T E Tea is for A Tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world — but how much do you know about this exquisite drink made from the Camellia sinensis plant? And how i s Everyone much do you know about Chinese tea, the original infusion that started it all? f If you’re an English speaker, chances are: not very much, and through no fault of o your own. For various reasons (a very real language barrier being one), Chinese tea r Making Chinese Tea Accessible is treated as a niche category in the English-speaking world instead of the standard- bearer it deserves to be. We’re here to change this once and for all, first by unpeeling E the layers of complexity that surround the world of Chinese tea, and then by setting the record straight on some mistranslations and misconceptions that have stuck v over the years. e r This book touches on everything that’s relevant to Chinese tea: from the history of y tea to the tea-making processes that differentiate a wulong from a green tea; from o the six main types to the myriad styles of teas available; from famous Chinese tea- growing regions to the latest popular teaware; from food and tea pairing advice to n seasonal tea suggestions and brewing etiquette. Readers can also glean straight e from the source, as tea makers from across mainland China and Taiwan share their insights on the art and business of producing tea. Tea is for Everyone aims to bridge that treacherous gap between academic tea literature (much of which is not available in English) and the generic tea “guides” that don’t do tea or Chinese tea any justice. This book is a comprehensive and comprehensible take on a vast and complicated but endlessly fascinating subject. Tea should be for everyone, after all. Published by Man Mo Media Tea is for Everyone Making Chinese Tea Accessible 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS A Few Things Before We Begin… 4 Tea: a Story and Some History 8 Tea Making Process 14 Types of Tea 28 Popular Tea Styles 46 Famous Tea Regions 72 Tea Etiquette 88 The Art of Tea Pairing 96 The Tea Makers 108 Glossary 122 References 126 About the Team 128 3 Our mission for this book is very simple: we While writing this book, we came across want to explore with you, dear reader, the some unfortunate mistranslations that have beautiful and intricate world of Chinese teas. endured over the years. For example, the same product that the western world refers to as Tea, in its myriad forms, is the most popular black tea is, in actual fact, known as red tea in beverage in the world today (not counting China and throughout Asia. A FEW THINGS water). Enjoyed by many different cultures, tea drinking is a standard pastime in countries So we thought, why don’t we just make things BEFORE WE like India, Turkey, Russia, the United Kingdom, easier for everyone and call the drink by its BEGIN... Korea, Japan — and naturally, China. proper name, red tea, instead? This renaming makes even more sense when you consider the Interestingly, although tea originated in fact that there is already another type of tea China and the teas produced in this country known as black tea in the Chinese tea world. are hands down some of the most complex and elegant in the world, it doesn’t seem like With that in mind, throughout the book we much attention is paid to Chinese tea outside have applied what we believe are the true of Asia. Whether it’s discussed with reverence labels of each tea rather than stick with the in academic texts for tea enthusiasts or conventional English translations. Whenever mentioned in a few nonchalant sentences in appropriate, we use the Putonghua pinyin the more generic tea guides, Chinese tea is name for the tea that we are referring to treated as a niche topic when it should really rather than a literal English translation (unless be the default genre. the literal translation has already entered into mainstream usage). For the Chinese characters Among other reasons, a very real language that accompany the key English terms, we use barrier that is notoriously difficult to cross, and traditional instead of simplified Chinese. the lack of coherence and standardization within the Chinese tea industry, are all factors that keep It might sound confusing now, but we promise Chinese tea from being accessible. It is our goal that by the time you get through this book, here to change the status quo by responsibly things will be crystal clear. demystifying Chinese tea for everyone. 5 What exactly is tea? To set things straight from the beginning: only beverages made from the Camellia sinensis plant are classified as teas. Tea leaves are leaves that are plucked from the Camellia sinensis BUT WHAT plant only — herbs and other plants don’t count. DO YOU (Sorry, chamomile, rooibos and other tisanes.) MEAN BY The evergreen Camellia sinensis tea plant comes in shrub form or in tree form. Most tea plantations in TEA? China cultivate the tea shrub. Wild tea trees can still be found in some parts of China, including Yunnan province — believed to be the original birthplace of the tea tree. And now we’re all set. We hope this book can be of service to you in your tea appreciation journey! 7 SO, WHAT’S THE ORIGIN STORY FOR TEA? There’s little dispute that tea originated in detoxify and stimulate Shennong — and TEA China, but the story surrounding its origins — tea as we know it was born. or at least the story that the Chinese like to Tea, first and foremost, was considered a type tell — is a bit more fantastical. And why not? A of medicine for the Chinese. According to the beverage of such prominence deserves a larger- A Story “Shennong Classic of Herbal Medicine” than-life tale after all. (神農本草經 shén nóng běn cǎo jīng), a book According to folklore, tea was discovered on medicinal plants allegedly written by the and Some several thousand years ago by a know-it-all legendary figure, drinking tea can help in all named Shennong (神農 shén nóng), who aspects of one’s life, from needing less sleep not only invented crazy useful things for his to being able to think faster and see better. History people (like agricultural equipment and the Miracle herb indeed. Chinese calendar), but was also the father of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Shennong might The Chinese character for tea, 茶 chá, is made up of component parts that mean “grass” or might not have been a real figure in history, but it doesn’t hurt to believe in his existence — (草 cǎo), “wood” (木 mù), and “human” if not his near-superhuman abilities. (人 rén) — make of that what you will. The character is pronounced “cha” in Putonghua. One version of the tale claims that Shennong In the southern Chinese Fujian dialect, it is — who had a habit of putting poisonous pronounced “teh”. It is the latter version substances in his mouth — was resting under that is believed to have made its way into a tree with a vessel of boiling water (as one the English vocabulary via British traders does) when some of the tree leaves dropped hundreds of years ago, finally giving us the into his bowl, infusing the water with its own word “tea” in English. flavors. This resulting bitter liquid helped to 9 GETTING SERIOUS In the early days, “tea” was made by mixing tea leaves with ingredients like onions, dates, and ginger. It was also consumed for its perceived health benefits rather than for enjoyment. It wasn’t until the Tang dynasty (618-907 CE) that tea consumption became a more sophisticated activity and specialized SPREADING teaware was developed to accompany the refined drink. This was also when Chinese THE LOVE scholar Lu Yu wrote the “Tea Classic” (茶 經 chá jīng) tome, reinforcing standards Tea is nowadays the most widely consumed on how to enjoy the beverage. Lu Yu was beverage in the world, besides water. The a bit of a snob and shunned the practice Camellia sinensis plant, from which tea is of adding unnecessary ingredients to the made, is grown in over 50 countries, including drink — essentially, tea leaves with hot China, India, Japan, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Turkey water was enough for him. And apparently and Vietnam. You can find tea in homes and at people listened! cafes, bars and even streetside stalls. Whether In the Song dynasty (960-1279 CE), you’re visiting a friend in London or Hong tea-drinking and tea-making standards Kong, chances are they’ll both offer you tea. So continued to evolve and improve, paving how did tea make its way from China to all over the way for modern tea culture. the globe? Let’s take Japan for example. The country started to develop its very own complex tea culture since Chinese tea was first introduced Wild tea trees in there in the Tang dynasty. Japanese monks Yunnan province studying Buddhism in China decided to bring some tea seeds back home, and the country eventually invented its own methods of cultivating and processing tea. Further afield, Europeans were first exposed to tea when they came to China during the 16th century, drawn by the country’s exotic luxury goods and the lucrative trading opportunities it offered. 11 THE BEVERAGE THAT CHANGED THE WORLD It wasn’t so long ago that tea was such an Looking to counter the imbalance, the British obsession for the world that it actually led to East India Company found the ultimate history-making wars. solution: smuggling opium into China. The highly addictive drug ensured an ever-growing There was the Boston Tea Party — a massive demand in the country — bought with silver protest by American colonists against the by the Chinese. Seeing that the illicit narcotics British government’s 1773 Tea Act. The Act were starting to cripple a large percentage of the imposed a high tax on teas sent from Britain population, Chinese viceroy Lin Zexu was given to what were then known as the American the task of halting the opium trade in 1839. colonies, and people were outraged. Protesters boarded trade ships at the Boston Harbor After a failed appeal to Queen Victoria, Lin Portugal, which colonized Macau in China in The climate in Darjeeling, India showed itself and tossed hundreds of chests of tea into resorted to confiscating tens of thousands of the 1550s, became the first European country suitable for the small-leaf sinensis variety of the ocean. chests full of opium in Canton (modern-day to trade with China. In 1662, Portuguese the Camellia sinensis plant that was found in Guangzhou), the only trading hub available to That was a lot of money’s worth of tea at the princess Catherine of Braganza married King China, and the quality of the teas that were foreigners at the time. time, and the British Parliament reacted by Charles II of England. The princess happened to produced in Darjeeling quickly caught the passing even more punitive laws. The American The British consequently took action and love drinking tea, and all of a sudden tea became western world’s attention. colonists responded with even more protests, dispatched a small naval army to go on the a big deal among the English upper class. The state of Assam in India was also home to leading ultimately to the American Revolution offensive in Canton — kickstarting the first Soon afterwards, the British East India a robust local large-leaf assamica variety in 1775. And we all know how that ended. It’s of two Opium Wars. It was an easy victory Company (a proxy for the British Empire) of Camellia sinensis that proved especially therefore no exaggeration to say that tea was for Britain, forcing China to sign the Treaty rose to prominence, and tea leaves became a popular. The Company began cultivating this partly responsible for the birth of the United of Nanking which consequently opened five significant import from China. For comparison: particular variety of tea in its other colonies, States of America! Chinese ports to the world and ceded parts of In 1699, the English imported only six tons gradually spreading the practice of tea- the territory of Hong Kong to the British Empire. The demand for tea in Britain also led to the of tea; by 1799, the number had increased to making and tea-drinking to South India, Sri Opium Wars in China, which are regarded as Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997, but 11,000 tons. Lanka and Africa. the starting point of modern Chinese history. it remains a Special Administrative Region Up until this point, all of the tea had come Fast forward to today, and tea has been In the 18th century, the British loved their with its own set of laws until 2047. Hong from China. Wary of having China be its sole transformed from a peculiar Asian specialty Chinese teas, silks and porcelain. The Chinese, Kong’s unique culture, drastically different supplier, the Company commissioned “plant to the most popular beverage in the whole on the other hand, wanted nothing but silver from mainland China’s, is in no small part due hunters” to cultivate Chinese tea plants in wide world. from the British — and a trade deficit for the to its unique history as a British colony. And India in the early 19th century. British ensued. we have tea to thank for that. 13 Tea MAKING Process 15 TEA BUD 茶芽 chá yá TEA LEAF 茶葉 chá yè While we understand that the tea production process can feel a little abstract and academic, having a grasp of what happens every step of the way truly makes a difference to one’s tea-drinking experience. 1 All teas undergo specific processing procedures that comprise of some or all of the following CULTIVATING steps. In case you’re not reading this book chronologically, please note that we are 種茶 zhòng chá referring specifically to the production of Chinese-style teas made in mainland China and Taiwan here. All teas come from the Camellia sinensis tea plant. Even though all tea plants are technically called Camellia sinensis, there are many variations within the species. The tea plant can be divided into two varieties: the sinensis (小葉種 xiǎo yè zhǒng) and the assamica (大葉種 dà yè zhǒng). The assamica’s defining feature is its larger-sized leaves, whereas the sinensis features smaller leaves. While all tea leaves can be turned into any kind of tea, tea farmers usually selectively clone favorable plants by asexual reproduction, depending on the tea they specialize in. Such clones are then known as cultivars (品種 pǐn zhǒng). Jinxuan (金萱 jīn xuān), for example, is a famous cultivar with a milky aroma that is often used to make red tea (western black tea). You’ll sometimes also hear the term varietal being used to describe a tea that was made from one specific cultivar or variety. 17