Tea Education

Since my last blog post a lot has happened. Mainly I went backl to Hou Keng for another three days. So much happened in those three days that it took me a while to figure out how to communicate everything I saw and learned. It was only as I made the video did I realize the best way. 24 hours of Traditional Hou Kui making.The day started around 7. The tea pickers had already gone up to pick tea, but I was given the task of collecting bamboo shoots from the forrest surrounding the fields. As I came back down my...

Last October I visited Long Juan, Anxi, Fujian, China. I went there with the intent to learn about Tie Guan Yin my, my favorite tea. Long Juan is considered the outer mountain of the Tie Guan Yin region and therefore not as desirable as places such as Gande. Needless to say some people prefer the tea from this town. In my time there I saw three different tea making facilities in action. Two were smaller more family run operations, both taking place in the household. This one though was a larger operation that yielded much more tea. It was a...

JULY 17, 2017 Mao Feng VS. Mao Feng: A Lesson in Pick Dates I came to China to learn about tea, and I didn’t waste any time. I arrive on Monday, and by Tuesday I was out looking for tea. While I am always skeptical of teas found in local tea shops, Tunxi, where I am living, is very close to Huang Shan and close to three major tea regions. (Taiping Hou Kui, Huangshan Mao Feng and Qimen red). I knew if I looked around enough I could find something good.   Every single one of those shops has to do with tea.   It’s...

Tea seasons are crazy, especially in highly prized areas such as Hou Keng, the most famous location for Hou Kui. This year I took a day trip to meet a friend who makes really good Hou Kui, and I realized just how much of a mess tea season can be. My friend invited me to Hou Keng for the tea season. We made plans for me to come up the second week of the season. She told me the first week would have better weather but I was still welcome to come the second. I later realized that the second week,...

The second part of our three post serious is the shortest, but left me with the most unwanted tea.I don’t really care for Dan Congs. I know this is a category that has a lot of fans but personally I find it hard to get excited. To me they often are are a little overly perfumey and lack real body or flavor. The exception to this is Wudong Dan Congs.Wudong is an area near the top of Feng Huang Shan. (It’s important to know that it is not the top, there is an area that is higher.) That being said the teas produced...