Meng Ding Gan Lu

Yesterday, two of my students brought this tea in for me. They went to Ya'an for the National Day Holiday and I had asked them to pick up some Mengdingshan Gan Lu for me. I had failed to do enough research into the best tea to buy from that region. Thought it was Mao Feng but it was, instead, Gan Lu or Sweet Dew. In fact, it was supposed to have been this Gan Lu that first became famous from this area. The first trees cultivated in China were on Mengding Mountain and the best tea from these plants was reportedly Gan Lu.

So here is my new addition to our tea cache. It was not cheap but currently is the best tea we now have. Certified to be (by some accounts) in the top ten traditional teas of China.



The sack says where it comes from. The students bought it from a tea store in the ancient town of Shangli



Beautifully boxed as all expensive and famous teas seem to be in China. I guess this is called Presentation Tea or Gift Tea.

On The Way To Buy Tea

It was during the National Holiday that we decided to go to Baguan Village again to pick up some tea and some tea cans for Sunee's return to Thailand. On the way we walked along the edge of Emei Mountain. These are some of the pictures I took.


This guy was crossing the sidewalk in front of us as we walked up toward the back gate to Southwest Jiaotong University. I took several pictures. At first, the praying mantis was a bit skittish but later he looked right at me as I tried to get a close-up.




The two pictures were taken as we made a short deter to see if I could get some pictures of the local tea plantation in back of the 2000 star hotel located near Baguan Temple. I say 2000 stars because one of the hotel's villas cost around 40,000 yuan a night or $6,000 US. The view of the tea in the surround-windows in the bedroom and living room are unbelievable! We did not get to see them this time.

Pu'erh From Yunnan

Before we decided to dedicate our travels in China to tea, we went to Kunming, Yunnan, as a favor to a fellow teacher who had to look for work elsewhere. He had heard of Kunming and wanted to go. Sunee and I decided to head on down to south Yunnan and see Sichuanbanna and the "Dai" culture which was supposed to be cousins to the Thais. We joined a Chinese tour which took us to some commercial pu'erh shops as is normally the case. We bought these pressed pu'erh pieces because they looked neat and Sunee got a good deal on them. We also bought some smaller pieces for hanging and about a half a pound or so of Pu'erh minis.


Pu'erh pressed into the form of Ancient Chinese money, Side A


Pu'erh Chinese Money, Side B


Pu'er pressed into Chinese Zodiac sign, Side A


Chinese Zodiac, Side B


Some pu'erh bricks we bought in Jinghong, Yunnan. They were pretty and that is why we bought them. I doubt if we will ever drink them. Next chance I get, I will buy some real drinking Pu'erh. But much research needs to be done first!


A close-up of one of the bricks.


Sunee liked the idea of these Chinese hanging pu'erh tea pressings. Cute but probably undrinkable.


We also bought a bunch of these pu'erh nuggets that are about the circumference of a quarter. Each is wrapped and looks to be like a Hershey's Chocolate kiss.


Unwrap the "nugget" and it looks like this. Round (sort of) on the top and flat with a hole on the bottom.


Here you can get the idea of the coarseness and color of the pu'erh.


A cup of pu'erh. I decided I wanted to try some so we took one of the pu'erh nuggets to try. It is not like any green tea and that is for sure? I can see why people refer to the taste as "earthy." But, wow, is it smooth. There is virtually no aftertaste in the form of a bite of sweet or bitter. Just smooth from front to back. Now what does that mean? Well, I will have to get some really good pu'erh from the big tea store in Chengdu and find out what it is like. This pu'erh is good but I think it may be a little weak on taste. The is also a lot of "dust-like" particles in the strainer. What can one expect from such a tiny "tea kiss!" Sunee does not like it but I do. I am looking forward to going to Chengdu next month to pick up Sunee from Thailand and spend a couple of days. Tea time!

An Unknown Tea

As I sit here writing my poetry
I wonder what tea this could be
I remember where it was bought
The name of which we both forgot


Here is a close up of the leaves. The lady we got it from told us but we forgot. Sunee thinks the name had something to do with clouds or Yun. I do believe this is an Emei Yun Wu Green Tea or Clouds and Mist Green Tea. Let's try it and then when we go back to get some more of the Emei Mao Feng from the sales lady, we will ask.



We steeped this for around two minutes and it was not strong. The color, as you can see, is not very deep. The taste has a slight spice taste but is mild and mellow. This is a very smooth tea but I think it needs to seep a little longer to bring out stronger flavors and sensations. The aftertaste is very pleasant and on the sweet side. The leaves are tiny with a whiteness about them I have not seen in a green tea. I think we will have to put a lot more leaves and let it steep a bit longer to really get the taste.

Guess we will go back and get a bunch of this tea from that lady. She is a ten minute walk from the university and our apartment. We liked it a lot.

Emei Mountain Hua Mao Feng (Jasmine)

After our tea ceremony earlier, we walked to the place we normally buy our tea. Sunee wanted to buy some more tea cans to take some tea back to Thailand with her in three weeks. We could not find the lady so we looked elsewhere. On the way out, a very nice but aggressive sales lady talked us into buying the "unknown" tea I wrote about earlier. She also gave us a sampling of her Hua Mao Feng so we could compare it with the tea we had just purchased.


This Emei Jasmine tea or Hua Mao Feng is not weak. Since I had not eaten breakfast, I made the mistake of trying to drink some. It gave me heart burn almost instantly as the Jasmine easily overpowered the tea. It smelled great but . . . I have always had a hard time with scented tea or flavored coffee. My old bod just does not agree with the scent or the flavoring.

Sunee thinks she may have over done the tea by placing all the leaves into our teapot. This was strong tea for sure! We will go back to the lady for the Yun Wu, if that is what it is, but we will not get her Hua Mao Feng.

Our Tea Stash

I cleared an area from one of our bookcases to put the tea we have. This was last week.



Since taking the above picture, I have had to clear out a second area in the next bookcase to add some more teas. We bought four small packages from the Zhu Ye Qing store and Sunee just found a "lost" bag of tea we bought when we were in Leishan in Guizhou. This tea is called Qing Ming Cha. From what I can tell it means the green tea was picked during the Qing Ming Festival. I have seen a lot of tea advertised as pre-Qing Ming. If this is the same tea we were drinking right after our Guizhou trip, it is really good. We shall see!


A missing bag of tea from Leishan in Guizhou Province. If this is the same we had, it will be good.


This is what the Leishan tea looks like. It appears to be finely broken pieces with stems mixed in. Wonder what that means?


Excellent tea. Taste almost like a Mao Feng but not as strong and hardy

Meng Ding Mao Feng

In Shangli, the ancient city in the Mengding Mountains, we bought about a kilo of Mao Feng from the tea lady on one of the streets. Here are my assessments of it.


The Mengding Mao Feng makes a beautiful cup of tea and it did not take long for it to get this beautiful. The taste is strong and hardy, smooth with a slight lingering bitterish (is this a word?) aftertaste. This tends to be our daily tea as we drink several cups of it a day. In fact, I bought the glass cup and saucer to show just how nice the tea looked. As we processed more and more tea, I realized that I was having to work too hard to get the tea to look like it really did in this glass cup. Too much background tended to screw up the picture. I traded the glass for a more traditional china one we also bought specifically for taking pictures. This shows off the teas much better than the glass. The glass cup was very cute.


Here you have a good look at Mengding Mao Feng tea in its dried state. It is a dark tea with only a few tea with some lighter parts. The tea overall is solid with a distinct and enjoyable flavor.


Here is the cup of Mengding Mao Feng tea along with the dried tea. The dried tea is a very dark green, heavy and compact.

Ten Fu Tea Museum, Jia Jiang

A panorama view of the museum area


Entrance to the main buildings

The Ten Fu Tea Museum is located on the expressway to Chengdu in Jia Jiang. On September 6, 2008, Southwest Jiaotong University - Emei Branch took its foreign teachers on a cultural trip in the area. Our trip ended at the tea museum where we had a wonderful experience learning about tea.

The following pictures tell of our adventures with tea at the museum:

Inside the museum


View in the main display area



Professionally done throughout the museum


Manikins love tea as well


Two manikins prepare and serve tea to the head manikin


A manikin and his stuffed horses do the Tea Horse trail to Tibet


Cooking the tea to bring out the flavors



Sunee checks out the different kinds of tea found throughout China

On The Museum Grounds


Traffic signs so one does not get lost on the museum grounds


Zoe and the bronze tea guy pouring tea Sichuan style



A beautifully detailed bronze of ancient tea carriers

Sales Area


A well stocked sales area to insure the best tea for all


Zoe, our international teacher coordinator, bought us all tea mooncakes to celebrate the coming holiday


And, of course, we all got to taste the local teas compliments of a beautiful tea "master"

Emei Mountain Green Tea

No more do I descend the stairs of time
The sun no longer sets upon the horizon
The jade green tea and I become as one
Embraced into a dance of mental rhyme

What are these thoughts that circle in my mind?
Are those birds that sing beside my ears?
What vision before me boldly appears?
Is it the tea or just my body trying to unwind?

The thoughts I have come from the jade-like brew
And the birds are singing of this green tea I hold
The vision is one of calm and gentle, not so bold
As the tea teases me by telling me it is all true
(Cecil Hill, September 2008)



Emei Mountain famous Zhu Ye Qing green tea

I can think of no better way to continue this tea travel blog than to write about the locally produced bamboo-leaf green tea or Zhu Ye Qing in Chinese. From what I have read on the internet and the information provided by the tea museum (a topic of a later post), Emei Mountain has been producing a fine green tea for thousands of years. It was always known for its pure and mellow light taste. In April 1964, when the government sent its team inspectors to check out the local tea production, the Foreign Minister, Chen Yi, was among the group. As he sat and played chess while drinking tea with the old monk in Wannian Temple, he wondered what kind of tea he was drinking. The old monk told him that it was a product of Emei Mountain but had not been given a name yet. The old guy requested that the Foreign Minister give it a name. The minister thought the tea leaves looked like young bamboo leaves so he called it zhu ye qing or bamboo leaf tea.

This tea can be found all over the place here at the foot of Emei Mountain and in Chengdu. In fact, we found a store specializing in it in Chongqing next to the Great Hall of the People and Three Gorges Museum. Every tea shop has it for sales and occasionally one can buy it from a local producer as we did this week.


A local grower selling her tea on the street in downtown Emei City

The tea leaves float on the top until they are saturated with the hot water, become heavier than the water and then slowly float to the bottom. The leaves look just like the bamboo leaves of Emei Shan. The experience of the tea involves the watching of the floating tea leaves gradually "float" down to the bottom as well as drinking the green tea. The taste is sweet and slightly bitter, unique aroma and has a sweet after taste depending on how strong the tea is. It is a very relaxing tea and, thus, I penned the above poem while drinking the very glass you see in the above photograph. The tea pictured above was very strong as the tea leaves were very light and took a while to start their journey to the bottom.


The Zhu Ye Qing we bought from the local grower above



Our new tea pot set from the local department store. Soon we will be on the road again looking for tea and teapots from their sources