TENCHA (碾茶)
The character 碾 means ‘grind’; tencha is better described as tea flakes destined to be milled into matcha. This is an over-simplification of the process:
SHIZEN SHITATE (自然仕立て)
This describes ‘free growing’ tea fields, strictly destined for hand-picking, where the tea bushes are allowed to grow in any shape or form that they desire.
HONZU (本簀)
This is the most traditional way to shade the tea trees destined strictly for competition-grade matcha and gyokuro; the canopy is built with reeds and rice straw, and it is both costly and labour intensive. This is an image from Tsuji San’s fields in Uji Shirakawa.
KANREISHA (寒冷紗).
This is a more modern system to shade tea trees (using black nets made of synthetic fiber); it can also yield some pretty good results.
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TASTING EXPERIENCE
A juicy, full bodied dried fruit with a toasty finish, reminiscent of hojicha.
THE HANDCRAFTING PROCESS
Kobayashi San harvests tea leaves in the hot and humid days of summer; the tea bushes have a mishmash of larger leaves (half the size of your hand) that have been growing since early spring, and some younger ones that sprouted more recently. Kobayashi San harvest both leaves and small branches, all of which will impart a distinct flavour to the tea.
These leaves are boiled in cauldrons over a wood fire; the water used for boiling is carefully collected. Smelling these tea leaves as they boil is on the bucket list.
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Rooted in centuries of tradition, the overwhelming majority of the tea enjoyed today in Japan is a product of space-age technology. The insanely green, umami-rich, reasonably affordable tea that graces our cup does so thanks to cultivar cloning, harvesting machines, freezers, electronic leaf sorters, vacuum sealers, and other gadgets that barely appeared in the mid to late 20th century. Some of the most celebrated matcha houses in Japan deliver, year after year, tea that is incredibly consistent in taste, extremely small in particle size (which is unachievable with old-school hand grinders), and very well preserved throughout the year (thanks to airtight tins and nitrogen).
This is paradoxical in a country with tea traditions that are older than the Mongol conquests and the vast majority of Europe’s modern states. It is very common to find tea companies with hundreds of years of history; it is quite rare to drink tea that was made with methods that resemble those used back in the day.
As the thirst of Japanese and Western crowds gravitates towards (very delicious) modern Japanese green tea, many regional, labour-intensive traditions are being neglected. Specialties like Awa Bancha, Toyama Kurocha, Goishi Cha, and (case in point) Musashi’s Bancha are enjoyed by an insanely small fraction of tea enthusiasts.
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It is no secret that we have a fascination for (nearly) forgotten traditions and old-school handcrafting. We find beauty in the obnoxious inconsistency of food and drink that are grown and processed with pre-industrial technology.
Unsurprisingly, Musashi’s Bancha (also known as Mimasaka Bancha or Sakushuu Bancha) became an instant favourite when we tried it in 2019. It is a delicious tea that feels just right in the stomach and is barely known beyond its hometown.
We consider ourselves no experts on this tea or its history; there is extremely limited information about it online (even in Japanese), and we’ve met nobody that has extensive information about the tea’s origins (including the two growers that we’ve met).
COOL FACTS
As much as we’re thirsty for more knowledge, we are proud to share this delicious tea with you.
MUSASHI'S BANCHA
TASTING EXPERIENCE
A juicy, full bodied dried fruit with a toasty finish, reminiscent of hojicha.
THE HANDCRAFTING PROCESS
Kobayashi San harvests tea leaves in the hot and humid days of summer; the tea bushes have a mishmash of larger leaves (half the size of your hand) that have been growing since early spring, and some younger ones that sprouted more recently. Kobayashi San harvest both leaves and small branches, all of which will impart a distinct flavour to the tea.
These leaves are boiled in cauldrons over a wood fire; the water used for boiling is carefully collected. Smelling these tea leaves as they boil is on the bucket list.
The Mind of the Ming.
Why did the Ming China society favour loose-leaf, pan-fired tea? Consider this paragraph from Okakura Kakuzo’s most interesting book:
The cake-tea which was boiled, the powdered-tea which was whipped, the Leaf-tea which was steeped, mark the distinct emotional impulses of the Tang, the Sung, and the Ming dynasties of China. If we were inclined to borrow the much-abused terminology of art-classification, we might designate them respectively, the Classic, the Romantic, and the Naturalistic schools of Tea.
The Book of Tea
The pragmatic Ming society appreciated tea as a thirst-quenching expression of nature for everyday use. A few centuries later, billions have tea as an integral part of their daily lives. Thanks, Ming folks!
A great-great-great-great-great grandkid of the Ming, in Vancouver.
You may have met Dylis Xu, a tea friend and sometimes guest bartender, at our tea bar. Her hometown is in HuangShan (a most fabled origin for tea), and her family owns a stunning little farm. After a long process to bring some of their 2021 tea to Vancouver, we finally have some MaoFeng at our tea bar!
It's one of our featured specials this week.
This creates the complex, slightly smoky, and unarguably ‘fermented’ taste of this tea.
These are a few interesting facts:
In the 1950s, strong relationships between the Soviet Union and China boosted the trade of Dark Tea. We can still find a few Soviet Era bricks in the old factories of Hunan.
]]>Zhang Wen Hua is a farmer and a scholar, devoted to preserving old tea traditions. Her tea trees, many of which are over 80 years old, are located in a valley surrounded by mountains, covered by protected national forest. She is very happy to share tea and the culture around it.
This year, she chose to share two styles of Zisun, handcrafted with very distinct sub-cultivars.
Zisun | Jiu Keng Zao
Jiu Ken Zao (鸠坑早 - very coarsely translated as 'dove cave early') is what most growers today use for competitions, given its particular sweetness and aroma, often described as incense-like. Zhang's 2021 Jiu Keng Zao was harvested on March 2, and features tasting notes of pine nuts and wind among the pines.
Zisun | Ying Shuang
Yin Shuang (迎霜 - coarsely translated as 'welcome the frost') is brighter and greener that its Jiu Keng Zao counterpart, with mild yet very pleasant astringency. Zhang's 2021 Yin Huang was harvested on March 23, and features tasting notes of sunflowers seeds and hints of lime peel.
Brewing:
We recommend using a glass beaker; this method requires awareness throughout a few minutes, but allows you to enjoy the beautiful tea leaves in many ways.
In a beaker with 3g of tea, add enough water at 85ºC to cover the leaves completely and swirl lightly. This is a very good moment to appreciate the aroma of the leaves. After perhaps 45 seconds, when the leaves are hydrated, add another 180 ml of hot water (also ~85ºC). Allow the tea to brew for another 3 minutes.
Decant slowly into your cup, leaving perhaps 25% of the liquid in your beaker; you may get a leaf or two in your cup; eat them.
Please refill your beaker, this time with boiling water, to enjoy another steep. You may repeat this process 3-4 times.
]]>We've been fans of Konomi San's work since 2019; he introduced O5 to the art of 焙炉製法 (Hoiro seihō, or 'finish firing' of green tea, using high-density charcoal and Japanese traditional paper).
In 2020, we had the pleasure of enjoying some award-winning sencha processed with this technique; this year, Konomi San shared this stunning gyokuro.
Coaxing Lingering Sweetness and Aroma.
Finish firing (火入れ) is a most important process when crafting Japanese-style, steamed green tea. Not only is it important to reducing moisture content (thus preserving freshness for longer), but as our friend Jared from Jagasilk says, finish-firing 'develops the sugars and curb the tannins.' By the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate, it was already a well-established custom.
Most artisans in modern Japan use a drum roaster; electricity or gas fuel the 'fire'. Konomi San keeps an older tradition alive: 焙炉製法 (charcoal firing); it is a hands-on process that starts early in the morning, lighting a few chunks of charcoal and carefully supervising them until the artisan judges that they are ready. The inside of a 'firing table' (see below) is designed to contain these glowing embers.
Once the fire is ready, the shokunin (master artisan) covers the charcoal with a lid made of wood and finished with handcrafted paper. Then, with dance-like maneuvers, he carefully rolls the tea leaves, filling the room with a glorious aroma and developing the tea into a masterpiece.
ABOUT THE PRODUCER
Konomi San's family started their tea business in the Edo period; they were the first family to become tea merchants in the island of Kyushu. In that period, most of the local teas were kama-iri cha.
In the late Meiji period, Konomi's family were some of the pioneers that imported some production techniques from Uji; as a result of these pioneers, Yame is now famous for its stunning gyokuro and matcha.
A cake of Tea Horse Road
These days, ocean shipments take much longer than usual.
It is with much pleasure that we announce, finally, that our (slow) boat carrying ‘Tea Horse Road’ (2006 Yiwu Cooked Pu Er) has finally landed! It is available online now, and will be available at our tea bar early next week.
As we sip the tea, let’s talk about Yiwu (易武), a historical town in Yunnan’s Mengla County, often called the ‘Origin of the Tea Horse Road’.
Having said that… we’ve also heard locals from Hunan and Sichuan calling their towns ‘Origin of the Tea Horse Road’.
I guess an ‘origin’ can be wherever you start. Today, let’s do Yiwu.
History:
There is evidence of the tea trade from Yunnan starting roughly 1000 years ago. Yunnan’s high altitude rainforests and towering mountains made access to the region very difficult; tea was, until the 20th century, transported by horse (or yak) to regions as far away as Bengal, Tibet, and Mongolia.
The trail, or network of trails, is known as 茶馬古道 (Tea Horse Ancient Road).
The town of Yiwu, on the eponymous mountain range, is rich in old buildings and paraphernalia reminiscent of older times. The most highly-priced villages for tea are often at altitudes over 2000m above sea level.
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Location:
Yiwu (The red flag on the map above) is in the South (center) of Yunnan Province, very close to Laos.
Interesting fact:
Yiwu is closer (geographically) to Phongsaly, in Laos, than Menghai, another town in Yunnan.
However, we’ve often made the trip from Yiwu to Menghai in fewer than 3 hours… but it took us over 24 hours of continuous driving to reach Phongsaly. Granted: we drove to Phongsaly through the much longer route, which is the only one allowed for foreign people.
Ecosystem:
Like other mountain ranges in Yunnan, Yiwu is mostly covered with high altitude rain forest. Its red soils are very rich in iron.
Also from Yiwu, you might remember Year Of The Bull from our March 5th newsletter.
These cakes are made with ancient tree leaves, fired on wood, and pressed with stone in Yiwu, the 'queen' mountain of Pu Er tea.
After a full Zodiac cycle’s worth of aging in our Vancouver warehouse, this tea, harvested and pressed in the year of the Earth Bull, has come full circle. These leaves have aged with grace and have come to embody a gentle lingering sweetness, light astringency, and a luscious, thick-feeling liquor. Repeated infusions will be rewarded with subtle notes of liquorice root and camphor.
Aged in Vancouver since 2009.
We purchased this tea at the workshop of Mr. Zheng Si Long, in Yiwu. We pressed 50% of the tea into 200g cakes (which ended up closer to 190g) and kept the rest to age as mao cha (loose-leaf). It's very interesting to drink them side by side, analyzing the subtle differences in aging.
HUANG SHAN MAO FENG
Huang Shan (黄山), literally translated as Yellow Mountain, is often referred to as the most famous and culturally important mountain range in China. According to legend, it is in this mountain that Shen Nong (yup… the guy who ‘discovered’ tea) ascended to heaven from 黄山. It is, nowadays, a UNESCO World Heritage site and a most important origin for tea.
Heavily influenced by Confucianism, Chinese scholars often produce lists: the top 10 mountains, the best water for tea, and (of course) the most important teas in China. I haven’t seen a single one of those lists that does not feature Huang Shan among the mountains and Mao Feng among the teas.
Handcrafting:
Mao Feng is a pan-fired green tea, quite different from the steamed teas that are popular in Japan. After firing, the tea is very lightly rolled and dried. Because of this, as you brew the tea, the leaves will open and strongly resemble freshly picked, LIVE leaves.
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We're thrilled to share these delicious leaves that were on tea trees just two weeks before they landed in Vancouver and we published this newsletter!
Experience:Harvest:
2021 pre-Qing Ming, March 30 & 31.
Originally, we expected the harvest on March 25, but a spell of cold weather and rain delayed the tea buds a few days.
Leaves for White Moonlight tea, in Jingu, Yunnan (2012)
Picking standards are the more controversial topic:
Freshly picked tea buds and finished tea in Jingu, Yunnan. This tea is called Silver Needles, or sometimes White Moonlight Buds.
A noteable commonality among most white teas is the use of cultivars that have a significant amount of 'down' on the buds (and therefore, on the backside of young leaves). This is quite important.
The down protects young buds from oxidizing (hence they look white). As the young leaves dry slowly, the inner part will oxidize (taking on a dark brown colour) and the outer part, covered with down, will remain white.
We encountered an exception in eastern Kyushu Island:
Miyazaki Akira is an exceptional, organic farmer who specializes in kamairi (pan-fired) tea. He also produces a small amount of 白茶 (called 'haku cha', locally), using local, non-fuzzy tea cultivars.
These old trees near Chiang Rai (Thailand) are used to craft a tea that is very similar to White Moonlight, with some characteristics highly reminiscent of raw Pu Er; we call it 'Thai Moonlight'.
ORIGINS OF WHITE TEA
Perhaps the most celebrated (and ancient) origin for white tea is Fuding, in Fujian Province.
Taiwanese people have historical links to Fujianese, and also have a rich tradition of handcrafting white tea. More recently, the style has become popular in far-away lands, including Darjeeling and the Kanchenjunga region in Nepal, where local cultivars and terroir add an interesting spiciness to many of the teas we've tried.
In the latter part of the 20th century, white tea began to be produced in Yunnan Province, the 'cradle of tea'. It is extremely interesting to experience these minimally processed teas crafted with leaves from assamica trees that can be several hundred years old!
This is Gao Feng in Ba Da Shan, very close to the Old Tree White Moonlight tea trees. Fun fact... that massive tea beside him is a tea tree!
IS YOUNG OR OLD BETTER?
We only started hearing about aged white tea about 10 years ago.
In the early 200s, in China, most of our friends suggested that fresh white tea, just like green tea, is much better. The same was true of our Western 'tea expert' friends.
These days, however, aged white tea is trending all over China.
How is matcha made?
An optional step is briefly warming (finish firing) the tencha before milling (aiming to bring out some sweetness).
What about the Tea Ceremony?
In the 16th century, Sen no Rikyū (Zen Priest and advisor of Shogun Hideyoshi Toyotomi) codified and taught ‘the Way of Tea’; in humble yet exquisitely designed settings, Rikyū and his disciples studied nature and humanity through pulverized tea leaves.
Is matcha difficult or for special occasions?
Matcha can be a most delicious everyday treat! Without getting into too many details, you are consuming unoxidized tea leaves, loaded with chlorophyll, theanine, some caffeine, and a bunch of celebrated ‘nutrients’ called catechins. Most importantly, whisking and sipping a bowl of matcha can very likely become a most enjoyable part of your day! Please consider:
The basic of the basic when it comes to tea is the key distinction between oxidation and fermentation. Let us establish clearly these two terms, so we can understand what is next to come.
Picture an apple. Recently sliced, the apple is white. After a few minutes, the apple is brown. This is a chemical reaction of the apple with the air. If you want to be technical, the atoms in the apple are losing electrons (i.e. increasing the state of oxidation).
Going back to the apple. If yeast works on this apple, it is transformed into a different thing: cider. This a metabolic process, where bacteria or yeast change the chemical nature of food.
These two processes add different taste profiles, colour, and complexity to each tea, even when they are made from the same plant!
Now, for this first lesson, I have selected Japanese-style green tea because I think easy to understand, and widely popular (like that tea they give you and sushi places!). Let us begin!
There are a bunch of types of tea, but we are starting with Green Japanese-style tea, for it is one of the most popular ones. They are divided into three categories: unfermented, semi-fermented, and fully fermented. I have included the name of the specific teas in each category, so next time you are buying tea, you know exactly what kind of flavour profile you are looking for!
Recap of the lesson: teas are named after their process of creation, and this tradition has been carried over centuries. The careful, thoughtful process of fermentation, oxidation, or shading the leaves creates a completely different flavour, appearance and tea colour! And the most impressive thing of them all: it all comes from the same kind of plant.
Speaking about ethnic groups: all of them speak a native language (apart from Mandarin) and many of them have a distinct writing system. You would expect each of them to have unique culinary traditions... and they do!
This is a street market in Lincang, where you can buy the freshest (often organic) veggies; you can also buy a wide assortment of insects and most likely some dog meat if it's up your alley.
This beautiful, crunchy and tasty deep fried cicada was part of the menu at our friend Er Tu's (pronounced R2) house in New Banzhang.
These tasty (spicy) peppers were also found in New Banzhang. Somehow, the people and food in Yunnan make me feel at home.
If you go to Menghai, we highly recommend this noodle shop.
A good meal needs a drink to match it. This is how you brew fresh Pu Er tea leaves in bamboo.
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