Clay Tea Pot

A clay tea pot so old, yet picturesque
Sits empty on the corner of my desk

Surrounded by cups in a porcelain bowl
Awaiting the water now in my control

Boiled perfectly to the exact right degree
Ready to be poured on waiting green tea

An Emei Mountain Chinese Tea Ceremony

This is a typical tea ceremony performed in tea shops and tea houses everywhere in Sichuan Province. This particular ceremony took place at a new Zhuyeqing Tea shop across the street from Southwest Jiaotong University in Baguan Village.

A Merry "Mao Feng" Christmas

It's Christmas Eve and we are set for at least three different parties. My sophomore class number three will be having a Christmas party at 1550. I have been having Christmas parties in my classes all week. A great way to do Western culture! So far I have attended four parties with yesterday's two classes combining to have one party. It was great fun.

Today after the class party at 1550, we have been invited to celebrate with the Dean and other faculty members with a dinner at 1800. Finally, at 1930 the students of the Foreign Language Department will have their party. So little time, so many parties.

My good friend Bogdan (an American here who has a computer software company) had his wife drop by to give us a huge tin of Huangshan Mao Feng. Another of those "top ten classical teas of China." I could not wait so we opened it and tried it.

Weiyan, Bogdan's wife, brought the tea in this bag. Obviously it came from a Huangshan place.

The actual tea was housed in this huge beautiful tin. We are talking a lot of Mao Feng here!


The Mao Feng tea leaves were a lot bigger than the Emei Mao Feng. One of these days, we will sit down and do some serious comparison of the Mao Feng and other teas.

Close up, the leaves are various shape with some having hair and others just folded nicely. This Mao Feng also has a lot more green to it than the stuff we buy from Emei.

I used my new pot and Induction Tea Cooker to make this Huangshan Mao Feng. The results were excellent. This tea lives up to its reputation easily. It is a bit heavier than that coming form Emei but also sweeter with more delicate undertones. Once again, who would not like such a fine tea as this? It is truly a great tea.

I did five infusions with these leaves but really only got two good cups of tea. After the third steeping, the tea was pretty weak and lost any meaningful sensations. Green tea is only good for two and, at the most, three infusions.

Liu An Gua Pian Green Tea

Liu An Gua Pian or Melon Seed/Pieces green tea is considered to be in the top ten (maybe even top five) great Chinese classical teas. I had been reading about this tea for several months so when we went to Chengdu this past week, we bought some.

The Melon Seed/Pieces tea is the result of a labor intensive picking style in which the farmers cut the pointy tip end and woody stem of each leaf creating indentically sized "melon pieces". Lu An Gua Pian is made only using the tea leaves and no buds at all (similar to Japanese green tea). The emerald-green dried tea leaves are long and narrow, each measuring between 1.5cm to 2cm in length. The long leaves are thin and soft creating a rich flavor without bitterness. Only the first, second and third tea leaves are used to produce this tea. The leaves are withered to reduce leaf moisture and then baked and simultaneously rolled to stop oxidation while frequently turned to impart a delicate hint of smokiness. This also gives the tea its unique melon seed shape.  The tea then goes through several drying processes requiring the skill of an experienced tea master. After drying, the tea is sorted, winnowed to remove broken tea and then graded.  This tea originated in Anhui province in 1776 during the Ching dynasty.

The dried leaves are easily identified from other greens. The leaves are dark to grayish green, long and tightly closed. They have by far the longest tea leaves of any green tea we have tried thus far.


Up close, one can see the darkened texture and the folded dried leaves. Once again, the leaves are easily identifiable.

The liquid is a beautiful golden yellow, light and transparent. The taste is fantastic. Sweet, mild and not a hint of bitterness. It has a unique floral taste and a long aftertaste much like that of Tie Guan Yin. The pleasant floral sweetness, if that is what it is, fills the whole mouth with a very refreshing and smooth sensation. These really good teas always remind me of drinking the pure water from the artesian well not far from where I grew up in Oklahoma. There is a purity in the taste that one feels more than tastes. Wow! One can see why this tea is in the top ten famous teas list. It is wonderful beyond belief!

Here you can see the Gua Pian leaves after being infused four times. One cannot really get much more than four steepings from these leaves and I think this is probably true of most green teas. The fourth infusion was rather weak and lost the beautiful golden yellow color.

Pi Lo Chun (Green Snail Spring) Green Tea

Pi Lo Chun or Bi Luo Chun is considered to be the number two tea after Longjing in all of China. The original Pi Lo Chun tea came from two mountains in the west part of Dongting in Jiangsu Province. The best still comes from there but now it is grown in several other provinces and Taiwan. For top quality Pi Lo Chun tea, peach, plum, and apricot trees are planted between the tea bushes. The tea leaves absorb some of the fragrance from these fruit trees which helps gives Pi Lo Chun its special aroma and flavor. The tea leaves for Pi Lo Chun are only picked once a year during mid-March to mid-April when the leaves are at their peak. The tea is hand picked for just the leaf and its bud. It takes 60,000 to 80,000 leaf-bud sets to produce one pound of finished Pi Lo Chun tea. Due to the stringent selection process for high quality leaves, this tea is not widely available.

We bought a pound of this tea from the same vendor who sold us the Longjing tea. She assured us that it came from Jiangsu Province. Once again, I question whether this tea actually came from Dongting because of its price. It is expensive but not as expensive as I found on the internet.

We had the pound split into two separate bags, one for us and one to take back to Thailand. Today I finally opened "our" bag to give it a try..

The leaves are very light and are, indeed, curled up like little snails. The leaves appear to be very young. One gets a lot of tea for the weight.

This is a hairy tea. The color is about the same color and look about he same weight as that of Mao Fengs and Yun Wus. Light, delicate with hair. This tea, however, had more green than the others.

The liquid is light and golden hued. The taste is magnificent and reminded me of peach blossoms. No doubt about it, this tea grew up around peach trees.

Both this tea and the Longjing tea reminded me of spring water with a refreshing aftertaste of sweetness and purity. Both these teas are well worth what we paid for them. They are totally different than any of the green teas we have been drinking from Emei Mountain. Sweet, delicate and floral without a hint of bitterness to them. We will definitely buy more of these two teas next week when we return to the Tea Culture Town in Chengdu.

I was able to get a good solid five infusions out of the leaves. I do think, however, that I started with too fews leaves as I had to wait an addition minute or so to get a good taste of the tea. This is simply as good as it gets in tea drinking. If this means I have become a snob, then so be it. I love this tea.

West Lake Longjing (Dragon Well) Green Tea

This is the Longjing tea we bought last month at the Tea Culture Town in Sichuan. Since we are getting ready to return to Thailand for a visit, thought I should get caught up on the tasting of all that tea we bought from Chengdu. We want to know what to take to Thailand for Christmas gifts.

Of course, this tea is the most famous and considered the best in all of China. The question will always be asked - is this real West Lake Dragon Well tea? From what I have been able to find on the Internet, the answer is probably yes. But . . . one might ask if this is the exact same tea that has proven itself over and over to be the best? The answer to that question is a resounding no.

The original Dragon Well tea comes from the Lion Peak Mountain in West Lake (Xi Hu) and has many classifications. Is this tea from that particular tea plantation? I am pretty sure it is not. In fact, this tea could probably come from just about any place as far as the Internet says. The lady we bought it from insisted it came from Hangzhou. What we paid for the tea probably puts it in the Hangzhou area but certainly not from the Lion Peak Mountain plantation. There seems to be a lot of Longjing tea named this because of the method used to process it. Guess this means we need to take a trip to Hangzhou to check out all the tea being grown there and get a lesson in the production of this tea.

This green tea is totally different looking than all the other green teas we have tried. The leaves are flat and long with evidence of frying if one looks close enough. The leaves are light and hairy to some extent.

Up close, we can see the effects of the frying process with the dark burned areas visible. The tea leaves are a nice jade green and, once again, extremely light in weight.

The light amber liquid is very beautiful and remained consistently the same color through five infusion with the time of each increased.

The taste of the tea is really fantastic. No bitterness but a honey-like sweetness up front. This tea reminded me of the artesian well we used to go visit as a child in Oklahoma growing up. The water has a distinct freshness to it and a sweet refreshing aftertaste that lasts a long time. It is like drinking well water that has been pulled up from great depths. Sweet, clean, cooling sensation and refreshing.

I do believe that I can drink this tea all the time. Even though I think this is just a Hangzhou green tea processed in the Dragaon Well method, it tastes great. When we return to Chengdu this week, we will definitely buy some more of it.

The leaves are a bright green and, as you can see, very young. This may not be the real deal, but it is a real tea!

Mabian Qiaoba Hei Lu Cha (Black Green Tea)

We just bought this tea at the new Focus Market in downtown Emei City. I am always on the lookout for interesting teas, much to my wife's chagrin. On the second floor of the market, there is a new tea house which sells mostly green teas but has some other interesting teas from Sichuan.

As soon as I saw the Black Green Tea (in Chinese), I became very interested. Here is the write up on the back of the 250 gram package:

The product is made from Mabian Qiaoba area which has predominant natural condition as has flaky exuberant thousand year old tea tree up to now, , tea mountain is over 800m altitude, mountain green water beautiful, cloud and mist wreathe. The nutrient tea has water endurance to infuse, fragrant and mellow taste, sweet long aftertaste. It was ranked as Tribute from Ming and Qing Dynasty. It was offered to Zhongnanhai of Beijing in 1959. Now Qiaoba has been cognizance as green food producing base for national green food manage center. "Qiaoba Tribute Tea" is recognized "famous excellent produce" by Sichuan China West produce fair in 2002, evaluated "high quality famous tea" by Sichuan province AGriculture office in 2003, and assessed Leshan city well-known brand at January 2007.

Little bit difficult to grasp the exact meanings in the above label but I think we can all get the idea that this tea came from mountains where there are a lot of mist and clouds and it is pretty high. According to the back label the ingredients consist of "one sprout two or three leaves to make high fragrant bake-fry type green tea."

In addition, the shelf life is supposed to be 18 months. The date of its production was 2008/05/6 or June 5, 2008.

Ok, so what did it taste like?


The tea looks a lot like Mao Feng Green tea but looks to be much more substantial. The leaves are dark green with light green mixed in a little.


Check out the tight curl of the leaves. Nothing special in their dried appears, similar to a Mao Feng or even a Mao Jian tea. Probably came from about the same altitude if the back panel can be believed.

The tea produces a liquor that is similar to all the other green teas from Emei. Light bodied with hints of green and slightly amber in color. The tea is light and refreshing with a slight bitterness at the front followed by a semi-sweet aftertaste that lingers a bit longer than the normal Mao Feng or Mao Jian. This tea is OK but it is not a great tasting tea like my two favorites from Emei: Zhu Ye Qing and Xue Ya. The tea costs 18 Yuan for 250 grams so it is about the same price as the common Emei Mountain Mao Feng we bought at different stores in Emei City.



Here you can see the expended leaves. These made seven infusions before I decided to take the pictures and blog it. The first infusion, I admit, was astringent due mostly to the fact that I put too many leaves in the pot. After the third time, the tea was quite pleasant and it is this third infusion that I am basing my opinions on concerning the tea. The tea is OK. The name is interesting and the write up on the back was cute. Overall, a pretty interesting tea to get to know.

Meng Ding Gan Lu (Sweet Dew) Tea Tasting

We finally got around to opening the Meng Ding Shan Gan Lu we bought last month at the Chengdu Tea Culture Street. I was anxious to try it as it is listed as one of the top ten teas in China. The Gan Lu that we bought was supposed to be the real thing. We bought only 100grams to give it a try.

The leaves are very light with alternating green and almost yellow leaves. When I write that the leaves are light, I mean very thin and very delicate looking. The 100 grams of tea we bought is quite a bit of tea. It takes a lot of these leaves to make up a single gram. This is nothing like the green tea from Emei.

Close up you can see the light yellow with a lot of white hair along the sides of each leaf.

Here is what the internet says about this tea:

MengDing Gan Lu tea is a famous mountain tea in China, belonging to tender green tea classification. The rainy season there is as long as nine months each yearand the temperature is relatively cool on the slope of the mountain. This environment is ideal for this mountain tea.

As early as in the western Han Dynasty (202 BC - 24 AD), a farmer named Wu Li Zhen discovered a special tea species amid the foggy peaks on Mount MengDing. He is believed to be the founder of the MengDing tea gardens.

During the Tang Dynasty, the best tea gardens were assigned to be royal gardens. Every year around the Qing Ming Festival (April 5), the local governor would be dress in ceremonial attires, offering sacrifices to gods, and asked the Buddhist priests
to worship the tea trees, then picked up 365 pieces of tea leaves. When processing the leaves, the Buddhist monks would continue with their prayers. These 365 tea leaves would be called the "holy tea" and reserved in two silver bottles. The tea would be used in the Emperor's sacrificial ceremony to his family's ancestors. The local officers would also pick some other leaves, process them to the tea product, then reserve the tea in another 18 tin bottles, which was called "ordinary tea" or "secondary tea" for the royal family's daily life.

This traditional was maintained from the Tang Dynasty (618-906 AD) to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911 AD) for more than a thousand years. (http://tea.timzhao.com/CTCOM/product/mengding.htm)

The first cups from the Gan Lu tea show a pale yellowish to golden color. The tea is light, offering a sweet first taste, with a smooth and refreshing sensation as it moves from tongue to throat. There seems to be a slightly sweet aftertaste, extremely pleasant. As I drank this Gan Lu tea, I tasted or experienced absolutely no astringency even when I let the tea steep a few minutes extra on the third infusion.

Who would not like this tea? It is subtle and mild and energizes one's senses quite a bit. Unlike the puerh I drink, I felt no numbing sensation on my cheeks. I did, however, experience an awaking of my spirit as I drank my fourth and fifth cups. This is as good as advertised! What a pleasant tea!

The only thing I might have done incorrectly is not put enough leaves in my little teapot. Even with more leaves, I cannot imagine the tea changing much in taste and performance. It simply appeared that the leaves had not filled up the pot as I had expected they would.

Here are the expended Gan Lu leaves. As you can see, they are truly small and picked very young. The green color is pretty consistent on each one and each stem looks to have a bud and two leaves. A very wonderful experience I had with this tea. We definitely will add this tea to our MUST HAVE list.

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.