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.

Emei Mountain Ming Tea

Tuesday night our friends from Emei City came to bid Sunee a good trip back to Thailand (she left on the 22 October). They brought us half a kilogram of very good Emei green tea. It is called Ming Cha or Freshly Picked Tea.


This is the packaging the tea came in. Each package held 100 grams.



The leaves once more are not like Xue Ya or Zhu Ye Qing. They are very similar in appearance to the Emei Mao Jian we bought earlier but much smaller.


This is the first steeping in our cute new little glass pitcher. It is light and smells very refreshing.


And this, of course, is the tea I drank to see what we had.

The tea appeared light but, in fact, was fairly heavy with the now familiar bitter in the front, sweet in the back taste. The feeling on the tongue was very similar to the other green teas but was just a bit longer lasting. This is a great green tea one can enjoy anytime as it is not overpowering or too strong. Hey, and the price was certainly right! Our friends assured us that this was one of the best teas and was made up of the youngest leaves from the tea plant. This is obviously true from the taste and the leaves after they have unfolded.

Emei Mountain Mao Jian or Hairy Tips Tea

We went to one of the bigger markets in Emei City today to buy some chocolate for Sunee to take to Thailand. Once again, I was lusting after the selection of cute little Yixing teapots. They have tripled their selection since I was there last. Sunee was not interested so I browsed the tea section. It was then that I discovered the Mao Jian which we eventually bought. Got a 100 gram bag to try. This is what we found:


Emei Mao Jian does not look anything like the Zhuyeqing we have been drinking nor the Xue Ya we just discovered. The leaves are different sizes and have funny bits of hair on them. They are also dried differently. Both the Zuyeqing and the Xueya are uniform in appearance and maintain their tea leaf appearance. As you can see from this, the leaves are distorted, curled with no uniformity in either color or shape.


If you look closely, you can see the hair on the underside of each of the leaves. I guess that is the reason it is called Mao Jian, right?


Beautiful light green and orange color. A beautiful cup of tea. How does it taste? At first, it was totally different than the Zhuyeqing with a different taste and aroma. As I drank it, though, I got the distinct feeling that is did have an up front taste of slight bitterness and the familiar sweetness in the aftertaste. Very similar "feeling" that I had with the Xueya. All three green teas are great teas.

I cannot say enough good things about Emei Shan green teas. They are special. If I had to rank the four green teas we have had thus far, my favorite would have to be the Xueya. Wow, is it magnificent. Of course, the famous Zhuyeqing is close behind followed by the Mao Jian. The Emei Shan Mao Feng would then follow the Mao Jian. The Mao Feng, though, IMHO, does not so neatly fit in with the first three. It is a different taste altogether and if there is such a thing as a "family of teas" based on tastes, Mao Feng would probably be a cousin not a brother or sister.

The main difference in these four Emei green teas would have to be price. Zuyeqing and Xueya are relatively expensive. The least expensive is the Mao Feng. We tend to drink it as our daily tea because of its pricing and value. No doubt that after today, we will be drinking a lot of the newly discovered Mao Jian, which almost matches the pricing of the Mao Feng. Living in the shadow of Emei Shan does have its benefits.

Emei Mountain Xue Ya or Snow Bud Tea

Last night we walked over to the tourist section of Baguan Village to get some Teh Guan Yin for Sunee to take to Thailand for her family. I took some interesting pictures as we went:


The Bronze Pagoda at the base of the tourist area.


This beautiful man-made waterfalls next to the bronze pagoda is very impressive at night.


Another view of the bronze pagoda at night. I fiddled with the huge incense burner to get it to show up

As we walked to the tea seller where we buy our tea, we stopped at a fairly new tea store specializing in Emei Mountain Xue Ya or Snow Buds. We had seen this for sale at Baguan Temple during the holidays and wondered what it was. It looks like it is being marketed as a "precious Emei tea." Maybe we should check this tea out. It is not cheap.

We bought a couple of bags of Teh Guan Yin and asked about the Xue Ya tea. The lady had it so we bought a little to see what it was like. This is what we found:


Xue Ya or Snow Bud tea looks a lot like Zhuyeqing but the leaves look a little smaller and more delicate. The color is almost the same as is the smell.


Fabulous looking tea! It has the familiar greenish color of Zhuyeqing and smells similar. The taste is magnificant. It seems to have all the good qualities of Zhuyeqing but the sensation lasts a bit longer. The familiar sweet aftertaste is present as well.



We tried it also in the traditional way to serve Zhuyeqing. The leaves were much more fun to watch than Zhuyeqing. They were slower but more definitive in their movement to the bottom. We had a great time watching them dance their way to the bottom. The tea is stronger than Zhuyeqing in the same steep time. I think this is because the leaves are lighter and take longer to get to the bottom. This is truly a great green tea.

Sunee plans to return immediately to the tea seller and stock up on this tea for here and for Thailand. Welcome to Emei Mountain and its wonderful teas!

Emei Gao Shan OoLong

We bought this tea a month ago from one of the tea sellers in Baguan Village. We remembered that it was an Oolong and that was all. Last night we walked to buy some more tea for Sunee to take to Thailand and we asked the name of this tea. It is Emei Gao Shan Oolang or "High Mountain Wulong." This morning I thought I would make some and see what we thought.


This tea is dark and tightly curled. It's aroma is not bad but not very impressive. From a distance, the dried leaves look almost black.


A closer look reveals that the tea is a dark green with an occasional lighter leaf. The best way to describe it is to say "tight and compressed individual leaves." Is there a special name for this?



Here is another view of the tea up close.



The tea, after about a minute of steeping, comes out a pretty good dark orange. It looks pretty good, but IMHO, it sucks. It tastes exactly like Lipton tea bags and most of the tea one buys in Thailand at the local grocery store.

The taste is not complex but in your face (or in your mouth). It has no sweet or bitter or any other sensation that we have come to expect from great teas. I cannot imagine ever being satisfied with such a lousy tea. No wonder Emei is not famous for its oolong and this stuff is relative cheap compared to the greens we buy. I bet they use the worst of the leaves, leftovers maybe, to make this stuff. We only bought a little to give it a try and we tried it. Anyone interested in some tea for free? I eventually gave this tea away to my fellow teacher, Tom, who uses it with milk and sugar.

Tea, Emei And Me

Tea Poetry

Hong Xiang Fei Tea

We picked this tea up along with our Emei Mao Feng at one of the small tea shops along the street in Baguan Village. It has the most unusual tea leaves and that, quite frankly, is why we bought it. I can find no reference to this tea anywhere on the internet. The name is in pinyin and means something to the affect of Red Fragrant Concubine. The Xiang Fei part refers to concort or concubine from Kashgar to the Emperor in Beijing. The story goes:

Although accounts vary as to some details, the basic story amongst Han Chinese recounts the discovery by the Qianlong Emperor of an Uyghur girl named Iparhan, granddaughter of Apak Khoja, a local leader in the oasis city of Kashgar. Even more remarkable than her beauty was the scent her body naturally produced; captivated, the Emperor sought her as an Imperial Consort for his harem. She was given as a gift to the Emperor and carefully escorted all the way to Beijing, washing every day along the road in camel's milk to preserve her mysterious fragrance.

Upon her arrival to the imperial palace, the Fragrant Concubine, was gifted with a garden and a luxurious room of her own as a sign of the Emperor's devotion. Homesick and distraught, she remained disconsolate as the Emperor made ever-increasing efforts to recreate her distant village, building her a mosque, miniature oasis, and bazaar outside her windows in an effort to bring her happiness. Finally she relented and came to love him when he sent messengers to Kashgar to return with an jujube tree bearing golden fruit, and the Fragrant Concubine became the emperor's cherished consort until her death. An enduring symbol of national unity and reconciliation, her body was borne back to her home of Kashgar, where she is now entombed, in a procession of 120 bearers in a journey that took over three years. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragrant_Concubine)


This is a panorama of the Fragrant Concubine's Tomb in Kashgar. We visited it back in 2005 on our Silk Road Adventure.


The leaves are strange looking and got our attention immediately upon seeing them.


This is definitely scented tea. It tastes strange and is quite strong. Since I, once more, had not eaten breakfast before trying this tea, I had some stomach problems with it. I have to learn not to do this in my excitement in trying new teas.

This tea might be ok later in the day when I can sit back, relax, and savor its taste. Maybe I will do that today.

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.

Lao Ying Cha

When Sunee and I started our first tea adventure in Ya'an, we were looking for a place to get some noodles. We walked about two or three blocks from our hotel and found a small place offering noodles. Along with their nice noodles we were served a tea which was new to our tastes. It was a bit spicy but pleasant with a very good and mild aftertaste. When we asked about it, we were told it was Lao Ying Cha or Eagle Tea. Never heard of it.

While visiting Shangli the ancient town in the Mengding mountains, we found some of this Eagle Tea along with the Mengding Mao Feng so we bought some. Here is the pictures of that tea.








From http://www.itmonline.org/arts/laoying.htm:

Laoying Cha (eagle tea) is made from the dried leaves of a type of a Laurel tree, Actinodaphne cupularis. The tree is evergreen
with thick dark green leaves, and it grows abundantly in the mountainous areas of Sichuan province. The family of Laurel trees (Lauraceae) includes the well-known Chinese herb sources for cinnamon and lindera. These herbs, like Laoying Cha, have essential oils that give them their characteristic fragrance and taste (see Appendix 2 for related plants, and Appendix 3 about
use of their oils). In the case of Laoying tea, the main essential oil components that have been identified are sesquiterpenes:
isocaryophyllene and germacrene. These ingredients are found in some of the mint family herbs, including the Chinese herb elscholtzia (xiangru) that is sometimes used as an aromatic beverage tea. Germacrene is also found in the aromatic bark of magnolia; isocaryophyllene is also found in the spicy herb cloves.

Laoying Cha has been consumed for centuries in Sichuan Province, particularly in the city of Chongqing. This tea is made
available in tea houses and restaurants along with ordinary green tea or black tea and is considered a must to consume with the typical oily dishes of Sichuan to balance the taste, promote digestion, and help clear the fats from the system. It has a reputation for lowering blood lipids, including cholesterol.

A variety of Laoying Cha grows in neighboring India: leaves from the tree Actinodaphne hookeri. It is commonly called "pisa" and is reputed to help people with diabetes control their blood sugar (cinnamon bark also has this use). In India, pisa is known for its ability to remove excess heat of the body, thus lowering pitta (fire). In the Chinese system, Laoying tea is said to aid in cooling the body, but it is classified as having a warm nature; it cools by aiding the surface circulation (alleviating heat through the surface). In this, it is like the botanically unrelated herb elsholtzia, mentioned above, which has a pungent and warm nature, but is used to dispel summer heat and reduce feverish feeling. The taste of Laoying Cha is very pleasant, and the spiciness is mild, not like the hot spiciness of some herb teas, such as ginger.