Oolong Tea

Oolong tea

Oolong tea belongs to semi-fermented tea, which is between green tea and black tea with the characteristics of green tea’s fresh and black tea’s strong flavor. According to the difference of oolong tea’s procedures, the percentage of ferment can be defined from 25% to 75%. The four production zones of oolong tea are Taiwan, Guangzhou, Southern and Northern Fujian. There are famous oolong teas with different distinctive characteristics which derived directly from the local soil, water and the whole grown environment, and the customs of making procedures is the other main reason.

The percentage of ferment in Northern Fujian Province is heavier than other oolong tea production zones, it is between 45% and 75%. The mountains in this area is composed of rock, and the tea is growing in the gap between the rocks which causing the tea has a special flavor of Osmanthus. Owing to the different mountains and the different types of tea bushes, there are many different flavors of oolong tea produced in Wuyi zone. Besides the most well-known Dahongpao, there are many other famous teas in this production zone, such as Shuixian, Baijiguan, Tieluohan and so on.

The percentage of ferment in Southern Fujian Province production zone is between 25% and 50%. It is said that this area is the origin and the earliest place to produce oolong tea, and according to the related files, it is established in 1725. Then it is spread to Northern Fujian Province, Guangdong and Taiwan Provinces. It is found that oolong tea has a function of losing weight in 1970s, until then the oolong tea had become a kind of popular tea in Japan and other western countries. There are many well-known oolong teas born in this area because choosing different types of tea bush as the material to make the tea, such as Tieguanyin, Huangjingui, Benshan,etc.

The percentage of ferment in Guangdong Province zone is between 35% and 65%. The oolong tea produced in this area mainly comes from Mountain Phoenix, Chaozhou City, Guangdong Province. Compared with the oolong tea produced in Northern Fujian Province, the characteristics of oolong tea in this area is similar with it except that all the names of Dancong oolong tea in Mountain Phoenix are given by their different kinds of fragrance.

Mixiang  honey an orchid taste

Guihuaxiang osmanthus taste

Xinrenxiang almond taste

The percentage of ferment in Taiwan Province production zone is between 25% and 55%. There are two sorts of oolong teas produced in this area. One is slightly fermented Wenshanbaozhong with loosen dry leaves appearance. The other one is lightly fermented Dongding produced in Nantou County, with a tight and in the shape of hemisphere dry leaves appearance. Except the tea above mentioned, there are other famous teas, such as Dongfangmeiren, Alishan oolong and so on.

 

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Dahongpao

Dahongpao is the most special one in Chinese oolong tea, and also known as the King of oolong tea for its heavy fragrance and pure obvious flavor of osmanthus aftertaste. The bright and dark green dry leaves appearance is long but thick and strong, the tea soup is golden reddish, and the spent leaves is green and red crossed and can be brewed for many times.

Anxi Tieguanyin

Anxi Tieguanyin comes from Xiping, Anxi County. It is a special tea bush chosen as the raw material of this kind of tea with the same making procedures of oolong tea, and the tight and heavy dry leaves appearance is beautiful and tidy. Tea leaves are picked at the end of April and the beginning of May is spring tea, and picked between June and August is the summer tea, and picked at the beginning of October is autumn tea. The tight and sand green dry leaves appearance is rich of fresh and strong special taste with golden and bright tea liquor.

Dongding oolong tea

Dongding oolong tea is a kind of Baozhong tea in the shape of hemisphere. The tea bush was brought to Taiwan and planted there in 1885. The name comes from the planted place Dongding. The tight and dark green dry leaves appearance is in the shape of hemisphere. The tea liquor is crystal and in the color of honey, fresh and flowery fragrance with heavy taste and can be brewed for many times.

Pour the tea liquor into the fair cup from the tea pot, and then distribute the tea liquor into each sipping cup. It is a custom to pour 70% tea liquor into a tea cup and the left the 30% of tea cup for convenience.

Tea bugs make the puerh tea flavor better

The answer is definitely YES!

Different from other teas, puerh tea is the more aged, the more fragrant. Since time goes by, we will find the tissue paper will be broken, and there are some bugs on the puerh tea. The holes on the paper are made by these white bugs. Yes, i say the white bugs.

Generally speaking, there are two kinds of bugs on the puerh tea. One is white or grey bugs, they are actually tissue bugs which only eat tissue. And the higher the quality, the more bites from bugs. When we got these tissue bugs, we need to use brush to remove them, then lay the puerh tea on dry and well-ventilated place.

As for the other bug, the black one, actually is really tea bugs which only eat tea. Believe it or not, the funny thing is that these tea bugs are one of the factors to improve the aging of puerh tea. After they die, they will become one part of the puerh tea and make the flavor better than counterpart which is not cultivated from tea bugs.

Both bugs we mentioned above have short life period, they appear when the air become wet, so it is not often to find them. We only get full-holes tissue packing or good flavor puerh tea at one nice sunny afternoon.

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The ancients: cook tea with dew

Brew tea

Nice tea needs good water and appropriate temperature. Water temperature directly affects the water-soluble substances in tea and the degree of evaporation of the aroma.

The ancients: cook tea with dew

About the water in cooking tea, Emperor Qianlong is very particular about it. He wrote a poem, in which the described how he cooked tea using the dew collecting from the lotus leaves.

There was a short preface before the poem. In it, he said, the lighter the water is, the better the water is. Snow water and dew are lighter than spring water, however, snow water cannot be often got, so dew is the best choice during the summer and autumn.

When Chinese people make tea, they are very particular about the water-boiling. Su Dongpo, a well-known poet, he said if you can not boil water properly, then you can not get nice tea.

 

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Spring Biyu in Anning, Yunnan

There are some snow mountains and many lotus pools in Yunnan, but for Anning people, the Biyu spring water is also choice for tea-brewing.

Spring Biyu is located in the valleys of Yunnan, also called Hot Spring Anning. Its water is always hot, foggy, clear and bright. The water contains many minerals beneficial to humans, so when it is used to brew tea, its taste is wonderful.

As Anning has many mountains, the sources of spring are normally on the top of the mountains, local people like brewing tea using the clean hot spring from the source. While at the bottom of the mountains, there are many open air hotels, people taking bath in the hot spring and drinking the spring-brewed tea, how wonderful it is.

brew tea with dew

Six basic teas and re-processing tea.

There are many tea classifications in China; according to the different degree of fermentation, tea can be divided into non-fermented tea, semi-fermented tea, fully-fermented tea; according to the tea manufacturing process tea can be divided into six basic teas and re-processing tea. The six teas are green tea, black tea, Oolong tea, yellow tea, white tea and dark tea; re-processing tea, namely, scented tea, condensed tea, extracted tea, medicinal tea, fruit tea and tea food. Among them, six teas and scented are the most common tea, with which most people are familiar.

Green tea

Green tea is non-fermented tea, the number of its varieties ranks the highest of China’s six basic teas. The quality of green tea is influenced not only by tea varieties and environmental impact, but also by tea processing. The different varieties are slightly different in the early manufacturing process, but in overall, the steps to make green tea include fixation, rolling, drying.

Black tea

Black tea is fully-fermented. In China there are four types, 17 varieties. The main production processes are composed of four stages, namely: withering, rolling, fermentation, and drying.

Oolong tea

Oolong tea is also known as Cyan tea. Its producing method is characterized by the combination of primary processing technology of black tea and green tea; it is also known as semi-fermented tea. Oolong tea possesses sweet alcohol like black tea and fragrance like green tea. Its fragrance ranks first. The main process of Oolong tea consists of five steps, namely: withering, stir fixation, fry fixation, rolling, baking, etc.

Yellow tea

In the production of stir fixation, it was found that if drying is inadequate or not timely after rolling, leaves will turn yellow, then yellow tea was born. Yellow tea generally is made after fixation, pile-fermentation, and drying.

White tea

White tea is a Chinese special treasure. It is slightly fermented in a degree of 10%.

The key steps are withering and drying, decisive to the formation of tea fragrance and fresh liquid.

Dark tea

Dark tea is famous for its dark brown. It is deeply fermented; the longer it is kept, the mellower flavor it is. Raw material used in the dark tea is old coarse tea leaves, which are primary materials of condensed tea. Dark tea is processed through fixation, rolling, fermentation and drying.

Scented tea

Scented tea, also known as smoked scented tea, belongs to reprocessed tea, mainly uses green tea, black tea or Oolong tea as the tea basement, together with the flowers as raw materials. It is made by scenting. Its most prominent feature is the perfect combination of flowers and tea. In addition to scented tea, there are health tea, craft tea, and herbal tea and so on.

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Health benefits of tea

Tea in China is known as the “national drink”. Tea contains protein, fattiness, vitamins, and polyphenols, caffeine, LPS, saccharine and other components with pharmacological effects. Its good effects are as follows:

First: to reduce radiation- LPS

Tea contains lipopolysaccharine(LPS). If there is LPS in body, it will produce non-specific immunity to protect the hematopoietic function, and also can prevent cancer and reduce the radiation on the human body.

Second: to improve longevity-polyphenols

Polyphenols and their derivatives in tea have a strong antioxidant effect, good for longevity, etc, and also can improve the body’s immune system, and inhibit the induction of cancer because of chemical carcinogens.

Third: to help recover from fatigue-caffeine

Tea contains 2% to 5% of caffeine. Caffeine can stimulate the body, make clear-headed, quick-witted, and diuretic and recover from fatigue; it can also help digestion and relieve fatigue.

Fourth: to beautify-vitamins

Tea is rich in vitamin B and vitamin C, which have a good effect of beauty, and also can promote the body’s metabolism.

Fifth: to cellulite diet-flavonoid

Tea contains flavonoid, aromatic substances, alkaloids and other ingredients that can lower cholesterol, and triglyceride levels, but also reduce the Lipid concentrations, which has a strong lipolytic effect.

Sixth: to protect the teeth-fluoride

Tea contains fluoride, which not only can prevent dental diseases and dental caries, but also can reduce or eliminate bad breath.

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Growing conditions of tea

Soil

The soil suitable for planting tea is acidic red yellow loam with good aeration, water permeability and water with pH value is between 4.5 to 6.5 and the content of is organic matter more than 1%. The granite, gneiss, sand and other rock formation sand-weathered rotten soil are the best.

Climate

Light: light is neither too strong nor too weak, and light quality with some effect on growth of tea. For example, in the diffuse light, there is more sugar in the tea photosynthetic products, whereas in the blue-violet light, there are more amino acids, protein.

Temperature: tea tree grows best in the cultivated area at an average temperature from 15℃ to 25℃. The minimum temperature should not be lower than -10℃ and the maximum temperature should not exceed 35℃, otherwise the growth of tea will be inhibited.

Precipitation: balanced annual precipitation of over 1500 mm.

As the saying goes, nice tea comes out of mountains, this is because mountain was covered by clouds and fog; the sun’s direct light is scattered into diffuse light by clouds, and diffuse light can promote the metabolism of nitrogen compounds of tea trees; protein and amino acid contents are higher in mountain tea.

Terrain

Tea tree grows well both on mountains and hills. However temperature and humidity change significantly as the altitude increases; the mountains of a certain height, with more rainfall, wetter clouds and air humidity, and stronger diffuse light are conducive to the growth of tea.  However if it’s more than 1000 meters above sea level, there will be frost damage. In general, the southern slope side is better, and the slope should not be too steep and less than 30℃。

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Tea storage methods

Green tea

Refrigerator storage: green tea can be stored in a refrigerator, the green tea should be stored into food packaging bags with high density, high pressure, thick, strength, and no strange smell, then placed in the freezer or refrigerator freezer, generally at the temperature of 3℃-6℃. By this method tea can be stored in a refrigerator dedicated to tea.

Canning way: metal cans, boxes, cases ca be chosen. After the tea leaves are out in, it should be sealed and kept in a cool, dry place with lower temperatures.

Black tea

Canning way: compared to green tea, black tea deteriorates slowly, and it is easy for storage. Place black tea in da dark and dry place and kept it away from light, heat and smelly items, then it can be stored well.

After opening, black tea should be finished as soon as possible so as not to affect the taste and aroma. In general, as long as black tea is stored in the dark, dry place, it is unnecessary to place them in the refrigerator.

Puerh tea

Different from other tea, puerh tea is post-fermented tea, the longer the tea is stored, the more fragrant the tea is.

For optimum results, the puerh tea should be stored in conditions where:

1) humidity is dry to moderate (around 65%);

2) temperature is moderate;

3) sunlight is minimized; and

4) there is some, but not excessive, ventilation so that oxygen is provided for the fermentation process. Puerh tea leaves can quickly absorb odor from its environment. Accordingly, Puerh tea should be stored away from objects that have strong odor, such as herbs, spices, moth balls, air fresheners, etc.

Oolong tea

Refrigerator storage: seal the newly oolong tea well, put it in the freezer of the refrigerator at the temperature of -5℃ to 5℃.

Thermos storage: put oolong tea in the dry thermos and tighten the cap.

Glass storage method: put the dry oolong tea in dark glass bottle and seal it, then flavor can be maintained a long time.

Porcelain bottle storage method: select the dry, odor-free, well-structured porcelain bottle and put oolong tea into it.

White tea

Thermos storage: put the white tea into a thermos, and then seal it.

Refrigerator storage: put the white tea into a small bag or jar, and then seal and place it in the refrigerator at the preferred temperature of 5℃.

Yellow tea

Refrigerator storage: put the tea into a container, draw the oxygen out of the container, or put preservative together with tea into the container and then place it in a refrigerator at the temperature of 5℃ to 6℃. In addition, the water content in tea should be controlled within a certain range, usually the preferred moisture content of 3%.

Dark tea

Kraft preservation: use kraft paper, parchment and other packaging materials with good permeability to store dark tea. Dark tea is best placed where there is no sunlight, wind, nor with other smelly material, and placed in the open and ventilated environment.

Scented tea

Sealed packaging: sealed tank is the best preserved utensil for scented tea, where tea moisture deterioration can be avoided. If the original bag is used, pump the air out, clamp it, and keep it sealed.

Crisper: put the tea into a crisper. It is convenient.

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How to use tea sets to brew tea

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Tea tray

In the tea family, tea tray plays a little-known role, but pot, cup will be used with the help of it.

Function

Tea tray is mainly used to place the teapot, cup and so on. If it is double-deck, it can be used to contain the tea soup or waste water.

Material

It is mainly made of bamboo, wood, sometimes porcelain, purple sand or stone. On function, there are single-deck tea tray and double-deck tea tray.

Wise selection

Material selection The most common and most useful material is bamboo and wood, they are economical, and environmentally friendly. The most common wooden tea tray is made of rosewood, ebony and other green ebony.

Size selection Fewer people or in small room, small tea tray can be selected. The drinker himself or the one with many tea devices can select large tea tray.

Type selection Those who do not drink tea can buy a water kept tray, which can both meet the requirements and save space. Those who drink a lot or drink regular should buy a normal tea tray.

Usage

1 when tea devices are in tea tray, they should be in order.

2 when the tea tray is used to contain cool tea soup or waste water, clean it up and drain it, and dry it with a dry cloth.

 

No matter what material a tea tray is made of, it should be set wide. Increase tea devices according to the number of guests and make the bottom plate to be flat.

Tea caddy

Tea caddy is not strange for most people. For persons who love tea, they often have a jar at home, storing some tea for guests at any time.

Function

Store up tea.

Material

The common material is porcelain jars, iron cans, paper cans, plastic cans and so on, as well as pottery, bamboo cans and so on.

Wise selection

Wooden can no crack, no strange smell.

Iron can Iron can is the most common. Surface should not be rough, no paint fumes.

Tin can Tin can should be free of lead. Buy tin cans from formal manufacturers, which have gone through times of testing, in line with international tableware health standard.

Porcelain jar Best buy famous tea cans which is not broken, rough.

Size The cans should not be too large, because tea should not be stored for too long. A large can is not only impractical, but also waste space.

In short, the general requirements to buy tea caddy are well-sealed, moisture-proof, and light-proof without smell.

Usage

1 Tea caddy is used to store tea leaves.

2 Tea caddy should be sealed soon after tea leaves are taken to reduce the chances of becoming moisture or losing its flavor.

3 If new jars have a little odor, a little tea powder should be put in, then cover the lid, lay it after a couple of days. Then the new tea can be put into.

4 A kind of tea is best placed in a certain tea can.

5 Tea caddy should be put in a cool dry place, kept from direct sunlight, smells or heat sources.

How to get good water for brewing tea

How to get good water for brewing tea

Water is of primacy to tea, and the quality can directly affect the quality of tea.

The ancients believed that natural water is the best water for cooking tea. According to sources, natural water can be divided into spring, stream, river, lake well water, snow, rain, etc., and spring is one of the best. The standard good tea water is no more than four conditions, live source, sweet, light, and clear.

 

Live source

Live water means the source of wat is to live, that is, water should always flow.

Sweet

Sweet water makes nice tea. The ancients believed that the rain is nutritious and sweet, and the rain is the sweetest when plums get ripe in the south. Snow water is also good to brew tea; first, it is sweet, second, it is cold and clear.  Some Chinese people also think the snow was good for cooking tea.

Light

Emperor Qianlong is also a senior researcher on tea. In every parade, he would ask to take a silver funnel to detect the spring water. After researches, he then came to a conclusion that “light water is better to cook tea”. There are soft water and hard water; hard water contains calcium, magnesium, iron and other minerals which can increase the weight of water, affecting the flavor of tea, while soft water is suitable for making tea. Generally, water with pH value of 6.7 to 7.3 alkaline, acidic or neutral can better reflect the color, smell, taster, rhyme of tea, so it is the perfect water for cooking tea.

Clear

Selected water must be clear. Many people who love the water, invented many good ways to keep water clear, such as by “putting stones in the bottle of water”.

Selection of Tea

Shape

Dryness: use your fingers to squeeze the tea leaves. If dry tea leaves are fragile, the tea is good; if not, it is damp, and tea quality has been affected.

Leaf shape: if tea leaf is complete, and tea color is normal, it is good. Tea stems and tea powder in high proportion will affect tea quality.

Fragrance: all kinds of tea emit different fragrances due to processing and the degree of fermentation. The soup with strong fragrance and aroma is best. In addition, if the tea smells strange, then it is bad.

Taste

Good tea makes the mouth fragrant or the throat comfortable; the bad one tastes bitter.

Liquid

Tea leaves make the soup in different colors due to the degrees of fermentation. The tea soup should be clear without turbid sediment.

 

Brewed tea leaves (spent leaves)

After the tea leaves are brewed, those spreading gradually are made from young fresh leaves, and manufactured with excellent technology. The tea smells strong after several infusions. The tea whose leaves which cannot spread or only spread to a small degree after repeated brewing fail in stir fixation or have been placed for too long time.

The tea leaves with complete shape are nice, and those with broken shape are secondary product. Pinch the bottom by leaves with your fingers, generally the better the stronger elasticity. That means it is made by fresh, excellent tea leaves. Old tea with prominent veins feel relatively blunt. In addition, the color of fresh tea leaves is clear; however the old tea is dark brown or black.

Classification of Tea

Since ancient times, there are a number of different methods of classifying tea. Tea can be classified by tea processing technology, origin, season, level, shape, or sales. For example, Lu Yu in Tang Dynasty, divided tea into coarse tea, loose tea, powdered tea, tea cakes; In Yuan Dynasty tea was divided into bud tea and leaf tea. After the founding of People’s Republic of China, according to the different degree of fermentation of tea and tea processing, tea was divided into non-fermented tea, semi-fermented tea, and fully-fermented tea, and divided tea into six basic teas and re-processing tea, namely: green tea, black tea, oolong tea, yellow tea, white tea and dark tea and re-processing tea, that is, scented tea and so on.

Sorting standards	Tea classification
Processing technical	Green tea, black tea, oolong tea, yellow tea, white tea, dark tea.
Origin	Chinese tea from Zhejiang, Fujian, Taiwan, Yunnan, Gansu and Anhui Provinces.
Harvesting time	Spring tea, summer tea, hot summer tea, autumn tea and winter tea.
Quality rating	Premium rating, first rating, second rating, third rating, fourth rating, and fifth rating…
Shape	Needle-shaped tea, flat tea, jade leaves, curved spiral tea, sheet-shaped tea, orchid-shaped tea, and single bud-shaped tea.
Selling place	Tea for overseas sales, tea for domestic sales, etc.
Processing degree	Early tea (raw tea leaves), refined tea (tea products), deep processing of tea (such as instant tea, tea polyphenols extract, etc.)
Fermentation degree	Non-fermented tea, slightly fermented tea, semi-fermented tea, fully-fermented tea, post-fermented tea.
Discovering time	Historical tea, modern tea.

 

Classification of tea

Green Tea

The history of green tea in China lasts at least 3000 years. It is one of the oldest teas in the world. There are three characteristics of green tea that are green dry leaves, green tea liquor and green wet leaves. It is harvested in early spring, and Chinese tea drinkers think that the top green tea is picked before Tombs Festival (about April 5th) which is called Mingqian Tea. Green tea is suitable to drink in spring and early summer. According to Chinese traditional medical principles, Chinese people believe that drinking green tea in spring is good for liver and eyes. As non-fermented tea, the key process of green tea is only three steps: ferment-preventing, rolling and drying. According to the different ways of ferment-preventing, green tea is divided into four categories which are shined green tea, steamed green tea, fried green tea and baked green tea.

Shined green tea

The shined green tea now is rare due to its long history. The characteristic is its special aroma reminding people of sunshine. At that time people considered it as a kind of medicine and nowadays shined green tea becomes the material of puerh tea.

Tea consumption has its legendary origin in China of more than 4000 years. Green tea was frist brewed in 2737 BC during the reign of Shen Nong, the leader of contemporary clan. Because it can eliminate inflame and lower the body temperature, green tea has been used as both medicine and beverage in most counties in Asia, including China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Steamed green tea

A steamed green tea also known as Gyokuro in Japanese, made in Japanese style. Steamed green tea was first appeared in Three Kingdoms Period which has history of 1500 to 2000 years then with Buddhism it was exported to Japan in Tang Dynasties. During the Tang and Song Dynasty steamed green tea was Chinese tea drinker’s beloved tea drinks, and steamed tea appeared with shape of cake. Before Mid-Tang Dynasty, this period belongs to Tea Soup Times. So when people brew tea cake at that time, they would like to bake the tea cake to soft and grind, and then put them into boiling water with other material such as sugar, ginger, nut, and other fruits and so on. As one of the green teas, the steamed green tea also gets three characteristics of green tea which are green dry leaves, green wet leaves and green tea liquor. And the steamed green tea tastes fresh like seaweed because the steamed green tea is rich of vitamin C and is popular in female tea drinkers. From Song Dynasty, owing to the quality of steamed green tea cake is better than Tang’s and the steamed tea cake became a popular goods among Asian counties. Especially in the regime of Emperor Song Huizong, the production zone of steamed green tea enlarged. It is Emperor Sone Huizong that created Dropping Tea Art with steamed green tea cake which is popular in Japan now. At present, the world famous Japanese Macha is made from steamed green tea.

Fried green tea

The fried green tea appeared in Ming Dynasty that is 600 years ago. Because making steamed green tea was a waste of labor and finance, the first emperor of Ming Dynasty called on people drinking fried green tea instead of steamed green tea cake. The characteristic of fried green tea is high fragrance. What is more interested is that the fried green tea produced in different province having different aroma. For example, the famous Longjing tea, namely Dragon Well Tea, belongs to fried green tea which tastes like soy or chestnut. In China, there are lots of fried green teas with nearly one thousand varieties.

Longjing--- Dragon Well Tea

In China, the most well-known green tea originates from Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province. Longjing is fried in the shape of flat. Nowadays, Longjing becomes a souvenir in Hangzhou with five original production zones.

 

Biluochun

Biluochun is one of the most famous teas in China, which produced in Dongtingshan, Jiangsu Province. Biluochun is harvested in early March every year, so the appearance of the tea looks full of soft and tender buds with much Baihao, white fur, on it. This tea tastes fruity for its growing environment. When tea farmers plant Biluochun tea bush, they will plant some fruit trees together with them. It’s said that there is palmitic acid in tea bush which could absorb aroma. That’s the reason why Biluochun is fruity.

Baked green tea

The baked green tea appeared at the same time with the fried green tea in Ming Dynasty. Usually, we choose first buds in spring to fry, and one bud with two leaves to bake. So the leaves of baked green tea are matured and the taste is stronger than the fried teas. As far as we all know, Anhui Province is the homeland of the baked green tea. There are many famous breeds in this area, such as Huangshan Maofeng, Liuan Guapian, Taiping Houkui and so on.

Huangshan Maofeng

Huangshan Maofeng tea is a baked green tea produced in southeast interior Anhui Province of China. The tea is one of the most famous teas in China and can always be found on the China Famous Tea list.

The tea is grown neat Huangshan (Yellow Mountain), which is home to many famous varieties of Green Tea. Tea farmers pick one bud with two tender leaves to make this tea. After ferment-preventing by baked, the shape of Huangshan Maofeng is like an opening mouth of sparrow with its tongue out. The superior Huangshan Maofeng smells like orchid while the lower class is less of fragrance and suitable for making jasmine tea.

Liuan Guapian

Liuan Guapian is produced in Liuan County, Anhui Province. And the name originated from the melon seed shape. The first appearance of this tea is in the time of Minguo, around 1911. In order to improve the quality of this tea, tea masters cut the bud only left two leaves, and then bake it. The tea tastes strong fresh with fragrance of nuts.

Taiping Houkui

Taiping Houkui is produced in Huangshan, Anhui Province which first appeared in the end of Qing Dynasty. The tea bush of this tea is totally different from other green teas whose leaves like persimmon’s leaves. The shape of this tea is long and flat looking seaweeds. When the tea is ferment-prevented by baked, all the tea leaves will be put into a steamer together, so the vein of leaves will be fermented. In this way, the dry leaves of tea are green leaves with red vein.

As one of the oldest teas in China, green tea has a history with 3000 to 4000 years. Green teas belong to non-fermented tea with character of three grades, which is green dry leaves, green tea liquor, and green spent leaves. It tastes fresh, bitter and sweet.

Westerner calls Chinese tea art show as Yoga in cup.

 

Step one: warm up the cups

Pouring 30% hot water into the cup, rolling around the cup from right to the left for warming up the cup and helping dry leaves send out their aroma.

Step two: lower the water temperature

Green tea harvests in early spring. Because it belongs to non-fermented tea, so the bud is rich of vitamin C. The temperature of water should not be high. Usually it is from 75℃ to 85℃. In order to lower the water temperature, we should put water into the glass pot from the hot water pot.

Step three: put dry leaves

Fetch the dry leaves from the tea container with teaspoon slowly and slightly. After appreciation with others, we dispel the dry leaves into glass with three to five gram.

Step four: wet dry leaves

Because of the raw bud, the upper class Longjing is called lotus plumule. The second class is called flagstick for its shape. The third class is called sparrow tongue, because the shape of the tea is one bud with two raw leaves. Dropping some hot water into the cup, shake the cup. After that, dry leaves, dry leaves observe water perfectly and send out the aroma.

Step five: put in hot water

Lifting teapot and putting water into the cup three times, this is called phoenix nodding head.

Drinking green tea is like review the life. When you rink the green tea, it may taste bitter, but after taste is sweet. Like our life, although there are many troubles around us, but we live in the hope, and someday life will be sweet and round.

The spreading of tea in the world

The spreading of tea in the worldChina was honored as “home country of tea” in the world. Tea was one of mediums to integrate China civilization and other civilizations, as tea is introduced from China into other nations. According to statistics:  currently there are 58 countries producing tea.

Tea- Horse Road

An old trail winds among the mountains in southwest China, which was stamped by mule and human. For thousands of years, the caravan passed here in droves, selling tea to other peoples. That is the mysterious Tea-Horse Road.

Tea-Horse Road dating from Tang and Song Dynasty “Market of Tea and Horse”, where Han people and other minorities traded horses and tea. The minorities live in the cold places, where people mainly fed on milk and meat, so they needed tea to help digest the fat. There tea could not be planted, meanwhile, Han people needed horses for work and war, so the trade developed quickly, and a trade route for people to transport tea and horses gradually came into being.

Tea-Horse Road was a large transportation network, and there are two main lines. The first line was from Yunnan’s Simao, Pu’er and other places of departure, to the north by Dali, Lijiang, Zhongdian, Deqin to Tibet Banda, Qamdo, Lhorong, Nyingchi, Lhasa and then through Gryantse, Yadong to Myanmar, Nepal, India; the second line was from Sichuan Ya’an starting from the west by Luding, Kangding, Batang, Qamdo to Lhasa, and then to Nepal, India. Their starting points were places rich in tea, and along the main line numerous branches extended a huge network closely linking Yunnan-Sichuan Tibet Triangle region.

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The global spreading of tea culture

Dutch traded tea from Macao China to Indonesia in 1606. The next year, they bought tea directly from China. Since then, people in Britain and French began to drink tea. Dutch sold tea to the North America in 1650. In the whole 19^thcentury, China had been a tea provider to the world. Tea spread throughout the world.

Ways of transmission

The first is to send envoys to other countries with tea as gifts.

The second is through monks who studied Buddhism, and the envoys of Tang Dynasty to take tea to their home countries.

The third is through the ancient trade route, such as the Tea- Horse Road, etc, and international trade to sell tea abroad.

Transmission Lines of Tea Culture

By Land

Taking Hebei and Shanxi as the center, the tea passed the Great Wall, through Mongolia, across Russia and Siberia, to Europe.

By sea

Zheng He’s seven voyages in Ming Dynasty, from Vietnam, India, Sri Lanka, Arabian Peninsula, and finally to the east coast of Africa.