JohnHou's Chinese Tea Life

 "Hua Shi Dai" (New Era), published in 2016 year for the commemoration of 75th birthday of XiaGuan tea factory. Using Gushu(old tree)materials mixed from  BingDao and XiGui tea sub-regions both in MengKu, LinCang tea region.  It uses unique "Qing Shui"(light water) fermentation technology with limited water consumption during whole process compared to traditional methods which costs much water and there is not much more "Dui Wei"(fermentation smell, which needs quite a long time even over a year to disappear), but better taste, aged flavor, smoothness and sweetness, easier for new comer to enjoy puerh shou cha.   Well balanced on the characters from both tea regions.  Clean and neat tea threads are strong and fat with great appearance.  Thick tea soup with high ratio of pectic substances.  Red and bright tea liquor color thickness thanks to the high ratio of pectic substances. Caramel  like fragrance.  Strong tea taste with heavy bittern...

The gate to LaoBanZhang village.  A classical house of local farmer's in village.  We had a comparison of GuShu and Shrub' maocha.  Gushu means more than 300 years old, but shrub is under 70 years old.  When we talk about gushu, we must confirm the age of the tea tree. Then we will decide to call that gushu, dashu, organic tree or shrub by ourself.  Both gushu and shrub are picked just in this autumn and almost processed at the same time.  My local partner put both leaves into one basket and asked me to separate gushu from shrub.  What do you think about that? Which is gushu, which is shrub?  The newly processed tea leaves have a fragrance of like grass. They told us these were just picked up days ago. How to describe these leaves? Long. These are really very long. I select one with straight stem and put that on my hand like below. 一芽两叶（yi ya liang ye）which means one bud with two leaves. With t...

Last time, we talked about 6 big puerh tea mountains in east of LanCang river which is called Mekong river internationally on google map.  The problem is that along with the rising consumption of puerh tea in market and mainly in domestic market, the harvest of these 6 mountains is becoming less and less because of over-picking. Now the most harvest tea area has moved from east of LanCang river to the west side including 8 big tea mountains which will be introduced this time from north to south. 1. ManNuo (曼糯)   (pic source:  中国普洱茶网  ) ManNuo is in the most north side of MengHai county and belongs to MengWang village, MengWang town also near the border of LanCang district and SiMao district.  The elevation is around 1200m to 1300m. Annual precipitation is around 1300mm to 1400mm.  Old trees are mainly in 3 villages including Big village, Up village and Middle village.  In history, here was one of the important route from MengHai to ...

Today, let's know more about what on earth the 6 big puerh tea mountains are or 14 big tea mountains as I said in the title. Want to know more tea mountains of around more than 100? Okay, let's talk that one by one. Usually, photo or picture is easier to understand. Here it is the 1st one: (Pic source: 中国普洱茶网 ) Firstly, we should know a river called LanCang River(澜沧江).  Never heard about this river?  Let LanCang River have a self introduction.  LanCang River:  "👴Hello, every one. I am long of 4909 km from Tibet in China to  Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnam and run into South China Sea. In China, they call me LanCang River, but in Southeast Asia, they call me Mekong River. "  Pic source:互动百科. " Have no idea about Mekong River?  Why don't google ' BBC Two - The Mekong River with Sue Perkins ' 😡 Remember, I am the 7th  longest in world, the 3rd longest in Asia, the 1st longest in Southeast Asia. 🌊 Bye bye😁" Let...

Maybe some people don't agree with me. "Are there should be 5 tea areas instead of  just 3?  Such as YiWu, MengHai, SiMao,LinCang and BaoShan?" "No,no, there should be 6 big tea areas. DaLi should be included" Okay. Let me just talk about the big 3 tea areas along the LanCang river baisn. It is located in the south of North Tropic. This unique region belongs to tropical and subtropical climate. It is so special and very suitable for growth of tea trees. The tea quality is among the best in whole Yunnan province. The big 3 tea areas. Source: 慢时光_Tina ①　BaNa tea area.     According to the recorded history, farmers started to plant tea trees from Eastern Han Dynasty （AD 25 year-220 year）. Tea as a agricultural industry began to rise up from Tang and Song Dynasty（AD 618 year-907 year, 960-1279 year）,  and reached the peak during Ming and Qing Dynasty (AD 1368 year-1644 year-1912 year).  Cha Ma Gu Dao which means tea and horse tra...