Tibetan Tea

We bought this tea in a Brother Friendship store in Ya'an, Sichuan. It looked interesting and, of course, we had often heard of Tibetan tea and butter tea. Thought this might be the tea they added butter to.

From their website at www.yayycc.com:

Old Horse Road Of Tea

　　Old Horse road of Tea is another new tourism site in the world. It is the road which is on the highest height, the most dangerous and the most magic. It is named for the exchanging marketing between Tibet and Han. The road starts separately from Sichuan and Yunnan, crosses mountains, Jinsha river, Lanchang river, Nu river and Yalong river, and go on to the west and meet at Changdu. It is a main way of cultural and economic exchanges between Tibet, Han and other nationalities. It is also the guide of the Yuman-Tibet road and Sichuan-Tibet road.

　　Old Horse Road of Tea are two roads in fact, Sichuan-Tibet horse road and Yunnan-Tibet Horse Road. The Sichuan-Tibet Horse Road is more famous. Our company is located at the first stop of this old road. The road is famous for large quantity of tea transportation and dangerous ways, which Yunnan-Tibet Horse Road is far less. This can be proved by the TV play See of national TV.
　　
Frontier tea is hardly pressed, which is a drinking necessity of Tibet people. Frontier tea produced by Ya'an has a very long history. Long time ago, Frontier tea from Ya'an is sold to Tibetan in Tibet, Ganzi and Qinghai. Ya'an also becomes the exchanging marketing between Tibet and Han. Jinjian tea and Kong brick tea is the most preferred by Tibetan. "Tibetan would rather eat no food in 3 days than drink no tea in one day." Then you can see how importan tea is in the life of Tibetan.

Poem, book and picture can mold a person's temperament, piano, chess and tea can cultivate the heart and nature culture.
Let's love tea, teste tea, chat tea and make tea.

The website is in both Chinese and English and has a bunch of pictures of the Old Horse Tea Road. It does not have a lot about the actual tea we bought but lists all the health benefits of this tea and others.

This is the can of Tibetan Tea from our Ya'an trip before the school started. I put off tasting it simply because it was in the can. Thought maybe we would be taking it back to Thailand with us and did not want to break the seal.

It seems now that we will not have enough room in our luggage for it so figured it was time for a taste test. Always love to give a new tea a taste.

When I opened the can, I found the tea was loose inside without an inner package. There was also a name card stuck in among the leaves which gave the name of the company Brother Friendship and the address in Yaan to include the website above. Not sure if this tea would have lasted long in Thailand without a sealed bag inside the can. The leaves are really dark, almost a solid black and look to be of different sizes. The smell was fresh and strong and a bit earthy. Kinda reminded me of a puerh smell.

Up close one can see the texture and the different sizes among the leaves. Pretty black looking tea, huh?

I put about a table spoon or so of the tea in my little pot and let it steep for about a minute. The liquid was dark and orange and looked a lot like puerh. The aroma was stong and earthy with hints of floral. I thought it would smell like tobacco because that is exactly what the leaves reminded me of, good strong tobacco for a pipe.

I liked this tea because it was full-bodied and strong. I can imagine that this is the tea the Tibetans put their butter in to drink. It is as strong a tea as I have tasted yet not as shallow as most of the tea bag teas I used to drink before we discovered what tea was all about.

The tea was fairly relaxing but nothing like the puerhs that I have tasted. There was no numbness in my cheeks that had come with the puerhs. I simply felt relaxed and alert at a casual rate.

If one likes black teas, I would think that this would be a solid tea to be drinking in the morning to wake up with. It is robust and firm with a smoothness that seems to be with all the other black teas I have tasted. No initial bite and no serious lingering aftertaste. Just a sold tea with an earthy and no nonsense floral taste, smooth from front to back. It is not a tea bag taste but one that has real substance and "meaning."

I can see why the blacks are us Westerners favorite tea. They do not play games with the taste buds and are not delicate and whiney (how about that for a tea tasting word!). This black tea is very pleasant and I definitely will be drinking some more of it later on. Glad we bought it and welcome to the family, Mr. Tibetan Tea.

This is the expended leaves after eight infusions. It was still going strong but I needed to drink some Yunnan black tea to get ready for bed. Seems I have fallen in love with the Yunnan Golden Needle tea.

Sunday Afternoon Tea Tasting

We wanted to use our new tea tray and our new gongfu tea set so we decided to have a tea tasting party. Of course, we invited Tom for a Sunday afternoon tea tasting. In addition, I sent an email to my older brother in Oklahoma with an invitation to join us. More just to let him know what we were doing than anything else.


Using Apple Mail, I developed my own invitation template to emphasize tea and sent out the invitation that went over 10,000 miles away. Needless to say, my brother did not show up for the tea tasting.


Tom showed up for the party at exactly 1400. We had already set up our tea service tray on the coffee table in the living room. I had laid out all the utensils and the tea. Actually, I laid out a bunch of tea just in case we got diligent in our tasting. I had only planned for five teas with a couple more greens if we had the time. Tom reads over the steps for a Chinese Culture Tea Tasting that I copied from the internet.

Here Sunee prepares all the cups and pitchers and teapots for our first official Chinese Tea Tasting. We had bought a couple of pounds of cookies which we could munch on as the party went forward.

Here Sunee heats the cups and gets them set up for the ordeal. Since I had already done a tasting of the fine Yunnan Golden Tip or Bud Black Tea, I did not take any photos of it except when Tom drank some. We started with this tea because it was not overpowering and was very smooth and easy to drink.

Tom agreed that it was as good as advertised.


Next up was the Puerh Tuocha that we had purchased last summer in Yunnan. I had also already tasted this and registered it in this blog so I did not take a lot of pictures.


The Tuocha performed wonderfully, giving us three or four solid steepings which we drank with enthusiasm. I asked Tom to describe the taste and he responded that it reminded him of a damp forest with the smell of woods and earth. Each steeping provided the same sensation with the second being the best. This puerh was smooth from beginning to end, front to back. I, once again, felt my face go a bit numb as the tea took effect. I like puerh very much.

Normally the Tuocha puerh is of lower quality, has a lot of dust in it and tends to be smooth but a little lacking in excitement. Not so the loose leaf puerh we had purchased in Chengdu. Here Tom takes in the aroma of the leaves before we begin the "gongfuing" of the tea.


Following directions from the internet concerning a tea tasting, we also felt and looked closely at the leaves, noting the size, color and texture. Of course, we had no idea what we were looking for or looking at, but we were tea tasters for sure!


Sunee prepares the tea and pours the first steeping of this fine tea using the Gongfu method.


The puerh is beautiful in this first steeping. The color is dark, deep with orange overtones. It was as good as it looked. At first, we had hints of wet woods and earth and something else we could not quite get. Something that was familiar to us but . . . we were not quite sure.


Sunee prepares the second steeping and then leaves us to go work on her Chinese watercolor painting.


Tom continues with this second steeping, leaving the steep for a couple of minutes longer than the first. This second steeping absolutely blew us away. Both Tom and I said, "Tobacco!" at exactly the same time. This puerh felt, tasted, or whatever one calls it like a fine, expensive Cuban cigar. Now we are wondering if one can call it "cigary?" Such a cigar has a sensation that one has to experience to understand. As the smoke fills the mouth, the tongue and roof respond with unique sensations like no other. This is exactly how our mouths were reacting to this tea. Cup after cup, we enjoyed this really unique feeling and relaxed and talked about cigars and this puerh tea. Both of us were enjoying our first official Chinese Tea Tasting.

As we drank our "cigary" puerh tea, we talked about puerh and I showed Tom my two cakes I had bought recently in Chengdu. I shared what little knowledge we had learned and suggested that these puerh cakes may be a decent investment to take back to the States whenever he decided to return. We plan to get a few more to take with us back to Thailand in January.

The third, fourth and fifth steepings, although the time increased for each, were equally as good and satisfying as the second.


This is the fifth steeping and it was just as beautiful and just as "cigary" as the previous. We discussed the cost per serving of this fine tea and decided that it was probably cheaper than the others even though we had paid a lot more for it than the others. Puerh is a great tea to drink and it is supposed to be one of the healthiest teas to drink as well.

During the sixth and final steeping of the puerh, Sunee returned with her recently finished watercolor painting to show Tom. She has gotten to be very good in her paintings as you can see.


Time for a change. I had this Hong Xiang Fei Scented Green tea and wanted Tom to try. He does his smell, look and touch thing as all good tea tasters are required to do. This tea is one strange looking tea. The tea is rolled into little balls with brown looking stuff on the outside. It looked very much like rat or rodent droppings, a big rat or big rodent to be sure.


With this tea, I became lazy and used our teapot from Taiwan. After around two minutes of steeping, we poured our first shot.


The tea turned out to be weak so we decided to do it again by pouring it back into the basket for a few more minutes. We then discussed what we had experienced. Tom thought it had hints of rose or some other flower but he could not be sure. I could not make out the fragrance because my stomach felt a bit odd. I had not liked this tea when we first tried it and my feeling probably would not change this time.

The second steeping screamed at us "ROSE!" and my stomach returned the scream of "ACID!" Tom, however, liked it and finished it off. Me! I went to get some Zantac to stop the heartburn. This tea is not for me! We both decided that it tasted like year-old rose potpourri that had been left in my grandma's easter hat box for at least a year. I hated the smell and the taste.

Tom emptied the used leaves into one of the cups so I could take a picture of them. Do they look like tea leaves to you?

Here Tom finally gets one of the balls to open up into a definite tea leaf. It looked to be a very young leaf but who am I to know what is young and what is not! I ended up giving the Hong Xiang Fei we had left over to Tom. At least, he will drink it.

Our final tea would be the Emei Mountain Yin Zhen Yellow tea I have already tasted for this blog. I wanted Tom to try it and see what his reaction would be. Here he loads the gaiwan up with the yellow tea. He, of course, did the aroma smell, long look and feeling beforehand.

He was unsure of the amount of tea he should use so he filled it about half full or so.


The washing of the white heron, or so the Chinese saying goes for this step. Making sure the unwanted impurities are washed away.




The above steps are carried out with precision and we let the yellow tea steep for several minutes.

Here Tom pours the first steeping as I anxiously await this unique yellow tea.

Here is the first steeping and I thought it looked a lot darker than when I had made it before. The yellow was very deep and strong looking. One sip and Tom and I both let out a yell. Astringent is the correct word, but we both said WOW!. Too many leaves and too long brewing for sure. Eventually we did a second and third steeping and they were both perfect. It is difficult to describe this tea. It starts out with a bitter feeling (not really a taste) and then changes flavors or tastes depending on where it touches the tongue. Strange but wonderful sensations as we held the tea in our mouths. The aftertaste was definitely there, a bit sweet and a little bitter but not unpleasant. We may have made a mistake by not rinsing our mouths out after the first cup but I doubt if the sensations would have changed much. This tea is complicated, interesting and very pleasant. I can only imagine what the Jun Mountain Yun Zhen yellow tea would be like. It is listed as one of the top ten teas in the world. We plan to find some when we travel to the Tea Culture Town next month. Could get some at the local department store but I truly doubt if it is the real thing based on what I have read about it.

This yellow tea was a great way to finish the tea tasting. Luckily we started with a smooth and single taste tea and finished with a very complicated and complex tea. Our first tea tasting would have to be considered a great success. Now when to have another one?

Yunnan Golden Bud Black Tea

This morning I felt like trying something different. We had just finished all of our tea from the "I have no idea what this tea is" cache of teas and are now into the fully labeled and identified teas. Something about this Yunnan Black Tea that interested me. Here is one of the reasons why:

One of the few best Chinese black teas, given as tribute by Yunnan local government to visiting foreign VIP’s and Chinese top leaders. Growing in organic tea gardens of high mountains, only fat fine buds of Spring first crop are plucked to produce this Golden Bud A. Less than 2,000kg made each year. Attractive golden buds without a black leaf in sight. This tea brews a bright amber color liquor. Smooth, sweet honey flavor with elegant flowery aroma. Highly prized by tea connoisseurs. (http://www.pu-erhtea.com/BlackTea.htm)

Pretty impressive write-up, wouldn't you agree? Of course, the site is a commercial tea site so they will never have any negative write-ups about their teas. The information we were given about this tea pretty well matched the above description.

It was the best black tea money could buy out of Yunnan according to the guy we bought it from. He had a tea shop that specialized in tea from Yunnan and, of course, he was from Yunnan. It is called Jin Ya or Golden Bud/Shoot. The guy we bought it from in the Tea Culture Town gave some pretty good information about the tea and we tasted it before we bought it. Sunee does not care for it (she thinks it taste like Thai tea) but I like it because I definitely "feel" its effects on me almost immediately. Here is the "tasting" of the Yunnan Golden Bud Black Tea.



As you can see, the tea leaves are almost entirely golden in color. This means it has been hand-picked and only the "buds" or "shoots" have been chosen.


This is a very impressive close up to show the golden hue that each tea leaf has plus the white hairs that cover the buds. According to the seller, the number of golden leaves and the fine hair is the guarantee that this tea is what he says it is.


This tea makes a beautiful dark amber liquid. It really is as beautiful a tea as one will ever fine, IMHO. It looks like tea to the Western eyes. The taste is smooth from start to finish. It does not have the characteristic green tea bite at the beginning and the green tea aftertaste. It is smooth and mellow with hints of smoke and pepper. The effects are almost immediate for me. My face gets very numb all over and makes me feel very relaxed. It is almost like getting a shot of novacaine at the dentist office. Is this the "qi" thing that I have read about at some of the sophisticated tea sites on the web such as Mattcha? I will definitely buy some more of this tea when we return to Chengdu in a couple of weeks. It will also make nice Christmas gifts to my friends and relatives in Thailand. Too bad I have no way of getting it back to the United States before Christmas. Maybe next year, big brother, maybe next year.

As I mentioned earlier, Sunee does not care for this tea. She thinks it tastes like the cheap Thai tea she is used to. For me, I like it a lot and especially for the feeling I get after drinking it. My mind is clear but my body is very relaxed. Guess that is why we drink tea and the Chinese wrote so many lines of poetry about drinking tea.


Here are the leaves after my last steeping (third infusion). I have seen some of my favorite tea blogs show pictures of the tea leaves when they were done with them. Hey, I can do that too!

One thing I have found about this tea, it is only good for two or at the most three infusions. I am waiting now to have my third and final Yunnan Golden Bud Black Tea. Why not come and join me?

Chengdu Tea Culture Street

I travel to Chengdu to pick up Sunee. We visit the fairly new Tea Culture Street to see what teas are offered. The place is huge with hundreds of stores, some specializing in specific teas while others selling accessories.


While walking to my hotel from the Jiatong University bus stop, I met an old friend from Mozambique. Mr. Gugu is a PhD student who lives on campus. I met him about a year ago and we never did maintain our contact. This time it will be different.

14 November 2008, Our First Trip To The Street


The Southwest Chengdu Tea Culture Town is about a twenty or thirty minute taxi ride from Jiaotong University. This is the entrance to the largest street in the town.


Not far down the tea street, sits this huge pot on the side with its huge tea cup. Guess this just proves where we are.



As we walked down the street we saw several ladies working diligently removing stems from what appeared to be Tie Guan Yin tea. We verified this to be what was happening when we asked at the shop we bought most of our tea that evening.


Tea shops were everywhere. This one was right across the street from where we bought most of our tea.


This is the tea shop from which we bought our first batch of tea in Tea Culture Town. The people were really nice and we got a lesson in Pu-erh tea for free.


Deciding which cake to buy proved to be difficult, so we asked for more information.


In this Pu-erh tea cake, there were both young and old tea leaves mixed together. It looked so good that we ended up buying it.


We asked questions about how the tea was prepared and pressed and then sent to market.






The wonderful sales lady explained everything we wanted to know about Pu-erh Yunnan tea. This quick course in Pu-erh took over an hour and still we felt we knew very little.




We ended up buying two Pu-erh tea cakes to save for a couple of years. The older the better so it would seem.




In addition to a lesson on the history, picking and processing of Pu-erh, we participated in a free tasting of the various kinds of Pu-erh.


These horses were loaded taking the tea to market.


The area was full of tea shops of all kinds. We only went to a total of four shops during our quick stop to the area.


Two more stops brought us more tea and more samples. We bought some Guan Yin Wang tea at this place. They put them in tiny little packages which we really appreciated.


We also bought some Da Hong Pao, one of the most famous teas in China.


In this tea store we sampled Mengding Ganlu and Huang Ya.


Mengding Ganlu/Sweet Dew (on top) and Huang Ya/Yellow Tip (on the bottom). We bought around 100 grams of each to try. I already had some Mengding Ganlu that two of my students had bought for me in Ya'an at the foot of Mengding Mountain. This tea, however, was beautifully packaged and we did not want to open the packaging so we bought some more Ganlu here.


This is a cup of Huang Ya tea which was very good. We bought a small sample to see if we really liked it.


Next we went looking for tea accessories. This shop was on the second floor off the main street and it was a really great store.


The store had all kinds of great tea sets in all different styles and colors.


The sales lady was from Xiamen so she could speak Min Nan with Sunee. They both had a lot of fun negotiating and renegotiating the items we decided to buy.


This is a very inexpensive Gongfu set we bought to get started. It was delicate white with a black dragon on each piece. not bad for around $3 USD.


We also considered buying a gaiwan or two but decided to wait for another trip.


This is the tea service set we decided to buy. It was $41 USD. They gave us the utensils after much negotiations.





The store also offered beautiful Yixing pottery. These will have to wait for another trip. They are not cheap.


We met this gentlemen as we bought our tea accessories and he invited us next door to his tea shop.


Along with sampling his teas, we provided us with more history on tea, especially the black teas and Pu-erh teas from Yunnan.


He had taught for many years and seemed to be expert in all things Yunnan.




He let us sample some of these black teas from Yunnan.


He told us that this Pu-erh loose leaf tea was the best he had so we bought some to try it out.


His tea shop had several beautiful displays of Pu-erh cakes and tuo cha (birdnest) teas.


This is a close up of his Golden Tip black tea from Yunnan. One can see why it was called Golden Tip.


Golden Tip Black Tea from Yunnan. We bought a half pound of this to try.


We ended the evening with this guy. He was personable and seemed to give us pretty good prices on his teas. We will probably do more business with him later.

15 November 2008, Return For More Tea
The following day we caught a taxi to the Sichuan Art Gallery where Sunee bought some books and watercolor supplies. Afterward we took a taxi back to the Tea Culture Town to look for some teas which I was interested in.



We originally were going to walk into this store the night before but instead went to get something to eat before we shopped. We never got back to the store. The lady in the store remembered us and was overjoyed that we had returned. She was very fun to negotiate with and went out of her way to help including sampling whatever we wanted.


I was interested in getting some white tea. No one seemed to have it available. She had some tea she said was white but we decided not to buy it until I did more research on it. This is the white that she offered us. It just did not seem right or what we expected.


We got to try some really strange looking stuff that came from the top of Emei Mountain. Have no idea what it was but the lady assured us that it was good and healthy for us. We passed on buying any as it had very little taste.




This is a glass of Hangzhou Longjing tea. We got a half pound of it because of its fame worldwide. We got the second to the best grade and it was not cheap.


The kuding tea is called Clear Mountain Green Water. We had bought some in Baguan Village where we live and liked it even though it was bitter. This kuding tea, however, was not as bitter and was very good. The lady told us this was the best Clear Mountain Green Water tea money could buy. We believed her because it was really good.



Another area of the Tea Culture Town. This place really is very big.


Sunee still shopping for tea and accessories.


A final look at one of the big tea shops in Southwest China's largest tea market area.