Tea Gal in China

Ah the holidays.

Time for eggnog, turkey, snuggled around the fireplace with friends and family…and the frantic hunt for Christmas gifts. I have always prided myself on offering highly personalized Christmas gifts, but I must admit, Christmas shopping in China, the land of the standard gift, it is almost impossible to find something really special to give your friends and family.

During most festivals here people give a standard gift (moon cake, fruit, nuts, money) and don’t bother going shopping for personalized gifts. I can’t really blame them. There are so many people in this country; it would take a solid month of shopping to make sure that everyone on your list gets something unique.

Moreover, Christmas isn’t celebrated here. The many retailers in China have been trying to push it on the public for years, seeing how much it profits their Western counterparts, but it has yet to catch on. So what is a girl to do when on the hunt for special Christmas gifts in a land where roasted chestnuts are sold year round, finding wrapping paper is near impossible and shopping is a baffling ordeal? Make your own Christmas tea!

Last month I started my now annual tradition of preparing home made Christmas tea. I went to the tea market, bought a kilo of black and green tea, an array of flowers (roses, lavender and osmanthus), and some ceramic tea containers. I also purchased some green cardamom and cinnamon at the spice market, blended them to make special tea. Let’s be clear: I did not mix everything together: I made Chai with the spices, and fragranced tea with the flowers.

Although it took two days, came up with a delightful blend that I would like to share with you: Black tea, lavender, roses and osmanthus. It took a while to balance out, ensure that one could still taste the tea, while ensuring that the flowers balanced each other out, but all that hard work paid off. Flower Power is born!

So if you have no idea what to give your fellow coworkers this holiday season, take your favorite spices and flowers and come up with your own concoction! How do you balance the flavours you may ask? Make a small batch, brew it, and see how it comes out. Your taste buds are the best way to tell if your blend is hit-or-miss. It took me two days to find the right balance, but now I am now able to offer a truly special gift to my friends. Aside from the afore mentioned tea, spices and containers, here are a few things you will need:

a. pen and paper! Write down the quantities of each ingredient you use for your test runs.

b. Patience! In the process of making all these teas, you are going to taste some pretty awful stuff before you hit the jackpot.

c. Confidence! Trust yourself. You may not work for Twinnigs, but you can blend tea and spices, trust me. Trust your taste buds!

I hope that you all the a fantastic Holiday Season and that you continue exploring the marvelous world of tea with me in the New Year!

Drink on Tea Lovers!

Fellow Tea lovers,

Have any of you ever read “The Classic of Tea” by Lu Yu? No? How many of you have even heard of it?

“The Classic of Tea” is the first book dedicated entirely to tea. Written centuries ago by Lu Yu in China, it is the grand daddy of tea books, detailing how to properly drink and appreciate tea. For years I heard reference to this book, and could not wait to get my grubby little hands on a copy of this seminal work. To read about tea, how it was first drunk and appreciated was something of holy experience for me (don’t laugh!), something I awaited with baited breath. Last week, fair readers, I finally finished it. And boy, was it ever boring.

I won’t go into the details of my disappointment (this isn’t that kind of blog), or tell you how many times I fell asleep reading it (9 times, and it’s really not that long!). I will however save you time by telling you not to even look for this book or even attempt to read it. Long, ancient and far too vague, I feel cheated. However, I did discover something interesting: this book is not only the first book written on tea; it is, in my view, the first book that gave people the impression that tea is something unintelligible, something reserved only for those who study it. As the self-appointed guru of anyone-can-drink-and-appreciate-tea-don’t-let-anyone-tell-you-any-different, I am here to tell you, there is no one way to appreciate and love tea.

Living in China, I have come to drink tea on a daily basis in the same manner that 90% of the population here does: I wake up, throw a bunch of tea leaves in the bottom of my thermos and continuously pour hot water over the same leaves until the end of the day. I do not, repeat, do not, perform the tea ceremony every time I want a new cup of tea. As much as I love tea and the brewing of a perfect cup, I gotta tell you, even I could not care less about all that jazz at 6:00 in the morning. I just want some caffeine in my system to help motivate me to go to the gym.

Tea is not always about taking a lot of time to make and savour it. Sometimes, it’s an aid to help you start your day, or end your day, or get you through that lunch meeting with your boss. It’s what normal people drink, not some elite beverage.

To be fair, “The Classic of Tea” was written at a time when tea was mostly drunk by the elite due to its high cost. However, its message that only certain people can drink tea “the way it’s supposed to be drunk” has stood the test of time.

So, I appeal to you fair readers, keep drinking the tea you like, how you like. I will continue to try and provide insights on my favorite ways to appreciate this beverage, but remember: drinking tea is an experience that you should tailor to fit your habits and desires. That’s exactly what makes it the best beverage in the world.

Drink on Tea Lovers.

Dear Readers,

First off: where have I been all this time?

Well, I have stopped teaching and am now completely immersed in my Chinese studies. As anyone who has learned Mandarin, or attempted to learn Mandarin knows, it is a long and arduous process, worthy only of the most dedicated and yes, brave of individuals.
I am however happy to report that after only 3 months of study, my Chinese has improved by leaps and bounds. I am not at the point where I can discuss the latest economic news or the current state of affairs in Korea and what impact it may have on China and the rest of the world, but I can now do more than order a beer in a restaurant. Hopefully by the end of next year, I will be able to have more interesting conversations with my neighbours.

Second: are you still in the tea business?

That I can answer with a resounding YES!!!
Over the past few months here in Kunming, I have been to more markets than ever before. My father and I have perfected the art of blending tea and spices and have a great selection of fragranced teas to offer you! And, I am now pleased as punch to offer Thes de Cru travel mugs for all your tea drinking needs! Well…your on-the-go tea drinking needs that is

My second year in Kunming has proved more than productive, thus hindering my ability to blog on a regular basis, but now I am back, allocating time and dedication to updating you on all the tea related action currently happening in China. Are you ready? Here we go!

…

Ok, so to be truthful, there is nothing much going on right now. Tea season is well behind us, and the new teas won’t be coming out until next April. So lately, I have been busy reading all the books on tea I have accumulated over the years. In the hopes of saving you the trouble of reading them, I thought I could share with you what I have gleaned from them thus far. Every week, I will give you my impressions of these texts, some sacred, some completely unintelligible, and some not worth the paper they were printed on.

Until then, I just wanted you to know that I am still around, still traveling this crazy/wonderful country, and still encouraging you to embrace tea as I have.

Drink on Tea Lovers. Drink on.

Dear readers,

Yesterday was one of the best days of my life. I never thought that in the midst of giving finals and moving apartments that I would be able to have a perfect tea day, but as usual, China is just full of surprises.

Let me start at the beginning. I have been giving students at my school free extra curricular classes, helping them get a leg up in their studies. The other teachers at my school ridiculed me for not charging them, but I believed that they had already done so by paying my salary at the school. Whoever said that “no good deed goes unpunished” is an idiot.

I did not give these classes expecting anything in return as I love teaching, and truly want my students to excel. However, many of my students parents wished to thank me for all my hard work, any way they could. I continuously refused money, thus leading them to invite me to dinners, various outings and give me several containers of tea. It is quite rude to refuse a gift in Chinese culture, so in order to help Canadian-Chinese relations, I accepted the gifts. I tell you, the lengths I will go to in order to maintain relations between our two countries… feel sorry for me?:)

Well, last week, my student Didi invited me for a very special outing: to visit a Pu Er factory! How in the world could I refuse? So, after 7 years of reading about Pu Er, hearing about how Pu Er was made, dreaming of one day of actually seeing the process… I saw it. I actually saw it. The process used to make one of the most famous teas in the world.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with the delicious Pu Er tea, here’s a brief intro: Pu Er is one of the oldest and most firmly kept secrets in the tea world. For centuries, the people of Yunnan have been producing this tea, usually found in the form of a “cake” or “brick”. It is a fermented black tea, with earthy aromas, and smooth after taste. The older it gets, the better it tastes, just like a fine French wine. Tea bricks as old as fifty years can be purchased, and they…are…heaven.

Many people in Canada are not familiar with it, even though it is becoming more and more available in our fair country. In China however, Pu Er has been known for many years, primarily for its unique taste, as well as its health benefits. A few years ago, the price of Pu Er reached an all time high, due to the fact that people started buying it as an investment. Beijing “ren” (people) and Shanghai “ren” with too much money swarmed the market, thus making even the youngest Pu Ers much too expensive. Thankfully that fad died out, almost as quickly as I began, allowing us mere commoners to purchase this wonderful tea once more.

So yesterday, as I wandered through the vast corridors of this factory with my student, I came upon an unmarked room, opened the door, and there they were. Factory workers, making Pu Er. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to take pictures of the process, but I saw EVERYTHING!!

In the corner of the room was a large pile of black tea in a huge mound. Three men were continuously circling it, two with rakes, and one with a large canister of water strapped to his back. Armed with a hose in one hand, he gently sprayed the tea, as the two others turned every moistened part of the mound over with their rakes.

Why do this you ask? Well, the added moisture allows the tea to ferment faster, and gives it that unique earthy flavor. The water almost “rots” the tea, which is left in a temperature controlled room, so that it may oxidize before they press it into cakes. The cakes are made with a large machine that uses heat and air pressure to make it stick together. They added moisture in the tea also helps the brick to keep its cohesion. Putting the tea into bricks does not alter the flavour in any way, but makes storage much simpler. When you have to age kilos upon kilos of tea for several years, storage is something that must be taken into consideration… Needless to say, “euphoria” does not even begin to describe how I felt.

I am most certainly not the first person to witness this process, but to actually see it? Nothing like it. So, if ever you think to yourself “why should I give up my free time? Why should I be the one doing all the extra work?” just remember: the universe has your back, and it will pay off, sometimes beyond your wildest expectations.

So pick up your favorite Pu Er, make yourself a cup and Drink on tea lovers!!!

Dear readers,

I must apologize for my absence from my blog. I have been swamped with exam preparations and corrections, thus my tea life has gone a bit astray over the past month.

However, I’m back and ready to regale you!

Something quite embarrassing happened to me last week, relating to one of the teas that is currently selling online as well as in stores. When I went to Chengdu a few weeks ago, I discovered a tea that I had never tasted before. Delicate, green and fragranced with a rare , delicate flower. It was love at first sip. And although it was quite expensive, I have been buying from that supplier for a number of years and I trust her prices.

I did not know what flower was used to fragrance the tea. I tried it several times, forcing my taste buds to recognize it, to no avail. At times it reminded me of orange blossoms, maybe even peach blossoms. However, I knew that I was way off.

The Chinese name for the tea did little to help me, as I could not find the words “Nan Hua” in any dictionary available to me. “Nan” means south and “Hua” means flower. When I asked my supplier if the flower grew in the southern part of Sichuan, she replied that it did indeed. She even had a plant of the flower in her office, but unfortunately, it was no longer in bloom, leaving not much to go on. I then showed her the words “Nan Hua” written down, asked if I had the correct name, and she said that I did.

The flower remained a mystery, but as there are so many unexplained things in China, I chalked it up to another puzzle that I may or may not figure out.

Fast forward four weeks if you will. I am sitting in a café with a Chinese girlfriend of mine, talking about her recent trip up to Chengdu. She started talking about a miscommunication that she had with a not-so-helpful taxi driver once she got off the train. She told me that she could barely understand the man, because of his Sichuanese accent. She went on to say that she found it frustrating at the time, but soon remembered that people from Sichuan are almost incapable of pronouncing the sound “L”, instead using the sound “N”.

Like a splash of cold water to the face, I realized what had happened with my mystery flower. It wasn’t “Nan Hua” it was “Lan Hua”, which means “Orchid”! I was selling Orchid green tea!! Not “Southern Flower Green Tea”!!! What a coup! And I didn’t even know it had happened!

I instantly became overwhelmed with joy at my find, and embarrassment at my mistake. It was already on the internet, bearing the wrong name! And as for my supplier not being able to tell me the correct name, even when written down? Well, she never finished school, can barely read or write, so I can’t get mad at her, she didn’t know herself how to spell it!

So what’s the lesson here? Sometimes, everything in China feels…difficult. Complicated. Unecessarily complex. Mistakes are made, miscommunications are a daily occurrence, and most of the time this can lead to immense frustration. Figuring things out for yourself is the constant theme here, but sometimes, almost always actually, the results can be quite rewarding.

I will continue to discover new things here, and I am most certain that I will continue to make mistakes. And it doesn’t bother me in the least. How many people get to say that their daily lives are filled with adventures and discoveries?

So next time you have a long, frustrating day, just sit back, relax… and have some Orchid Tea.

Drink on Tea Lovers!

It’s raining cats and dogs outside today, and it feels great.

Steve (my boyfriend) and I arrived in the capital of Fujian province yesterday, continuing our quest of finding great teas. Fujian is famous for it’s oolong teas, white tea, smoked tea, you name it. We came here last year, and although Fuzhou (the capital) is not what I would call the most interesting city in the world, it certainly has some of the most interesting teas in the world.

And the rain? Over abundant here, which is a welcome change given that we live in Yunnan province which is currently experiencing it’s worst drought in 60 years. Farmers are losing crops, lakes and rivers now blend seamlessly with the river banks, and the air is constantly filled with dust and sand.

Speaking to tea producers here today, we found out that the rain in Fujian is actually a problem this year, as it is impeding the growth of several tea plants. And some people think that Global Warming is a myth…

So, we spent the morning searching for Tie Guan Yin, a lovely variety of Oolong tea. Oolong is a tea that is semi-fermented, meaning, essentially, that it is halfway between a green and black tea. I know that many tea buffs would disagree with that description, but I have always found that it  illustrates perfectly what it is to people who know nothing about it.

I love Tie Guan Yin, always have. Initially it has a very green flavour, and then it develops in your mouth, and your taste buds discover it’s floral undertones, and as you swallow, it slides down your throat as easily as hot butter. It just has so much going for it, that after you have one sip, you fall in love.

Well, for the first three hours of Tie Guan Yin hunting, I wasn’t feeling the love. We went to several different places, and only found overpriced, bland and tannin filled teas. They had nothing going for them really, and that can always be discouraging. Steve suggested we go for a walk to clear our heads, and, to walk off a bit of our tea drunkenness (this is a real thing, I did not make this up. Drink more than 20 cups of tea in one sitting, you feel pretty high, thank you very much.).

This turned out to be the best decision we made all morning.

So, we stopped looking for Tie Guan Yin, and started on the search for white tea and another variety of dark Oolong called Wuyi Shan.

As soon as we did that, everything changed.

We found one of the most lovely tea ladies I have ever met. Her tea company only opened in Fuzhou last month, and she only has a small variety of tea that all grow on her family estate.

She was so pleasant and so honest and forthcoming. We spent two hours with her trying all her varieties of Wuyi Shan and talking tea like mad.

I also got another tea, called Cinnamon Wuyi Shan. I have never had anything like it. It tastes like Wuyi Shan, but with a distinct cinnamon flavour… amazing.

All natural, mind you. It is the process that brings out that flavor, a process that involves 7 different steps, rolling the leaves by hand, cooking it in a wok over low heat for several hours. I can’t wait for you all to try it. Bring your wallet with you though. This particular cup of joy, will not be cheap, but oh lordy! Will it be worth it:)

After tasting our way through the world of Wuyi Shan for two hours, our wonderful guide led us to a friend of hers who sold wonderful White Tea and Tie Guan Yin. Within an hour, I had found a great, reasonably priced Tie Guan Yin and a great White Tea. Changing lanes as we did made everything fall into place.

Moral of the story: a quest is synonymous with a trial. Sometimes it feels as though it may not be worth all the traveling, the tasting, the bad hotel rooms… but in the end, it will be more worth it than you could ever imagine.

Drink on tea lovers!

The time has come. I have a blog. I really don’t know the first thing about blogging, but if it’s anything like talking…I’m set.

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Marika de Vienne, I’m 27 years old, and I live in Kunming, Yunnan, China. I’m a good French Canadian girl, who speaks both English and French, and one day, will hopefully speak Mandarin. I have been living in China for three years, English and French teacher by day, tea hunter by night.

So why follow another blog? I know, I know… there are thousands of blogs out there, so why read mine? Well, for starters, I love what I do. I love searching for new teas, teas that have never been seen in North America, teas that taste amazing, teas that can excite people’s taste buds. I love the look on someone’s face when they try a new tea and the sheer delight that spreads across their faces after that first sip. I love tea.

I also happen to know quite a bit about it. Studying the world of tea on my own, for the past 7 years, reading about it, visiting tea plantations, drinking any tea that I could find, and managing a store with the largest selection of tea in Montreal, has made me an expert. At least that’s what my father says.:)

And, here’s what I’ve found out from many years of telling people about my tea hunting: they love to hear about the search for tea, almost as much as I like talking about it! There’s something about what I do, that peaks the curiosity and, in some cases, the imagination.

I never saw what I did to be anything other than fun. It’s fun. And fun is severely underrated. People are so serious these days. They take themselves and what they do so seriously. I’ve taken my parent’s approach to life and claimed it as my own: Take what you do seriously, but don’t you dare take yourself seriously. Yes,  tea is serious. Yes, tea is a multi-million dollar business. But… tea is fun. The varieties, the locations they are found, the countries they grow in, the people who grow it… it’s all discovery and adventure. I can think of nothing better to blog about.

I have so many things I want to share. I want to talk about all the different varieties. I want to show pictures of beautiful plantations. I want to tell you all how to make the perfect cup of tea. I want to share the crazy adventure of the Chinese Tea Markets. I want to tell you about the best tea ever. Also, I want to tell you about me.

I’m not a very good writer, but I do hope that if you want to learn more about tea, learn more about China, and learn more about me trying to figure this all out, you’ll read my blog.

So take a minute, make yourself a cup of your favorite tea, and enjoy.