JohnHou's Chinese Tea Life

An introduction of lineup from Changtai tea factory. 1) Yi Chang Hao ( 易昌号 ) The 1 st lot of tea published with name “Yi Chang Hao” in 1999 year also the kick-off year of Changtai tea industry and sub-branch in Yiwu town. It successfully got interests from market soon after released. Along with aging, the taste and rich mouth feeling become more appealing. It got a nick name “99 Yi Chang” since then and becomes a flagship product and respected as one of the best tea during wild Yiwu tea. In 2005 year, it got double organic food certificates. Yichanghao mainly uses wild tea lead from Yiwu tea region. Pressed by stone mill. According to variation of tea material, there are four levels of grade called “Ji Pin” (Premium), “Zhen Pin” (Super), “Jing Pin” (High quality) and “Zheng Pin” (Good quality). Individual weight includes 400g, 250g and 100g. Shape of cake, tuo and brick. 2 ） Chen Hong Chang ( 陈鸿昌 , 陈弘昌 ) Using pure tea materials from each famous tea mountain. In ...

Tea in the ancient world: King Tea Mall 2018 old tree Laotian and Ban Pen sh... : This should be familiar ground, even though I'm not really familiar with the "Bo Ya" reference.  I last tried an old-tr...

Floral mixed with the unique tea flavor.  Obvious silver hairs and dark, long and strong tea threads. Rich taste spreads evenly in whole mouth and deep to throat like film coating here.  Strong chaqi( I think "Cha Qi" used here is qualified enough) and long lasting mouth feeling.  Fat and thick brewed tea leave is resilient and tenacious.  Classical Bulang tea mountain spring tea. . Now the only problem is how to share my budget on so many great things.

Tea mountain map of Xishuanbanna prefecture including some famous spots like menghai tea region, nannuo mountain, bulang mountain, laobanzhang village, laomaner  village, make village, yiwu tea region, mahei village, guafengzhai village etc. (Map source: http://www.sohu.com/a/156544584_556656)

(Source: https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%8B%90%E6%B5%B7%E8%8C%B6%E5%8E%82/10894931?fr=aladdin ) "勐海茶厂 Meng Hai Tea Factory" belongs to TAE TEA group, traditionally known as "大益 DA YI ". In 1910 year, Qing dynasty helped the Chief Chieftain of Che Li Xuan Wei Si (a region name) suppress the war between Chieftains of Meng Hai sub-region and Meng Zhe sub-region. Both were in territory of Che Li Xuan Wei Si . In the same year, business man of Han ethnic Zhang Tangjie opened the first tea store in Meng Hai.  At that time, the harvest of puerh tea was around 100'000 kg/year, and all were transported to Puerh City(also called Si Mao in past) to be processed. Since 1923 year, many people went to Meng Hai to open stores and press tea products for exporting via the new roads via Myanmar and India. In the beginning of 1939 year, the newly found "The Yunnan Tea Corporation" sent Mr. Fan Hejun and Zhang Shicheng to Meng Hai (called Fo Hai at that time) to inv...

NA KA village, Meng Song town, north of Meng Hai county as below (red word). (Map source: http://www.sohu.com/a/156544584_556656) Natural environment. Tea farmer friend and his most large tea tree. Even though, he still sells the price on tea leaves from this individual tree lower as other old trees along with the market. Harvest of this autumn. Test on tea harvested and processed in different days. The earliest was in this Auguest. The latest was picked and processed in two days ago (around Oct. 10th) At the end, I selected the best one of them which was picked around in the first week of Oct, though it is the most expensive one.

A tea farmer and his own Gushu puerh tea tree. Below is conversation between me and him when we were there. "Are there snakes in this mountain? " I tried to ask a question which has made me feel confused and worried. " Yes. There are many kinds of snakes like cobra and green bamboo snake, even python which has waist like arm of adult" I was very astonished. Then I asked "Have you ever been bite by any snakes?" "No" (He is 47 years old) Okay, I felt some relieved. (Died tree. My farmer friend told me snakes like living in whole of that) A few minutes later, I thought of another question "Has anybody been bite?" "Yes. But very rarely. " "By cobra?" "No. These cases were all by Green Bamboo Snake which has much similar color to tea leaf" "Any died? " "Yes. Around 6 years ago, a villager here was bite in mountain at night and he died before sent to local hospital....

Beautiful place with fresh air everyday? Sure. . Live there like cave man? No way. Here is protected national original forest and fire prohibited. . Have a tour there? No problem. You must be sure there is a good guide with 4×4 pickup truck. Also, feet with mountaineering boots is available. (As you know, local people who had been living there for avoiding war with just naked foot) . Enjoy tea leaf from there? Sure. Follow me. 😎 https://www.kingteamall.com/product/2018-bokuryo-nannuo-bama-gushu-200g-puerh-sheng-cha-raw-tea/

Q: What is YiYuanSu(益原素, called TAETEA Prebiotea officially)? A:  Prebiotea is the general designation of tea ingredient, transformed tea ingredients, others produced by microbes during metabolism and others have close relationships with nutrition during fermentation by microbes.  Especially micro molecule fermented Polyphenols like Teadenol series, GA and derivatives of it,  Puerh Catechin 401 series and Fermented polysaccharide are the representative characters of fermented tea. Q: What is the meaning of " TAETEA Prebiotea "? A: This is a customized definition by DaYi and registered as trademark already. " Prebiotea " is the abbreviation of  " TAETEA Prebiotea " which means the prebiotics during tea of DaYi. Q: How about the R&D (research & development ) process on "Prebiotea"? A:  This process of  "Prebiotea" started from 8 years ago by 7th institution of DaYi. They take the bacterium groups during fermentation po...

Puerh tea needs breath like human. The surrounding moisture and oxygen and even microbes etc. will help it age well. Some factors affecting the taste of puerh tea are as below: ( ever to raw tea or ripe tea) 1) Humidity: Around 60-70RH is recommended. 2) Temperature: Around 20-25 Celsius degrees is suitable. 3) Sunshine: Must be avoided. 4) Air flow: Should be avoided. But if you can , the air in the storage container should be changed once a week. Meanwhile, please check the condition of the tea like smell or touch feeling. Then try to move every tea to the opposite position like upside to downside, left to right. If you can't remember to do that, please at least try to keep that in dry condition, then there won't be mold. 5) Cleanness of storage condition: When you prepare the container, please make sure it is clean and dry enough. Also every one  you put into including tea packaging materials are in good condition. Then even you...

Though a heavy rain day, because I am under the path of Typhoon Ewiniar, but when I take this tea out, there is amazing fragrance, thick and natural mixed with flavor uniquely appears on charcoal roasted tea. LaoCong written as 老枞 which means old tree. Ages of these trees are around 70 years old. The length of tea threads are not so extraordinary along with other factors of appearance. But the aroma from dry leaf is something special. Tea liquid has obvious viscousness and richness. Sweetness from aftertaste comes fast with momentum. Tea flavor spreads in whole mouth and deep into throat and surrounding teeth. Spicy feeling is minor even you may ignore it. But when sniff the brewed tea leaves, you can feel it easily. After some infusions, tea leaves opened widely and there comes out more greenish color with dark red or brown edges surrounded. Most tea leaves are thick and soft. Brewing way: 5g tea materials 70ml GaiWan with full capacity of 120ml Filtered r...

BaiMuDan written as 白牡丹 also called PaiMuDan. In mandarin, BaiMuDan is the only pronunciation. The name means "White Peony" because of the silver white bud embraced by the green leaf  looks like blossoming bud in green leaves especially after brewed. After 3 years' storage, the tea leaf turns to grayish green color but because of dry storage, it has not so significant evolving on color, though the difference on taste is another topic and I think even new comer to white tea can separate old tea from new tea. Fragrance is like some flower, light but attractive enough. Particularly to tea lovers. After brewed, there is some brewed vegetable mixed flavor comes out. Compared to new tea BaiMuDan, this 3 year old tea has deeper color on liquid more like orange yellow. The taste is mellower and more like sleek silk on smoothness. The sweetness is like on the middle way of turning from sugar cane to caramel. Viscous and mouth feeling is more abundant. The g...