Tea 101

In Yunnan, where the pu-erh exclusively comes from, there are a lot of very old tea trees. The tea plant, camellia sinensis, can grow to be tree if allowed. But it is a rare sight because in most parts of the world the tea plant is regularly pruned to keep it waist high for convenient picking of the leaves. Only in Yunnan, which also happens to be the birthplace of tea, old tea trees are a common occurrence.

In this third part of our series on Pu-erh tea we look into the fermentation in pu-erh tea a little closely and the changes it brings about in post-fermented teas.

Yunnan is the home of pu-erh tea, and more importantly it is the birthplace of tea itself. This south western province of China is nestled in the tropical lushness bordering Myanmar, Vietnam and Laos. According to Chinese documents, tea was discovered by the legendary Chinese Emperor, Shennong in 2737BC.

We are delighted to offer Concubine Oolong, a well regarded Taiwanese oolong from its two main manufacturing seasons, spring and winter. 

Making matcha may appear daunting to beginners, but actually it is not that difficult. Once you have made it a few times, you might wonder why you brought yourself so late to this tea party!

When "Ochatsubo Dochu", a procession carrying the year's first harvest of tea in 18th Century Japan, would pass through a village, residents knelt on the ground as a mark of reverence. Although the respect might have been inspired by the Shogun, the beneficiary of the procession and the recipient of the tea, it would be fair to assume that some it was also evoked by the tea. 

On a cold winter day in January of 1842 two young German missionary families, the Wernickes and Stolkes arrived to Darjeeling, a densely forested and sparsely populated remote region of the Himalayas. Only seven years previous, the area had been taken on lease by the British colonialists from the Kingdom of Sikkim.

One day in 1888, accompanied by his two little boys,  Andrew Wernicke went down to Pandam tea estate, located below Darjeeling town on the northern slope. He had just bought the “rifle range” part of the estate. Upon arrival at the factory some old workers asked Andrew Wernick for a sign by which they might recognize him as the new owner. Wernicke reached for a branch of a nearby tree and broke it. “This simple procedure was enough to satisfy them,” recalled one of the sons later.

Around the middle of the 19th Century, the British colonialists launched a massive effort to grow tea in India. They wanted to break the monopoly of China in the tea trade once and for all; trafficking opium into China had been only an interim measure. (Britain had been pumping opium into China to get back the silver bullions that it had paid for the tea.)