A Friend’s Teahouse in Eugene, Oregon

J-Tea International is in the same city as the University of Oregon, about 5+ hours south of Seattle and halfway down the state of Oregon on a drive down to California.  It’s not a particularly scenic drive, but the drive is worth it to see an old friend.  It’s a long overdue trip and I plan my visit to occur just a few months after all of the renovations to his teahouse have been completed.  It’s pretty nice.

Josh is an interesting guy and he also knows a lot about tea.  He has lived in Asia longer than I have and probably reads, speaks and writes in Mandarin Chinese better than I do (he did live there for over 6 years and got his MBA at Cheng Kung U).  We get along well because we both love oolong, especially Taiwanese ones. 

His remodeled teahouse incorporates a lot of built-green concepts, including the usage of natural lighting (windows all along the front; nine skylights), recycled and/or low-impact building materials, etc.  And yes, he drives a hybrid as well (although I’m sure he tries to get around by foot when he can). 

J-tea stocks a variety of Taiwanese oolongs, as well as various black teas and mainland teas.  He also has a lot of unique teaware and antique pottery (I like his antique porcelain jars).  We drank several of his teas and he tried a few of mine.  I like some of his Dong Ding, I like it when Dong Ding is robust and full-bodied. 

What is of most interest to me, though, are his two aged Dong Ding oolongs, one from 1982 and one from 1986.  Curiously, the older one is considerably cheaper than the 1986 tea, but once you try both of them, you’ll know why.  The 1986 aged Dong Ding is a balanced and moderate tea.  It has some tartness from the age in the first infusion that gives way to a smooth, sweet and balanced brew.  The 3rd-5th infusions yield a delicate brew with a slight hui gan; it is quite a nice tea, even more so with sub-boiling water in a good Dong Ding pot. 

There is aged tea, good aged tea, and great aged tea (yes, there is stuff beyond great, much of which is difficult to find and can be pricey).  This tea is very good and will become better in the years to come.  I asked Josh to tell me more about the tea after I had the chance to try it with my own teaware and he said that it received the 銀牌獎 (gold medal) from the 2007凍頂老茶展售會鹿谷鄉凍頂茶葉生產合作社 (long name, it’s a 2007 aged Dong Ding competition).  It’s true that many of the tea competitions are kind of hokey and the winners jack up their prices, but the quality of the tea is judged by people who really know tea (whether or not we agree with the criteria they use for judging is a different story).  This tea is $25/ounce, which I think is reasonable for a tea that is tough to find outside of Taiwan and sold by a reputable retailer that will ship just about anywhere.  I’ll write more about value-priced aged oolongs that contribute to the experience of trying and collecting aged teas in the future, but this is a nice treat and very good experience to have with a high-quality aged Dong Ding.

Josh also sells tea plants…you’ll have to ask him what kind he grows.  Good guy, nice tea place, good tea – just my kind of place. 

[correction:  he has Sochi cultivar plants, but they are not necessarily for sale…sorry!]

Drink good tea and enrich your life.

Age is just ONE factor – Aged Teas IV

Like anything that may derive some value from its age, a tea’s age can only tell you a part of its story.  It may not even be the most vital part of the story.  There is value in aged teas because it’s uncommon and has inherent quantity limitations.  Daniel’s special Congou tea that is intact and nearly 100 years old probably doesn’t, by his own admission, taste exceptional, but it’s very rare and valuable.

Tea has a shelf-life and period for optimum taste, depending on what one is looking for.  This is not unlike wine or cheese or cured/aged meat, all of which reach an optimum maturation point for which it may be best enjoyed.  All genuinely old teas are interesting to me because they are unique.  We can manipulate the taste/smell/feel of a tea through various techniques, but we cannot make a 20 year old tea overnight.  With that said, old teas may be interesting, but few of them that I’ve come across are worth their price simply because they don’t taste good and they probably never will. 

I was looking up at the upper side-wall at Floating Leaves Tea yesterday as Shiuwen and I were chatting.  That is where some of the odds & ends tea from various seasons are stored.  I jokingly said to her that she should do less business each season so that she would have more aged tea to sell in 20 years.  It’s not easy to anticipate the changing tastes of consumers or the volatility of demand, which is why nearly every retailer will have some leftover teas (later becoming the coveted “aged tea” that so many look for).  Twenty years later, some of these aged teas will be phenomenal and some won’t.  Shiuwen’s Nangang Baozhong will be exceptional, as will some of the Dong Ding. 

I wondered why more people haven’t thought about storing and aging oolongs, like they do pu’er?  Perhaps it has to do with the limited (but growing) appeal of aged oolongs, or the fact that a good aged pu’er currently fetches 4-5 figure prices whereas most aged oolongs are still in the 3-4 figure range.  It may also be that pu’er generally tastes and feels so much better after aging, whereas many oolongs taste exceptional when they’re fresh.  Regardless, my focus now is to collect good jars of all sorts and then to fill them with tea.  I was recently inspired by Josh Chamberlain of J-Tea in Eugene who is holding a tea-sealing ceremony (a get together of tea lovers to put their tea into various types of pots/jars, seal and date them, and enjoy tea and snacks as they do it) soon.  He also has a great aged Dong Ding that will be even better in the years to come (and it’s only $25 an oz!) that I’ll talk about in an upcoming post. 

In other news, I close on my home purchase next week (and my wedding is the week after, figured I’d do it all at once!).  I talked to my architect-friend yesterday about designing some kind of tea space either as an addition to the house or as a separate unit in the yard and wow, it’s going to be a lot more expensive than I thought.  In the meantime, my REI tea tent will have to suffice, although it might snow soon :)

Drink good tea and enrich your life.   

Processing Shan Lin Xi

Several of Taiwan’s oolongs are world-famous.  Dong Ding, Bao Zhong, Oriental Beauty and high mountain oolongs are just a few of the well-known ones.  Each type of tea has variations in how it’s processed and produced. 

Shan Lin Xi is a type of high mountain tea produced in central Taiwan’s Nantou county.  You can see it from Dong Ding mountain and one can get there in less than an hour by car.  It is more accessible than Da Yu Ling and possibly more scenic than Li Shan.  What makes Shan Lin Xi a little different is that modern-day production of it relies more heavily on humidity and temperature control…via air conditioning.  I’m not familiar enough with the entirety of the process to describe it here, but I’ve seen giant warehouses being used in the withering and oxidation process.  Air conditioner-assisted tea production also occurs with some other teas, such as some Bao Zhong and Ali Shan oolongs, but it’s more widespread with Shan Lin Xi production than I know it to be with any other type of tea.  I have never, for example, heard of A/C being used for Dong Ding or Muzha Tieguanyin.

I visited a Shan Lin Xi farmer/producer in that region during the off-season last year and she told me that there is a difference in taste between low-tech and high-tech production of the tea.  She believes the A/C-assisted variant produces a more consistent, quality product.  She did admit, though, that a side-effect of using A/C may be a flavor note that is unique to Shan Lin Xi tea that has undergone this type of processing.  People have gotten used to that unique note, though, so they have come to expect it and identify it with this tea.  That made me think of Diet Coke, doesn’t taste the same as “Real” Coke, but a lot of people like that unique taste anyway.

This season’s high mountain tea has been surprisingly good.  After 2 winter seasons of lackluster ones, it was pleasant to try several good high mountain oolongs from several stores.  Nice.

Drink good tea and enrich your life. 

Great New Tea book by a Local Expert – Highly Recommended

English-language tea books tend to be either about the experience of tea or they give a cursory and broad introduction into the different types of teas.  Few Chinese-speaking tea experts have written English-language books; fewer still have ones that I think are worth reading.

Jason Chen of Luyu/CC Tea has just published one that is excellent.  A Washington State-based tea merchant, he’s been in the business for about 15 years.  His latest book, published with both Chinese and English content, is titled: A Tea Lover's Travel Diary: Phoenix Single-Tree Oolong Tea Tie Kuan Yin Oolong Tea.  Obviously, this book is about both of these teas and provides in-depth accounts of his experiences learning about and buying them directly from the farmers (he also met many tea folk that were helpful with the completion of this book).  The book is rich with unique insight and is accompanied by a trove of pictures that detail his experiences over the years.  Even better, the pictures are his own, taken on the same camera that his father gave him decades ago.

Many bilingual or translated tea books can be disappointing because the English is simple and lacks depth.  That is not the case with this book, which makes it such an excellent read.  In fact, it can be argued that many of the Chinese explanations are cursory and the English accounts are detailed and explanatory.  Although there are relatively few actual “diary” entries, the explanations that accompany his many pictures themselves serve as pictorial journal entries. 

This 232-page color, picture-filled book is a great buy ($17.56 on Amazon).  Truly an impressive book to add to one’s tea library. 

I am still waiting for a tea master to come out with something like this book, but for Dong Ding teas.  Zhou Yu of Wistaria is well-qualified for the task; let’s keep encouraging him to do so in the near future.

The Beautiful Hue of an Old Oolong – Aged Teas III

Old oolongs take on a beautiful brownish-caramel color as they age.  Old Baozhongs which were once bright and green take on this mature hue as well.  Outside of high-oxidized and/or high-roast oolongs, very few modern oolongs have a color that is similar to aged ones.  This is one sign that the tea has some age.

An old tea from the Nantou-area; loose rolling. Over 20 years old

It’s also why I am wary of old teas that have been over-roasted or were “very recently” roasted again with high fire and end up looking black, glossy and/or charred.  The purpose of a re-roast should be to reinforce the body of the tea and to moderate the moisture.  Not only is a gradual temperature change in the roast necessary to correctly remove that moisture content (for taste, storage and aging reasons), but it also prevents the tea from burning and losing flavor.  However, it’s that burning taste and aroma that many tea drinkers identify with traditional, older oolongs.  Most tea drinkers may not know what an aged tea’s color should be, what characteristic tastes should be present, or what an oolong ball’s shape may mean, but they are likely to know that more traditional oolongs were both higher oxidized and had higher levels of roast. 

An aged Anxi Tieguanyin, about 20 years old

An over-roasted oolong that has been allowed to sit for a bit has a full taste that may also be described as nutty and is reminiscent of traditional oolongs. It’s not wrong for tea drinkers to think of this taste or to look for these characteristics when they search for old teas.  In fact, less-than-honest retailers know this, which is one reason they create fake aged oolongs with such a flavor profile.  It’s aromatic but not necessarily fruity or floral.  It’s not to say that no old oolongs are ever over-roasted, as that would be untrue.  Over-roasting makes it difficult to taste the tea’s base or to study the leaves, but I believe that no exceptional aged oolong is over-roasted. 

Over time, even a charred oolong will change in color.  It’s true!  Take an oolong that has been so over-roasted that it’s charred black, put it into a clay jar that is not air-tight and leave it for years.  Not only will the fire recede and the taste soften, but the color will soften as well.  Whether or not that tea will ever turn out “good” is a different story!

Color is one useful indicator of the age of an oolong.  Aside from using a subjective, relative assessment of taste to judge age, there is no objective method that I am aware of to accurately gauge the age of an oolong tea.  But all of this is an exercise in personal tea education, as my fundamental belief continues to be that if it tastes good to you, then it’s good.  At least to you. 

Drink good tea and enrich your life.

Backyard Teahouse

There are many things that I like about Taiwan, but if I had to name just two, I would say I love Taiwan tea and its hot springs the most.  Interestingly, both of these have been deeply inspired by Japanese culture (which some would point out were in turn inspired by Chinese culture).  Taiwan underwent some major transformations when it was occupied by the Japanese military.  Hot spring culture flourished under Japanese rule and the Beitou hot springs area was developed by the Japanese as an important R&R destination.  The Japanese also encouraged the development of several domestic oolong cultivars, such as Qingxin and Qingxin Damou/Dapa; a Taiwan government site gives a bit more information here.  The famous (and pricey) black tea produced in south-central Taiwan is a hybrid cultivar developed from Indian black tea that the Japanese imported into Taiwan and spent many years working with.  It is now known as Taiwan tea #18, Hongyu.

I’ve been looking for a new house to move to for about 6 months now and high on my list of wants is a hot tub.  I went to view a house this evening with a nice hot tub and as I stood there admiring it, I realized that I probably wouldn’t love sitting in the middle of my backyard in full view of my neighbors and completely exposed to the environment.  I wished that it was inside of the adjacent shed instead; Seattle is both rainy and chilly.  That in turn got me thinking:  what if I could have an outbuilding with a tub inside of it (preferably at ground level) and a tearoom as well?

I spent the last few hours surfing online for ideas.  I did a quick web search for “Japanese Tea House” and looked through the amazing images of them for great ideas.  Given enough time and a big enough budget, I’m sure that I could design and build (or have built) a pretty sweet little outdoor sanctuary.  I found a site for a local guy that did just that and now offers the plans to do the same for $250.  His teahouse looks like this:

(credit: Ron Konzak, http://www.japanesehomeandbath.com)

A very nice and simple structure that I could definitely personalize for my uses.  Ron has also been working on plans for a Japanese bath and I’m sure there’s a way to integrate both into a very pleasant design.

A teahouse with my very own tea area and bath – very nice!