China is Tea heaven!
I thought I wasn't going to post about my first trip to China. My priority was to visit the Shaolin Temple and to find the illusive traditional martial art master who lives in the mountains, reachable by windy roads only.....
I found him. It's another story. But, what a pleasant surprise to find that tea as I love it, (kung fu tea)is also loved by all the martial aritists that I've met on this trip! Granted, they all smoke too, which was the little imperfection in this otherwise perfect world of martial art and tea, but I don't think I'll be able to find myself anywhere else in the world to be amidst a group of martial monks and ex-monks talking about the state of the martial art world, with one designated tea-maker seriously and meticulously making tea for everyone.
It is easy to find tea shops with the electric or otherwise powered tea kettle nearby, big tea trays designed for the hot water baths for the tea cups and pots, tea-sniffers, and tea cloth, for a brief dab of the tea cups before serving...etc. Most hotels in China, instead of a coffee maker, has a water boiling kettle and tea cups. Granted, this for boiling water before drinking, but I soon started carrying a mini purple clay teapot and good leaves with me. It's all too convenient!
In a tea whole sale market(consists of at least 30 or 40 shops that carry various tea and tea apparatus, a shopping mall of nothing but tea shops!) in Zhengzhou, Henan, I found a Taiwanese tea that cost 300 US dollar in the States for 300 RMB (about$38). Not only that, this tea I cannot get in the US any more because the shop in NY went out of business.
In Hangzhou, the city of the beautiful West Lake, I found one tea shop on the lake side that is a part of a chain(Xue Feng, meaning "Snow Peaks") which sells organic oolong that carries wonderful tea and that offers a special lunch and dinner meal with tea for a mere 30 RMB. The meal includes all courses from soup to dessert, plus not just a pot of tea, but the whole bit: a little water-boiling station, the tea tray, with the whole set-up. The deal can be 60 RMB or 80 RMB if you get higher quality tea leaves.
The majority of the Xue Feng tea shops are in Shanghai, but I'm pretty sure only some offer this meal deal.
In a little city in Guangdong I walked into one of many local tea shops. There were something that caught my eyes. The large straight long tea leaves (don't know the technical term)as oppose to the oolong leaves that are usually curled up. I was curious when I saw the name: something about orchid. They assure me it's not like the jasmin tea that's scented WITH jasmin blossoms, but that this type of tea from has a natural orchid scent, just as some others have a Osmanthus blossom scent(an unforgettable scent that I will forever associate with Hangzhou). Well, now my memory is refreshed. I did read something about this. They told me to make this in the style of the Kung Fu tea. Wow! The beautiful scent just drew me in and I swear, I was feeling a bit drunk from this.
Maybe this is the reason I'm still here in China.....afraid to go back to the States where the only choice is Tien Ren. Sigh.
By HLing on
Nov 28, 2004 03:40AM
View »
More please! It's so hard to find good ,let alone great tea here.
Permalink | Reply
Well ok, if you insist..No, actually I forgot to post about the "3rd spring water under the sky":
While in Hangzhou, I had wanted to try the famed Tong Puo pork (the square piece of red-cooked pork belly accompanied by a piece of steamed bread) and the Long Jin shrimp (river shrimp cooked with the Chinese green tea leaves). While the food was merely OK, (the long jin leaves where fresh leaves, not dried)the restaurant "Lo zhong Lo" happened to be one fo the few that carried the spring water bottled at the "Hu Pao" spring. (Hu Pao means Tiger Run). The waitress told me that it's not easy to find outside of their restaurant. I believed her and was glad I did. Short of going to the source, (which though not far from there) I didn't have time for, I would have missed the chance to sample this water.
So, armed with 3 small bottles of this water, I went back to the hotel. Despite the plastic tea kettle that i boiled it in, tea made with this water had such smooth and rounded mouth feel. The flavor of the tea leaves I brought with me was especially pronounced using this water! But, I was alone and wasn't quite sure if I was just wanting to think so. When one of my tea buddies made that other tea I posted about (the $300 tea) a few days later using the last bottle of this water, he looked at me gravely and said, "I am very sorry I have ever tasted this pot of tea.....now that I know how good this tea can taste...it's just going to be disappointment without this water!"
OK, so I wasn't imagining things.
Back at Hangzhou, the next day, I went to the famous Lin Yin Temple. Well, I wanted to. I brought a couple of empty bottles with me, just in case, but also I seem to remember something about a famous tea drinking stories associated to the temple. As it turned out, I actually missed the Lin Yin Temple proper. Walked right past it after I hiked up and down the Fai Lai Peaks seeing all the Buddha staues in the cave. Thinking I was going to Lin Yin Temple I ended up following the route to another temple called Dao Guang Temple. Why? Because I saw something that mentioned a tea-cooking site. Well, many steps later, I happened to see some local people down near a "creek" that was barely running. There was a black pipe with a small stream of water running. The people just go and catch it with some container. So, I did, too.
This was pretty darn good water, too. And free. So, the two days I had in Hangzhou I had great tea. Love when I get lucky like this.
Permalink | Reply
If you like longjing tea as much as I do, you owe it to yourself to go back to Hangzhou in the spring, when the finest grades of longjing are being produced.
Link: http://www.eatingchinese.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=24
Image: http://www.enonline.sh.cn/index/CC/Te...
Permalink | Reply
I forgot to add that it might (or might not) make your day to know that you now have a shared experience with Mao Zedong.
"The late Chairman Mao Zedong was very fond of Dragon Well tea. During his two visits to Liu's Villa by the West Lake in early 1960s, he picked Dragon Well tea with his own hands, which was roasted and infused with water from Running Tiger Spring. Mao loved the taste so much that he said: "Nothing could be compared with Dragon Well tea infused with water from Running Tiger Spring".
Link: http://www.enonline.sh.cn/CClook.asp?...
Permalink | Reply
Thanks for the link! The enjoyment of tea is beyond politics, as it should be.
I did see people roasting long jin tea right off the street. I hate to say it, though, that I was afraid to try Long Jin tea this time around all because my first experience of Long Jin tea was pretty awful, thanks to that good ole Tien Ren Tea, and so somehow I thought best not to ruin the impression of the birth place of Long Jin totally, and decided against trying it all together. I am sure it's just me. Maybe I will try it in the spring time, some day, in Hangzhou.
Permalink | Reply