JohnHou's Chinese Tea Life

Traditional house can be seen everywhere.  A tea tree grows aside by road. A tea tree grows aside by road. Even my local host doesn't know the age of this tree.  King tea tree, circled to protection already. It has a series No. as protected ancient tree. But I forget that. Around 50m down the village there is an ancient tea plantation. Luckily, they didn't cut down the trees tens of years ago like many other places. Now it becomes a hot spot ever to tea business but also tourist.  An encountered local old woman.  Dinner preparation. Dinner. Thanks to my host and his family.

Our tea supplier and a local tea farmer in NanNuo mountain starts picking up tea leaves of GuShu today. Tea matters. Meanwhile, tea supplier matters.  His farmland in NanNuo mountain.  Photos below were taken in autumn of 2017 year. 

There is no standard infusing time of it.  The goal is simple of enjoying this tea.  Using boiling water and tea wares to extract the content from tea leaves little by little and steep by steep without any waste.  Suitable bitterness and astringent let drinker keep being energized and enjoyable.  GongFu Cha matters on Cha and GongFu.

Tea sample from supplier, a primary dealer of BoYou tea factory. Published in 2009 year using tea materials picked up in 2008 year according to official description. Tightly pressed chunks. Even after rinsed 2 times, the largest chunk is still solid. Finally I used the cap to separate it to parts after 5th infusion. Rough tea materials seem like 7-9 grade. Including high ratio of stems but cut to short around 10mm on average. Heavily fermented. Brownish red color of tea liquor. Near dark red. Herbal fragrance on mouth feeling. Obvious bitterness. Caramel sweetness. HuiGan comes not so fast, but there was enough momentum. I assume the reason is the high ratio of stems which contains more content. Texture flavor. Cleanness and clearness ever on tea leaves or on tea liquid. Totally, I think the description of "MengHai Flavor" is suitable for this tea. Info of steeping: 1) Small porcelain gaiwan has volume of around 100ml. 2) Boiling water (running water,  not reco

2018 Year DaYi's tea plantation harvest began. (Officially released by DaYi:https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/MH8oy-jFPIRmuIlUJ172OA) DaYi (Menghai tea factory) spring tea harvest began from BuLang(布朗) and BaDa(BaDa) tea plantations on Feb.22nd. 2018 year. BuLang tea plantation: 8km² BaDa tea plantation: over 6.7km² Both of them process fresh leaves of more than1000kg per day from last month. In 2008 year, both tea plantations got Organic Certification and next year in 2009, they got GAP(GoodAgriculturePractice) Certification. Besides that, BaDa tea plantation was authorized as National Puerh Tea Agricultural Standard Plantation. Picking Up Processing Tea Plantation Withering

Material:   2018 year 1st Pickup Spring tea from YiWu high mountain organic tree.

Feeling: (Background introduction will be in the most below) 1) Earthy ★ 2) Ripened flavor (near medium fermented ripe tea) ★★★★★ 3) Mellow. Soup like. ★★★★★ 4) Fruity near tart fruit (slight acid mixed with fruity, pleasant feeling personally ) ★★★★ 5) Lingering sweetness from aftertaste. ★★★ 6) Near none smoky from taste but a bit obvious on brewed leaves. (I like some smoky flavor but it is not necessary to judge one tea) ★★★. 7) No bitterness and no astringency at all. ★★★★★ 8) Smoothness like sleek silk. ★★★★ 9) Brownish brewed tea leaves with softness. Background of tea session. 1) I joined it from the halfway around 10th steep. 2) Tea has ever been lightly processed according to HongKong storage method(做仓). Depending on introduction from host. 3) The oldest and most expensive tea has ever been taste by me till now. Without comparison of other 88 Qing cake. Conclusion: I love this tea, but it is so far beyond my affordable.