dà yè (large leaf)
Travel through China, even just one province, engages all your senses. Never have I smelled such an array of odors or seen the variety of colors and textures that make up Yunnan, a subtropical province in southern China that borders Vietnam. Yunnan is home to more ethnic minority groups than any other Chinese province, and maybe it’s that diversity that gives such flavors to the land.
wild tea tree, c. 800 years
In my quest to visit the homeland of tea, I had no choice but to start my journey in Yunnan. It’s widely accepted that people in Yunnan were the first to drink a beverage made out of camellia sinensis, the mother plant of all tea, more than 5,000 years ago. Yunnan is renowned for its wild tea trees and teas made from the dà yè (large leaf) tea varietal. In particular, puerh – a highly prized tea made from intentionally aged leaves – comes from Yunnan. As a puerh lover, I needed to find out for myself how this living antique of a tea came to be so adored.
My brother thinks puerh smells and tastes like it was brewed from garden compost. But to me, drinking fine puerh produces a myriad of sensory moments. When I inhale the earthy aroma of the wet puerh leaves, I start to feel immediately grounded. I sit up taller, straighter, breathe more deeply. When the aroma of the infused tea beverage reaches my olfactory, I think about the skilled hands that made my tea leaves into puerh. Finally when I drink, I’m humbled by the decades it took for my puerh leaves to age and mellow with a sweet richness that tastes so unlike any other tea. Is it possible to taste time and space, earth and sky, past and present in a sip of tea? In Yunnan, I planned to search for the answer.
Native Chinese will tell you that only in China can you taste what tea is supposed to taste like. (Tea is 98% water and legendary Chinese tea masters can recognize the spring from where the tea water is drawn.) Well, since I hadn’t seen any bottled waters from Chinese springs in my neighborhood supermarkets, I decided a trip to Yunnan was in order. Little did I know in the spring when my husband Jeremy and I backpacked into Yunnan from Vietnam that I would find myself returning in the fall – to most of the same places.
Jeremy says he didn’t even drink tea before he met me. Yet out of love, he enthusiastically threw on his hiking shoes to trek with me in search of tea farmers who would tell me about their leaves.
rice vodka, toast #1
We found more than just a lot of cultivated bushes. We found the warm, gracious people who are the heart and soul of every sip of puerh I enjoy back home. Most farms have been in families for generations. Families that grow tea in China are related to wine growers in France, and possibly even California’s wine growers. Perhaps not surprisingly, the vocabulary is the same – if you speak both Chinese and French, that is. And for most farmers who love their craft, when strangers knock to admire their work, a trust germinates and the visit culminates with a meal and tea – and rice vodka. A lot of rice vodka. Who said tea drinkers don’t have a wild side?
After crossing into China, Jeremy and I hopped many buses and one small airplane to visit tropical Jinghong in southern Yunnan; mountainous Lijiang in the northwest; and Kunming, the provincial capital just north of center. It was an arduous journey, carrying heavy backpacks and not knowing what to eat because I hadn’t learned any Mandarin yet. Nevertheless, it did introduce me to the ingredients that go into making Yunnan teas. Like all true adventures, this March journey was the worst of trips and the best of trips.
Roy smiles at my aggressive kneading while shaping tea leaves into a puerh cake
Perhaps this ambiguity led me to say yes when my tea teacher, Roy Fong, invited me to travel with him to Yunnan in September. Roy is widely acknowledged to be America’s foremost Chinese tea master. I call him my teacher, but as anyone who’s ever studied with a Chinese master of any sorts knows, it takes a long time to be called student. I estimate I have another 11 years or so of studying to graduate from pest to pupil. I happily joined Roy and a few of his friends for a guided tour of Yunnan.
Without exaggeration, I can say that my second visit to Yunnan (which included flying into Shanghai and out of Beijing, spending a full day in each city) was among the three best trips ever. With Roy, never have I tasted such exquisite Chinese food before.
Most important for me were the tea teachings on the trip. I learned how to pick tea leaves, “cook” the leaves to soften them, and roll the leaves. The following day, we tasted the tea we made. It was astringent as was to be expected from such newly processed leaves, but I will never forget the smell and taste of Yunnan for the rest of my life.
Gold Bullet, unwrapped
The highlight of the trip came in Kunming when Roy’s best friend, the former head of all puerh production in Yunnan, invited us to a private tea tasting. Mr. Chang brought out several vintage puerhs, as old as 1973. My favorite, which I doubt will ever thrill my tastebuds again, is a puerh cake shaped like a chicken bouillon cube. Wrapped in gold foil, Mr. Chang dubbed it the Gold Bullet. A Japanese tea merchant commissioned the tea in 1985 but reneged on the contract. It became Mr. Chang’s unexpected coveted boon, and we were treated to two of his very last handful of bullets.
Unwrapped, the puerh smelled like sweet plum. As a beverage, it looked and swirled like fine cognac. Sipped, the taste of almonds elevated me to the heavens. This was no compost tea, I would later tell my brother. This was the tea that made me fully appreciate puerh’s mystery.
I left a bit of my heart in Yunnan. My love for tea and the people who make it compel me to keep growing Puritea Lounge – dedicated to discovering delicious teas for our family, friends, and customers. To help in our journey so that we remain your trusted online teashop, let us know what you’d like to see from Puritea Lounge next year – and do share your stories, ideas and questions on our blog. I look forward to good conversations with you over a cup of delicious premium tea!
Warm regards,
Charleen
Puritea Lounge Teaguide
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