of oolong tea which takes kung fu (skills) and time, and brewing oolong tea also requires kung fu and time. Given the natural resource of Chao Zhou, kung fu tea culture was refined here for the next few centuries. Chao Zhou local dialect and Min Nan (Southern Fujian) dialect belong to the same Chinese language branch, not the Cantonese language branch even though Chao Zhou is part of Guang Dong, which proves the historical fact of such migration.


Toward late Ming dynasty, China was opened to western countries for the first time, missionaries and trading posts could be found along the southern coast, Fujian and Guang Dong sea ports. Chao Zhou was economically advance at the time, foreign money fueled the extravagant tea habit even further, it's a fashionable status. Everything entailed in Kung fu tea were then fully developed. The artistic value of kung fu tea presentation were the chase of the town. Olive Pitt charcoal was only used by the rich, famous and government officials at the time and today. Others couldn't afford it, use wood charcoal. The kung fu tea culture was widely adopted by the higher up clans and the normal civilians.

Ching dynasty, Dan Cong was developed with special skills. The quality of tea making reached new high, which became the foundation of today's DC. Single bush processing became the signature of Phoenix tea and highly sought after. With a few hundred years of plant and skill development, the maturity of such bushes were destined to be made uniquely.

Song left major foot prints all over Chao Zhou which can be seen today, bridges, temples, stone pavements, schools, particularly central China culture reflecting Song period. Chao Zhou dialect contains some of the ancient Chinese words from the central plain which modern mandarin no longer uses in such context. Cantonese women call their husbands Lao Gong (old male) regardless of age, Chao Zhou women called their husbands 安 An (safe/peaceful), what makes a husband is having a woman under his roof, which is what the Chinese character depicted.

Chao Zhou since then became birth place to many poets, (Zuang Yuen) scholars, generals, successful business men - locally and internationally. Chao Zhou business men are also called the Chinese Jews. Chao Zhou successful business men can be found in Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia for centuries, and US/Europe in recent history. Some of the Forbe's 500 richest men of the world are Chao Zhou men.

Kung Fu tea used to be more famous in South East Asian than in Beijing because of this world wide business expansion. Since the 90's, Kung fu tea is spreading fast and furious north ward in China, tapping into the traditional green tea regions. This momentum is slowly spreading outside of Asia in the last few years as well. Kung Fu tea has never been this recognizable in its history for the last 9 hundred years. It is a proud moment!

Ideal tea habitat

What is the ideal habitat for tea trees? Camellia Sinensis are sub-tropical plants prefer hot and humid conditions. Tea trees start to spring out those lusious flavorful buds around 10c, slow growing under this temperature. Between 10c to 15c, leaves begin to open, around 15c to 20c, growth is fast and reaches the maximum growth when temperature is between 20c to 35c. Tea trees actually stop growing when temperature is beyond 35c. During winter, tea trees hibernate when temperature drops below 10c. As plants mutate to adopt local climates (takes up to hundreds years), different varietals has different tolerance of cold temperature. Some trees can survive in temperatures as low as -12c.

Tea plants love humidity and lots of rain. An average annual rainfall of 1.5 meters or 60 inches is ideal for replenishing water content after each picking.

Up to 95% of the organic materials in a tea leaf require the conversion by light. Infra red light can be easily absorbed by tea leaves, especially at elevation of 500 meters to 800 meters, clouds are dense, indirect infra red lights are best for tea plants. Leaves are tender, meaty, and highly aromatic. Direct sunlight with high temperature speeds up growth, leaves matures fast, polyphenol level increases, hence summer teas are more bitter then other seasons.

Texture

When it comes to taste a cup of tea, what's obvious is the aroma, second is the flavor, the most invisible to our palate is the texture.

A good tea is anything has nice aroma and pleasant flavor or even the later 2. Superior teas is all 3 to the max.

The Kung Fu way is not the way to judge a tea in the tea industry, not even gaiwan kung fu. Using professional tasting method to judge a tea has its merits. When you steep a tea in boiling water for 5 minutes, everything unveils, the flaws and the strengths at a substantial strength for evaluation. Flavor and aroma aside, the texture is concentrated enough to reveal how much of a leaf is now in the water. Good quality spring tea from old trees will have a thicker consistency. This thick or lack of thickness consistency dictates the intensity of tea flavor. Each tea has its flavor/aroma profile naturally as it grows, then comes the work of process which transforms the nutrients/chemicals in a fresh leaf. Nutrient content is the base of good tea, skilled workmanship is the next important element of good tea, when climate permits, you have an outstanding tea.

Let say you have a meatloaf with 50% bread crumb, and an other one with 30% bread crumb. A good chef can spice them both up nicely with equal amount of flavorings, baked at the same temperature at the same time. It's easy to tell the second meatloaf have more flavor. Even though taste is a mater of personal preference, some might actually prefer the first loaf. But as a measure of flavors and quality, most people would agree the 2nd loaf exceed the 1st. Now, a chef can also alter the process of preparing and baking the 2 loafs, right amount of spice on the first, over cook the second. The out come would be drastically different. The first loaf would be tastier than the 2nd regardless of the substantial beef content. Skill masking the lack of content.

A lot of this is also applied in making tea. Roasted teas gives more flavor, but is it necessary made of rich leaves? The transformation of sugar and oxidation of chemical does mellow out a tea and increase flavor/sweetness. However the thickness of tea can not be altered through processing. Roundness, smoothness, flavor and aroma can be altered, but not thickness. Thickness dictates how durable a tea can be as well.

To detect the texture takes much more refined taste training. In order to taste many different teas, mental profiling the aroma and taste for comparison is already a daunting task, when it comes to profiling the texture of tea, it takes not only drinking and experiencing different types of tea, one must learn the hairline difference of sensitivity in your tongue. Sweetness in the back of the throat just won't do it. Tingling sensation is not a good way to measure texture. Full body, but how full. A Chao Zhou adjective to describe the thickness of tea is bony. This tea's got bones.

Why kung fu method will not fully reveal the true nature of the leaf quality, one may ask? When you compare tea with variations of parameters, is like comparing apples, apple sauce and apple juice. That's why I'm reluctant to write tasting notes nowadays. Commercial grading is base on exact same parameters for extended steeping time. Not an easy job to be a professional tea taster I tell you. You'll have to taste over steeped teas all the time. On the other hand, it might be fun to be a pretty girl demonstrating Kung Fu tea I imagine. :P

How do you develop a sensitive tongue if you don't want to drink lotsa over steeped teas and waste your precious leaves? HA there is a way. Drink only one types of tea for an extended period of time, build up a set standard for each type before moving on to another type. Say for the next 2 weeks, drink only Dan Congs, then Wuyi for 2 weeks, then pu-erh 2 weeks and so on. During each 2 weeks session, narrow down to the age of tree/tea or roast type consecutively instead of hopping from a young to an old, light to heavy. I found the best way to program your palate is start with young trees for a couple of days, then old trees, come back to a young for comparison. You may not notice the subtle difference going from young to old, but much more obvious when you go from old to young. When you can taste the difference between a 100 years old tree and a 200 years old tree regardless of the aroma or flavor, then mission is accomplished. After a while, your palate will tell you what type of tea you prefer when you crave for something or reject something.

Bubbles

Do you ever wonder why bubbles form when you make tea?

Tea is alkaline based, think of it as mild soap. Back in the day, tea was used to clean greasy pots before dish detergent was introduced in China. Bar soap, liquid soap ladder up bubbles in water because they are alkaline based. The bubbles are not an issue when making tea. Bubbles form not just in the first brew, they appear in every brew, but less in later brews as less alkalinity as it gets. We usually scrape the bubbles off, especially the first brew not because of the bubbles, it's the dust and other undesirable small particles cling on to the bubbles that we want to scrape off.

Give your intestines a bubble bath(s) every day! Grease free, toxin free, easy breeze beauteaful!

I am digging this catch phrase.. :D

Balls?

When I first used clay pots for brewing tea, I liked the ball filters over the flat hole type. Because the leaves can not clog the holes and interrupt the flow. Soon enough, I found that the flat hole pots make better oolong teas, specially Dan Cong. Reason being that flat hole pots can empty almost all droplets of water when you shake long and hard enough, while ball filter pots can't and will keep on steeping tea continuously at the bottom. This might benefit pu-erh, but not for oolong. Dan Cong can become bitter/harsh if steeped for long, even just a few drops of water can make a difference.

What's blooming

Cymbidiums are easy to care for compare to other Orchid species, although none of them are easy. Every year I have quite a few of Cymbidiums blooming in the spring. This year some of them are left outside. One thing I notice is a couple of them attract snails and some others don't, which brings up a point, plants posses self defence mechanism by producing chemicals to fan off insects. Some varietals are better than the other.

This also apply to tea trees. Low elevation farms are more vulnerable to insects, especially during hot weather months. Warm temperature speeds up growing rate of leaves which contribute to premature chemical composition and too much fiber, hence lack of flavor. That's also why lower elevation teas are woodier then high mountain teas. Also trees produce bitter chemicals to keep insects from chewing them up, which is why summer harvest is bitter. Even organic grown teas are less of quality than Spring harvest.





Following 2 flowers are severely bitten by ants and snails.

Why isn't oolong tea a main stream tea like green tea?

There are many reasons to why oolong tea is so much better, but not popular.

1. Small production, only 3 regions in 2 provinces produce oolong tea in China. Taiwanese oolong teas are not widely available in China. Majority of the country of China produce green tea.

2. Complicated process also limit oolong production.

3. Transportation in the old days took much longer, shelf life was a big concern, light fermented teas could not make it else where and maintain its freshness simultaneously. In recent days, Tie Guan Yin gained popularity after a face lift and benefiting from refrigerated shipping and storage.

4. Local teacoholics consume most of the oolong teas before the tea had a chance to get out of town. City of Guang Zhou population consume an average of 2.5 kg annually, Chao Zhou population consume an average of 4.5 kg of tea annually, the entire China consume only 1/4 of a kilo of tea annually.

5. Complicated brewing method. Kung fu tea is a tradition in the southern states, west to Yunnan, east to Fujian, but not for the rest of the country. Si Chuan mainly used gaiwan as drinking vessel, later adopted by the rest of the country.

Oolong teas - who are they?

Oolong tea is one of the six main types of Chinese teas. Many of us tea drinkers heard of and had some oolong tea, most of my customers had never heard of it. Well, if you ask a random person on the street, most likely they have only heard of black tea and green tea, and nothing else.

Oolong tea is my love, and because of that very reason, I try my best to introduce oolong tea to any body, newbies, experienced drinkers and tea virgins.

If you were Chinese and think you know a lot about oolong tea because you drink tons of it, well there is always more to learn.

The birth of oolong tea was relatively recent compare to other types of tea, around the end of Ming dynasty 1600's. Early 1700's documented process of Wuyi oolong tea involved wilting fresh leaves under sun layered thinly in bamboo container, then fried and roasted to dry. Green portion is the effect of frying, the red portion is the effect of roasting. I'll explain this in an other article regarding processing and the chemical change during the process in detail.

In recent days, the process of oolong tea is the most complicated (procedures and chemical change), time consuming, labor intensive method, traditionally done by human hands. Picking, wilting, fermenting, tossing, repeat fermenting and tossing for 8 hours or more, kill green, rolling, frying, rolling, repeat frying and rolling, roasting, re-roasting multiple times. It's a sleepless 2 day continuous hard labor result.

What exactly is oolong tea? Is it a varietal or is it a process? Well, it's a combination of the 2. It takes suitable tea trees combine with the above method to produce oolong tea as a finishing product. There are 4 regions in the world produce oolong tea. Other regions produce so call oolong teas by using similar method, or some call semi-fermented teas as oolong tea. All oolong teas are semi-fermented, but not all semi-fermented teas are oolong teas.

Northern Fujian province, Wuyi mountain is the birth place of oolong tea. The processing method were then adopted by other regions, and modified to better suit local varietals for its unique flavors. Wuyi rock tea is macho by Yun, an experienced middle age man.

Southern Fujian province, Anxi Tie Guan Yin is the signature local flavor. Traditional heavy roast is like an old man, even tempered with lots flavor. Light roast TGY is like a young girl, likable with not much complication.

Taiwan oolong is every where, there's high mountain, baozhong, Tie Guan Yin, high fire, light roast, fisted, stranded, you name it. It's an united province of northern and southern Fujian. Women working in the city, in every level of the corporate ladder, administrative girls (jade oolong or Light roasted BaoZhong), middle management of the 30's (Dong Ding or High Mountain), the executive super women (Oriental Beauty).

Guang Dong Phoenix Dan Cong, the young married wife from a rich family in the old days. Beautiful hair with gem decorated gold/silver/jade pins, and a Yu Lan flower behind the ear, hand embroidered dress and shoes, slowly wondering among blooming azalea bushes, one hand holding a gaiwan, the other hand playing with the lid, occasionally taking a sniff through the lid, then a sip of Dan Cong. A young maid follows behind gently fanning her, birds chirping, water stream slowly running besides them, perfect harmony! Of course high maintenance too.

Photos for best clarity

Through out my blog life, I have tried various angle/lighting/setting to capture the best representation of tea. Some times trying too hard with too much shifted the purpose. Pictures might come out nice, but the tea is not identifiable.

Dry leaves in picture is taken under natural sun light. I have only 30 minutes window to take pictures each day, that's only if I wasn't busy with other things and the sun is out. Due to sun light only shine through my door about 2 feet.

Following picture is spent leaves in a shallow dish filled with water. The clarity level is high enough to show veins and other details detectable by eyes. Flash light was used here, a bit over exposed, however all 3 dimensions are visible. Water keeps leaves semi floating which creates a 3 dimensional look, unlike wet leaves lay flat on surface.

How to read a tea leaf

No, it is not fortune telling. :P

In picture below is Zhi Lan Xiang Ping Jai Tou, spent leaves after god knows how many brews. As you can tell, leaves are uneven by shape, color and fermentation. Spent leaves show all the tell tail signs of quality.

A. Does not belong here, a much darker green leaf some how got into this bag. Most likely a Big Dark Leaf from a container next to the Zhi Lan Xiang fell over. It happens and often at tea shops or factories. As long as the ratio is low (usually only a few leaves), it does not make a difference.

B. Bruises, these are not fermentation color change. Bruises are created during fermentation process, tossing leaves too hard breaking leaves in the middle which cause fermentation in the middle of a leaf. A few of these in a cup will cause astringency.

C. Flower fragrance.

D. Light floral aroma.

E. Nectar/honey/fruit juice flavor.

Chao Zhou Brewing Style

Chao Zhou Kung Fu Tea is the oldest tea culture even in China. Tea wares are some what different as well. Most of the modern day Kung Fu tea wares (except YiXing) are more or less derived from the Chao Zhou style. Pictured below is a typical setting of traditional Chao Zhou style, minus the mat.
Components:
1 deep flat bottom dish for tea pot
1 half an inch thick loofah - place under neath tea pot
1 Chao Zhou Zhu Ni teapot
1 deep flat bottom dish for tea cups
3-4 tea tasting cups (should hold the same volume of tea as tea pot)
1 water well
1 clay stove
1 Sha Diao (water boiler)
Charcoal
Don't forget tea leaves and water. :P

Procedures:
-Light up charcoal to boil water
-Roast tea (optional)
-preheat pot
-empty water into cups
-place tea leaves in teapot
-fill hot water to top
-scrape foam off and close lid
-pour hot water over lid
-hold bottom dish with one hand, hold cups down with another hand (fingers spread out), empty water in cups into water well
-pour tea into hot empty cups at low height, circle around cups fast and evenly, shake off as much tea drops as possible
-same drill for subsequent brews

This is the traditional method, and still practice by many locals. However water drops everywhere, number of cups are fixed no mater how many people are there in the party, which isn't as practical as other tea trays and tea sets on the market.

Phoenix teas are more aromatic than most teas, hence temperature is extremely important, especially for 1st brews. That's why the preheat water is only emptied right before tea is ready to be poured, also Cha Hai is not part of this method. Rinsing is not recommended for high end Dan Congs. Oolong teas go through series of rolling process, hence much of the juice is on the surface of the leaves, rinsing is throwing away the essence.

Traditional CZ tea wares can be made of CZ zhu ni, ceramic or porcelain. You can mix and match any dishes to create a set which is what I did in the picture, as long as the size is right, functional and pretty.

Enjoy your Dan Cong tea!

2008 tea production and price

It's not good news for any of us, tea drinkers, tea merchants, and tea farmers. Snow storm wiped out 30% of the tea farms in China. 10% tea trees are frozen to death. Green tea productions will be delayed by almost a month. First crop will be on market by mid March, where previous years first crop were available shortly after Chinese New Year, right about now. Prices are expected to go up 30% for Spring 2008. Current market is made up by last year stock, price has already gone up 30% as well for last years crop. However, quality of 2008 Spring teas are expected to be higher. There's at least one thing to look forward to.

Consumers have many choices: pay more for quality teas, pay the same and drink less quality teas, switch to Indian, Ceylon, African or herbal teas, drink less tea or stop drinking tea.

Tea farmers will raise price to make up for lost productions.

Tea merchants can raise prices, the consequence is fewer buyers. Keep prices low, the consequence is can we pay rent and expenses?

US tea merchants: USD to RMB is down 40 cents in just 4 months, shipping is expensive, government departments are thieves, minimum wage went up in January, even supermarket prices have gone up 30% to 50%.

China inflation rate is 7% for 2007, 2008 will get worse, USD at more than 1% depreciation rate per month, plus 30% higher price, I will have to stop drinking tea myself.

Want to cry!

Roast tea over fire

Briefly roasting tea before brewing has been a practice since the Tang dynasty. However this form of art is lost in the main stream tea culture, but still practiced by minority groups in rual parts of China. There's a little bit of revival here and there today.

This is a Chao Zhou method of pre-roasting utilizing what's on hand. Paper made roasting platform/Cha He.

Use a 11"x8" clean white paper, fold as in picture blow.

Cut off the excess trim, leaving a square piece of paper.
Fold one corner of the square with seam line up with seam, then fold part of the folded corner backwards, see picture below.

Fold paper in half again along seam, hold the "tail" with thumb and index finger as in picture below.
You can now place tea on paper made Cha He, place over fire to preheat/pre-roast. Fire source can be gas stove (low fire), electric stove (medium to low), or charcoal (low flame). It only take a few minutes, when the aroma starts to show, keep roasting for another 2 minutes. Cha He should be placed 3 to 4 inches above fire. MAKE SURE THE FLAME IS NOT HIGH!!! DON'T CATCH A FIRE!!! And don't suit me if you did catch a fire! :P
Closing the top can keep the heat even and consistant within the Cha He.
Finally, when the tea is ready, you can pour tea directly into teapot as a real Cha He. Whoa La!

Have an aromatic and flavorful cup of tea!

Wild Child!

Dan Cong is such a wild child! A few reviews I have observed online mentioned the short lived aroma after 5 infusions. My first instinct was hmm, it can't be. I tried blaming it on water or what not. I then discovered a few Dan Cong behaved the same way when I made them myself which was long lasting a few months ago, it's now loosing it's strength. It's baffling to my curious mind. After hours of digging for information and phone calls to China, I found out this phenomenon is called Fan Chun (Returned Spring). It's actually quite common with oolong teas, wuyi, anxi, taiwan or Phoenix oolong. Weather play a major role in Fan3 Chun1, moisture in the air and low temperature are the keys to fluctuations in taste, for most agricultural products as mater of fact. This is rainy season in southern California, temperature is in low 60s F at high, low at low 50's even 40's for some area. Palos Verdes is humid year round with morning marine layers, this time of year is even more rainier. Fragrance of tea is "trapped", there isn't much you can do with normal brewing method. Well, the question is if this is permanent? No, it's easy to fix with a little roasting. Yes, it's an extra step, but if you are obsessed as I am, it's actually fun. I also have various types of tools to manifest the transformation, it does make it seem easy. However, I am going to show you the easiest way to roast without having to buy any additional tools.

Who owns most of the aged tea?

Pu-erh tea had many tea drinkers addicted to its aged, decomposed flavor. Other aged teas also got more notice, oolong has its share of followers, aged green teas surface here and there too.

Who has the most stock of aged teas? Who has the financing and storage to hold and house teas for a long period of time? None other than China natural products import and export company, tea subsidiary, even today. Before privatization of tea manufacturers, communist party owned tea company house and control all tea productions via purchasing teas from local farmers. Farmers "sold" their productions to the government, some might leave a small quantity for their own collection. Majority of aged teas are still within control of the Tea subsidiary of local provinces. Only small quantity is available on the market.

Aged teas by farmers can be either intentional or circumstantial, however majority of the teas own by the government are most likely aged circumstantially.

Traditional roast vs "new" light roast

Consumers are leaders of trend in tea, as in everything else in this world, be it fashion or life style. In recent days - less than 20 years, Qing Xiang (light fragrance) oolong has crept up market share to dominate in current market. Many old timer tea drinkers are complaining the new trend is digressing from the traditional. From an industrial point of view, producers will always make anything to meet market needs. You can roast all the tea you want in traditional roasting, and try as hard as you can to push for a sale, but if consumers do not buy, there is nothing you can do but to bend your wills. Tea producers and merchants have to make sales to make profits to put a roof over their head and take some bacon home to feed their wives and children.

So why do most consumers prefer Qing Xiang teas? It has to do with drinking habits of the majority population. Oolong tea did not travel far into inland of China before modern transportation. Out of all the tea producing regions, Fujian and Guang Dong are small and limited with production. Most teas from the 2 regions were sold to foreign countries with seaports right at home. What do the rest of the country drink, even today? Green tea and flower scented teas! Habit is something you grow up accustom to, with little incentive or need to change. When oolong is not known or available, green tea drinking habit is unshakable. However, modern day trading is effective and fast, mobility of tea allows green tea drinkers to have a taste of oolong, pu-erh, liu an and even dajeeling in China. Habit is hard to change for many, green tea drinker will have a hard time adopting the taste of heavy roasted flavors. Facing a large market aim at green tea drinkers, either produce something lighter in flavor resembling green tea or leave that segment of market. As good business men that Chinese are, new products are created to meet the demand. There is nothing wrong with that. There are demands all across the spectrum of the roasting degree during any time space, now, then and later, just the mater of more or less. Even the concept of "new" for qing xiang is not new.

Combing through dozens Qing Xiang oolong to find one traditional roast is a chore I admit. But it's not extincted. Like searching for any good tea, it takes effort. There is always an other way to accomplish your goal, roast your own tea! This is actually much easier to achieve than finding fundamentally good quality tea - good raw materials to process into superior flavorful tea.

Advantage of traditional roast: longer shelf life, more complex flavor and texture, suitable for aging, easy on stomach.

Advantage of light roast: floral fragrance, easy to drink for green tea drinkers, shelf life is shorter but no longer an issue due to new economic power with more disposable income.

Get to know Phoenix Dan Cong (5) - Old or young

Dan Cong can be rare due to its old age and limited production, but is it necessary better? Here are some of the distinctions between the old and the young.

Under normal growing condition - low altitude with dramatic seasonal temperature changes, tea tree's live cycle peeks around 60 to 75 years old, then it starts to decline and die soon after. During this live cycle, early years is growing cycle, like a baby grows to expand limps, in the case of tea tree branches and root system. However young trees are fragile and weak, hence teas produced from young trees are thin and flat in taste and texture.

As a tree grows into 20's and 30's, the tree is strong and vibrant, with sufficient fertilization, leaves are strong and meaty, production is high. At this stage, flavor starts to develop, but not complex.

At age of 40 to 50's, tree is at its prime, production is high with complex flavor.

At 60's and 70's, the flavor is most complex, however production declines.

Flavor: Tannin is significantly more than older bushes, hence it can be bitter and astringent if brewed too long. Aroma is very up front, sure to give an impression. Texture is thin with sweet honey taste. Young and wild, beautiful and temperamental. Well made teas can last 7 to 10+ brews. Well made commercial teas have an even uniformed look due to production availability. Commercial teas are further separated by size according to grades.

What preserves the longevity of a tea tree one may ask?! Slow growth in cool (not cold) climate with little direct sun ray. High altitude mountain sides facing south-east produce the best teas in the world.

Tea trees are adaptable to shaded environment. High altitude mountains are covered with dense fog for many hours each day, providing moisture and nutrients to the leaves. Dense fog also block off direct sunlight yet allow ultra violet ray to penetrate the cloud layer that photo cells need to transform nutrients into energy. Without direct sunlight, temperature remains low until later in the day when fog layers are cleared. Trees on the south east side of the hill side does not get much direct sunlight even the fog layers are cleared. The hottest sunlight is in early afternoon, which is all over the other side of the hill. Leaves and branches grow slowly in this climate, at the same time root system develops fast with all the nutrients absorbed from the leaves. Big root system and slow growth mean lots nutrients are being stored in each leaf. Older the tree slower the growth.

Flavor wise, aroma is less pronounced as younger trees, taste is complex with multiple layers. Each leaf contains 37% dissolvable substance, ranging 40 to 60+ chemicals by varietal, there is much to discover in your cup of phoenix tea! 20+ up to 35 brews is not uncommon. Its smooth, round texture and lingering after taste are signifier of old bush. Rich but introverted. Old bush teas are some what uneven in look, there are young leaves, matured (not old) leaves, rolled up or open, long whole leaves mixed with a few cut up ones. It contains everything harvested from the same tree without separation by grade. Because of this very practice, it further adds layers of complexity to the flavor of these old bush teas.

Although some may prefer the aroma over taste, old bush taste is not for everyone, definitely takes time and much drinking to learn its beauty. Comparison will reveal quality fairly. I usually advice my customers drink the young before the old, knowing the old will over power the young. However many are caught in the aroma. If you had more than enough for one session, try tasting the young right after the old. Oh well, I'll probably be stuck with all the young crops once everyone discovered the secret. :P

Get to know Phoenix Dan Cong (4) - Seasons

Phoenix mountain is located in subtropical climate in southern China, lowest temperature does not exceed 5 degrees C. Most plants in the region are not dormant during winter. Phoenix tea trees produce tea all year round. Production begins around late march as official spring crop, April production is also spring production. May production can be either early summer production for low altitude farms, and still spring production for high altitude farms. June and July are summer productions. August can be either late summer for high altitude or early fall for low altitude. October is winter production. November to February productions is a blur, some times it's call winter-spring crop. Due to low production in fall, winter and early spring, farmers either mix everything together or skip production all together depending on the altitude and age of trees.

Commercial products (young trees averaging less than 20 yrs old) below 800 meters above sea level:
Spring (Mid to late march through early April) - aromatic, sweet and astringent
Early summer (late April to May) - Summer tea - bitter and astringent
Late summer (June through July) - Summer tea - more bitter
Early Fall (August through early September) - Fall tea, aromatic, more than spring production
Late Fall (Mid September through beginning of October) - Fall tea
Early Winter (October) - Fall snow tea, most aromatic out of all season, but lack of flavor
Later Winter (November) - Snow flake tea, lack of everything
Pre-spring (January through February) - very little production, lack of everything

Old Dan Cong bushes (50+ yrs old) above 800 meters above sea level:
Spring (April through Mid June). This is the only production of the year. Even though trees will still grow through out the year, growing rate is too slow to produce anything significant, flavor is also not good enough to command high price. Most farmers leave the trees alone to preserve nutrient. It's especially important for trees that are 200+ years old.