Monthly Archives: March 2014

Tea philosophy, Tea Wisdom

Great tea

1970s CR Brick Sheng Puer tea.
1970s CR Brick Sheng Puer tea.

What is a great tea?  The tea culture has volumes of literature and rhetoric praises on it.  Auction houses capitalized on it.  Tea association celebrate it, some even with chanting and lion dances.  Books covered chapters and chapters on it.  Most of this great teas are seen in books, magazines and auctions without any clue of its taste. With all these noises, are those tea really great?

What is a great tea and how does it taste like?  I have tasted a lot of tea from the mediocre to the greatest, ancient to iconic, new and old. Personally to me, a great tea is a tea that taste just like tea. Huh? Taste just like tea? Yes, simply just that. Purely tea, just like gold, pure gold without any other metal. A tea that simply taste just like tea without anything else. Especially for Puer tea, no additional funny taste or smell, no weird factory storage aroma, no croakcoach smell, no lion dance, no drum hammering, no chanting and no cancer curing prophecy.

A  great tea is a tea that is delightful to the eyes, smooth and mellow in taste, with gentle uplifting aroma, recurring sweetness and a mouthful body that embraced all the good palate.  A tea that quietly embodies your sense of being, purify your mind and lift your spirit. A tea that is purely just tea; physically, mentally and spiritually. That is a great or perhaps the greatest tea. Just humbly that.

Some of the great or greatest tea may sit quietly in your collection waiting for you to listen to it. Cut out all the noises and listen carefully.

Antique tea, Gongfu Cha, Tea knowledge

Chocolate

1990s compressed Shui Xian
1990s compressed Shui Xian

Chocolate tea is a nickname given to compressed Wuyi Yancha 武夷岩茶 in the 1990s when they were popular amongst tea drinkers. This tea is compressed in the shape of a chocolate bar with segmented ribs.

1990s compressed Shui Xian
1990s compressed Shui Xian

Usually a segment of the tea is broken along the ridge of the bar, just like chocolate and brewed in Yixing teapot. Sometimes, a chunck of the tea is plopped into a kettle of boiling water;  the casual ritual of drinking and brewing would just continue the whole day.

This tea compression style  concept is very interesting as the tea leaves consist of Yancha 岩茶, but made and aged in Puer style in the shape of chocolate bar. Delightful concept, isn’t it?

Tea leaves
Tea leaves

Today, I will brew a piece of this tea to experience its taste. It is a 1990s piece made from Shui Xian Yancha 水仙 岩茶, compressed in chocolate bar shape.  A segment of the tea is broken and individual tea leaves are carefully removed. Normally, I like to refresh tea before brewing so I will do the same for this tea. The tea is brewed in Chaozhou style so that I can exercise some control over its fragrance, sweetness and body.

The verdict?  Hmmm… a nice and exotic taste with a hint of more than 20 years of history imbued into the tea. The taste has the backbone of Yancha, no doubt, but  has more vigour than loose aged Yancha. Perhaps it is because of the compression that allow it to age more graciously and slowly whilst retaining its flavour and vigour. I also enjoy the comforting mellowness which is typical to aged Yancha.

C4

A very interesting experience indeed. Perhaps this compression style should be experimented in other tea that can be aged. I would certainly would be interested in other tea like Semi Fermented Dong Ding, or Tie Kwan Yin, or red or yellow and and white tea done in this compression style.  There are so much possiblities of exploring the compression style of aging other tea, beside Yancha and Puer.

Chocolate Dong Ding, Chocolate Darjeeling, Chocolate Dian Hong, Chocolate Qimen, Chocolate Beidou etc…..Chocolate tea, anyone?

Puer Tea

Finest

1993 Xiaguan Jia Ji Sheng Tou Cha
1993 Xiaguan Jia Ji Sheng Tou Cha

When the tea, especially Puer is selected from the  finest grade of tea leaves and processed in the best possible way, the word 甲級 Jiǎjí is often added or stamped on the tea wrapper.

1993 Xiaguan Jia Ji Sheng Tou Cha
1993 Xiaguan Jia Ji Sheng Tou Cha

The  second grade is called Yǐjí 乙級 and the third grade is called Bǐngjí, 丙級 but nobody is going to label their tea as third grade. However, due to lack of control on these labeling in the tea  industry and some tea producers may blatantly use them, irregardless of the quality of the tea and processes.  

As a tea consumer, it is very important to learn how to identify a good tea by looking at the tea leaves instead of the wrapper when purchasing tea.  By learning how to taste and studying the tea leaves, one can ascertain the quality of the tea.   It is definately not advisable to look at the label of tea wrapper or worst still, buy any tea just by listening and reading too much of it. Most tea merchants will never say anything negative about their tea.   The general description on any tea are always good but realistically there are  good and bad tea.

So if you go for the finest grade, make sure it is not the finest wrapper or finest sales pitch but always the finest tea. Wrappers, stories and marketing can lie but not the tea leaves.

Jiǎjí 甲級, Yǐjí 乙級, Bǐngjí 丙級 or Lājī 垃圾 can be quite obvious if you look at the tea leaves carefully and taste the tea prudently.

1998 Yiwu Sheng Red Mark Jia Ji
1998 Yiwu Sheng Red Mark Jia Ji