Xinyang Maojian: Produced at Xinyang, Henan.

Duyun Maojian: Produced at Duyun Mountain, Guizhou.

Wuyi Rock Tea: Produced at Wuyi Mountain, Fujian.

Tieguanyin: Produced at Anxi County, Fujian.

Teahouse Experience

When I was in Chengdu, I saw teahouses everywhere on the streets. There is a saying,"China has the best teahouses in the world and Chengdu has the best teahouses in China." It really has a well-deserved reputation, not only because of the numerous teahouses, but also because the special way of serving

From ancient times to today, tea has been an indispensable part of the life of a Chinese. A Chinese saying identifies the seven basic daily necessities as fuel, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea. The custom of drinking tea is deeply ingrained in almost all Chinese and has been for over a thousand years. During the mid-Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), a man named Lu Yu entered the Buddhist monkhood early in life but returned when older, to secular life. He was later best known for summarizing the knowledge and experience of his predecessors and contemporaries into the first compendium in the world on tea--the Tea Classic (Cha Jing). This work helped to popularize the art of tea drinking all across China, making avid tea drinkers of everyone from emperor and minister to street hawker and soldier. Even neighboring countries--Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia came to adopt the tea drinking custom.

Tea is made from the young, tender leaves of the tea tree. The differences among the many kinds of tea available are based on the particular methods used to process the leaves. The key to the whole process is the roasting and fermentation. Through fermentation, the originally deep green leaves become reddish-brown in color. The longer the fermentation, the darker the color. Depending on the length of the roasting and degree of fermentation, the fragrance can range from floral, to fruity, to malty.

Tea that has not been fermented is called "green tea". Tea steeped from green tea leaves is jade green to yellow-green in color and gives off the fragrance of fresh vegetables. Examples of green tea are "Dragon Well" (Long Jing) and "Green Snail Spring" (Biluochun).

The Chinese call tea that undergoes full fermentation "red tea" (Hong Cha). In the West, it is known as "black tea". Tea made from black tea leaves is reddish-brown in color and has a malt-like aroma. Wulong, or "Black Dragon" (Wu-Long) tea is an example of a partially-fermented tea. This tea is unique to China.

To make a good pot of tea, special attention must be paid to the quality of the water, water temperature, the amount of tea leaves used and the type of teapot. Soft water (water with a low mineral content) that is clear and fresh is required to steep tea. Hard water should, by all means, be avoided. The correct water temperature varies from tea to tea. For most fully fermented and moderately fermented kinds, it should be near boiling (100 or 212); however, it may be low as 90 (194) or less for lightly fermented or green teas.

Of the three major beverages of the world-- tea, coffee and cocoa-- tea is consumed by the largest number of people.

At present, more than forty countries in the world grow tea with Asian countries producing 90% of the world's total output. The origin of all tea trees in other countries, either directly or indirectly, is China. The words for tea leaves or tea as a drink in many countries are derivatives from the Chinese character "cha". The Russians call it "cha'i", which sounds like "chaye" (tea leaves) as pronounced in northern China. The English word "tea" sounds similar to the pronunciation of its counterpart in Xiamen (Amoy). The Japanese character for tea is written exactly the same as it is in Chinese, though pronounced slightly different. The habit of tea drinking spread to Japan in the 6th century but was not introduced to Europe and America till the 17th and 18th centuries. Now, the number of tea drinkers in the world is legion and still increasing.

The Categories of Tea

Chinese tea may be classified into five categories according to the different methods of processing.

1) Green Tea: Green tea is the variety which keeps the original color of the tea leaves without fermentation during processing. This category consists mainly of Longjing tea of Zhejiang Province, Maofeng of Huangshan Mountain in Anhui Province and Biluochun produced in Jiangsu.

2) Black Tea: Black tea, known as "red tea" (hong cha) in China, is the category which is fermented before baking. It is a later variety developed on the basis of the green tea. The best brands of black tea are Qihong of Anhui , Dianhong of Yunnan, Suhong of Jiangsu, Chuanhong of Sichuan and Huhong of Hunan.

3) Wulong Tea: This represents a variety half way between the green and the blackteas, being made after partial fermentation. It is a specialty from the provinces on China's southeast coast: Fujian, Guangdong and Taiwan.

4) Compressed Tea: This is the kind of tea which is compressed and hardened into a certain shape. It is good for transporting and storage and is mainly supplied to ethnic minorities living in the border areas of the country. As compressed tea is black in color in its commercial form, it is also known in China as "black tea". Most of the compressed tea is in the form of bricks; therefore, generally called "brick tea" though it is sometimes found in the form of cakes and bowls. It is mainly produced in Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces.

5) Scented Tea: This kind of tea is made by mixing fragrant flowers in the tea leaves in the course of processing. Flowers commonly used for this purpose are jasmine and magnolia, among others. Jasmine tea is a well-known favorite with the northerners of China and with a growing number of foreigners.

Tea Production

A new tea plant must grow for five years before its leaves can be picked. At 30 years of age, it will be too old to be productive. The trunk of the old plant must then be cut off to force new stems to grow out of the roots in the coming year. By repeated rehabilitation in this way, a plant may serve for about l00 years .

To fertilize tea gardens, soybean cakes or other varieties of organic manure are generally used; seldom chemical fertilizers. When pests are discovered, the affected plants will be removed to prevent spreading and also to avoid the use of pesticides. The season of tea-picking depends on local climate and varies from area to area. On the shores of West Lake in Hangzhou, where the famous green tea Longjing (Dragon Well) comes from, picking starts at the end of March and lasts through October, with a total of 20-30 pickings from the same plants at intervals of seven to ten days. Longer interval cause the quality of the tea to deteriorate.

A skilled picker can gather only 600 grams (a little over a pound) of green tea leaves in a day.

The new leaves must be parched in tea cauldrons. This work , which used to be done manually, has been largely mechanized. Top-grade Dragon Well tea, however, still has to be stir-parched by hand, doing only 250 grams every half hour. The tea-cauldrons are heated electrically to a temperature of about 25 degrees C. or 74 degrees F. It takes four pounds of fresh leaves to produce one pound of parched tea.

The best Dragon Well tea is gathered several days before Qingming (Pure Brightness, 5th solar term) when new twigs have just begun to grow and carry "one leaf and a bud." To make one kilogram (2.2 lbs) of finished tea, 60,000 tender leaves have to be plucked. In old days, Dragon Well tea of this grade was meant solely for the imperial household and therefore known as "tribute tea".

For the processes of grinding, parching, rolling, shaping and drying other grades of tea, various machines have been developed, turning out about 100 kilograms of finished tea an hour and relieving the workers from much of the drudgery.

Areas in China where tea grows

1) The Jiangnan area: Lies south of the mid and lower reaches of the Changjiang (Yangtze) River and is the most prolific of China's tea-growing areas. Most of its output is the green variety. Some black tea is also produced.

2) The Jiangbei area: Refers to a large area north of the same river, where the average temperature is 2-3 degrees Centigrade lower than in the Jiangnan area. Green tea is the principal variety turned out there. Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, which are also parts of this area, produce compressed tea to supply the minority areas in the Northwest.

3) The Southwest area: Embraces Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou and Tibet, producing black, green as well as compressed teas. Pu'er tea of Yunnan Province enjoys a good

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