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 Master Luo competing in 2007 when he won his first "West Lake Long Jing Fire King" title. 2010, the beginning of May.
Finally Master Luo’s Long Jing arrived, with the written dates and varietals taped on the packages. We tasted the each one and thought of more questions:
Q: Have you finished all the firing work for this year?
A: Yes. Finally.
Q: How do you feel?
A: Released. I just recovered from a high fever and a slipped disc. I lay still in bed for two days and couldn’t move.
Q: I am so sorry to hear that. Are you feeling better now?
A: yes, much better. It is like this every year, don’t worry, I am all right for the moment, but not sure about the future.
Q: We have tasted your tea, both No.43 pre-Qingming and the “Old Tea Tree” from the 5th of April. They are both stunning but different.
A: Thank you. You are right. I picked and fired No.43 on the 28th of March. It tastes slightly orchid like. “Old Tea Tree” got some soya bean flavor.
Q: When is the earliest picking for “Old Tea Tree”? Is there a way to find some of those?
A: (Laugh) Not quite possible. I can kind of guarantee you that.
Q: Why?
A: The earliest picking of “Old Tea Tree” was on the 4th or the 3rd of April this year. The total quantity of that tea in my village is only about a half kilo. We normally give it away to our important friends or clients as a valuable present. I can’t believe anyone will sell it, especially overseas or in Europe, unless someone has a very very special contact. But remember, the quantity is TINY.
 West Lake Long Jing Field and village Q: Because of the weather change, there has been terrible damage to the Long Jing production this year. Do you think people are going to change back to growing “Old Tea Tree”?
A: Very unlikely. Because it will take a long time before the bushes are ready to produce tea. It would take about 5 years.
Q: How old is your “Old Tea Tree”?
A: They are from 150 years to 200 years. They are grown from seeds. There are a few varieties within West Lake Long Jing “Old Tea Tree” – Da Zhong Pin, which is grown from seeds, my bushes; Chang Ye Zao, came after Da Zhong Pin, it is grown from cuttings, and Huang Ye Zao, it is grown from cuttings too.
Q: How interesting!
A: There is a new Long Jing varietal from Tea Research Institute of China in Hang Zhou, they ask me to take a look at it. It is a very interesting varietal, because it tastes the same in spring and in summer, always sweet. The institute has 3 or 4 mu of it, they have been growing it for 2 years. Very interesting, I will send you some to taste.
Q: Thanks! It sounds amazing. Are you going to grow some those trees too?
A: No.
Q: Why?
A: The colour is not pretty. (Laugh) Also it produces too little tea.
Q: Can you taste any differences between the teas in Mei Jia Wu and Long Wu or other villages?
A: yes, of course. The water, the soil is different.
Q: And the Long Jing from the outside West Lake area?
A: Of course, remember the emperor Qian Long pointed out – there is only 10 li (5 km) Long Jing. You have been here, you know, it is just from Long Jing village to Mei Jia Wu to the traffic light outside Song village. After that traffic light, you will be able to see “Qian Tang River”. Normally if the same person fire the leafs from West Lake area and the leafs from the outside, you won’t be able to see any differences on the looks, but when you brew it, the tastes will tell you the second one is not from West Lake. When we taste those kind of teas, we often make a joke:” It tastes like it has been blown by the wind from Qian Tang river.”
Q: (laugh) that was a good joke! So tell me how much No.43 did you lose this year?
A: A lot.
Q: So sorry to hear that.
A: It’s ok, don’t worry about that. I didn’t lose that much. We say this year “the lazy ones” benefit more, and the diligent ones lost. I am one of the lazy ones.
A: Why?
Q: because “the diligent ones” stimulated the bush’s growth for the buds coming earlier in order to have a very early first picking, which could bring in a great profit. But this year, the early buds were frozen. Those people lost most. You see, I am one of “the lazy ones”.
A: Why don’t you use growth stimulant on your the bushes?
Q: I don’t like them. I like natural things. I like my bushes to grow naturally.
A: You mentioned the leaves were not pretty this year. How important is the look of the leaves for you?
Q: it is very important. As you know, you have to judge West Lake Long Jing from 4 things: Colour, fragrance, taste and shape. I did my best to correct and to improve the shape, but still they don’t look as nice as usual.
Q: You have fired and tasted the teas from the tribute Long Jing bushes. How good is it?
A: The same as my old tree tea.
Q: Are you going to fire the tribute bushes again?
A: Yes, next year. You should both come and watch.
Q: We would love to!
Please click here to view the video – One of the hakka 客家 roundhouses 土寨楼
 A salesman who sells vegetable seeds came to one of the Hakka Roundhouses with his bell. He sits by the well, which supplies daily drinking water to all the families in the Roundhouse. I visited a few tea villages together with tea maker Master Wang. A few of the families from these villages supply their Dan Cong tea leaves to Master Wang – “I don’t buy the leaves from many of the families. To me, only the tea which grows above 700 meters is good”, he said. I did some more research on Master Wang later and found out that he has sometimes even moved a few of his own ancient tea trees further up the mountain he owns to above 700 meters and selected the best position for them to grow and thrive.
Because of a political issue 60 years ago, Master Wang had to leave the school and come home to his relatives when he was only 10 years old. His family specialized in Dan Cong tea (Single bushes 单枞). They owned some ancient tea trees up in the mountain and a tea field. Together with his brother, he studied “Mountain” landscape, which included water, wind, soil, sunlight, directional factors from several years… before they allowed to learn about planting tea trees and processing the tea leaves. They both became confident tea makers in the 1960s. Now, his brother has passed away, Master Wang himself owns 5 ancient Dan Cong tea trees from the Song Dynasty, which are about 800 years old. He has also invented his own kiln to roast his teas, which have won many prizes including “Dan Cong Tea King Prize 单枞茶王”. Because of his experience and his award winning teas, he is often invited to important national tea conference and events. “They call me the professor without a degree.” He told me and smiled. He is however a top national level judging master (国家高级评茶师).
In the video, you can see life in a tea making Hakka roundhouse – Here one family lives behind each door. The lady you see first asked me to photograph her flowers, “Take a picture! Looking how pretty they are. I grow them.” she said proudly. Then we heard a bell ring and saw a salesman with his big bronze bell and bamboo basket come into the yard – “He sells vegetable seeds.” they told me. He and his bell became a source of great excitement for the kids.
Master Wang’s daughter is also in the video. She is the only of his 3 daughters who is following her father’s footsteps and works as a teamaker. They work closely together. During the busiest periods they both live up in the mountains and work together with the people they hire.
 The village well  A tea maker with a blooming Camellia bush - "It shows good Feng Shui." Master Wang said.  Two "Ying Yang" puppies in the village  Another puppy  Indoor withering  On the way from one village to another, Master Wang often stopped to check older individual tea trees like this one that is over 100 years old.  On the way to the higher mountains, we passed by many small hills that look like this one - basically over-farmed monocultures of clonal Phoenix teas, which have destroyed the local landscape. This is worrying as it is these types of estates that produce the so called "premium" "rare" Dan Cong that are often exported.  Often lower quality Dan Cong tea is withered by busy roads.
Master Luo made two cups of his Long Jing for me to compare. Like most Chinese, he poured the hot water straight from the thermos into the glass, where he had put one measure of pre-Qingming Long Jing and one of a later Long Jing. The leaves floating in the water shone with a very fresh vivid spring colour. It is the colour from the year before! It felt that by firing, Master Luo has stopped time.
Surprisingly the leaves he used came out of a normal plastic shopping bag.
 Master Luo standing beside his No.43 Longjing field and worrying about the temperature. Q: How do you store your tea? They look so incredibly fresh!
A: I keep them in a cool storage. I have a special cool storage where I keep all my Long Jing.
Q: Do you just put them in those bags? No need to seal them?
A: It’s fine. As far as the room is cool. A good fired Long Jing can keep being fresh for a long time as far as it is kept in a cool place. But when the new Long Jing is made, you will see how gray the old one has become.
Q: I noticed you didn’t make any tea for yourself, just a glass of hot water.
A: (shy smile again) I don’t drink any coffee, or alcohol, only hot water. I usually only drink tea when I am firing.
Q: Why is that? Any specially reason?
A: (Smile and smile), no particular reason. I just prefer water.
 Longjing field in mist Q: Do you have any students? How did you learn it?
A: Yes, one, the son of my mum’s cousin. The government also has asked me to teach, they send some students to me every year from universities. Those students only need to know a general process for their research. It normally needs 6 to 7 years to practice to be a real firer. I started when I was in the middle school. I was 12 years old when I chose to stop school, nobody suggested it but I wanted to come back to the village from the city to study with my grandpa. My cousin and I started at the same time, it was very competitive between us. We only did “Qing Guo” (the first step) at the beginning for 2 to 3 years. Then we started to do “Hui Guo” (the second step). When we became 18,19 years old, we finally could start to learn everything properly. I started to fire independently was I was 21 years old. I like the green and yellowish colour, my cousin like the dark yellow colour, he likes heavy firing. Mine is different compare to many of the firers’, if you mix my teas together with the others, then shake it, you will see my leaves will come to the top.
Q: Why the shape is so flat?
A: I think it is from the monks in Ling Yin Si (Ling Yin Temple). They made Sparrow’s Tongue in the very early years. Sparrow’s Tongue is the beginning of Long Jing.
Q: Any technique reasons?
A: yes, if it is not in flat shape, it will not be fired evenly, the colour will be dark, the temperature won’t be right, no taste. For example, when you fire “Qing Guo”, you can’t put more than 100 grams in the wok, in order to spread the temperature evenly.
Q: Do you use electric wok?
A: yes, I do. It is easy to control the temperature.
Q: Any secret in the water when you brew a good cup of Long Jing?
A: The water here is softer.
Q: Tell me more about “Old Tea Tree” and “No.43” please?
A: “Old Tea Tree” grows slower and produces less tea compare to “No.43”. It sells for less money as well. Sometimes “Old Tea Tree” is sold for half the price of “No.43”. Therefore lots of people cut down “Old Tea tree” and plant “No.43” instead, which in my opinion is a very stupid thing to do. I worked very closely with Tea Research Institute of China on this, but unfortunately you cannot make a law about it. “No.43” is easy to plant, easy to grow by cutting.
Q: What are your opinions about the future of Long Jing?
A: Positive. The tea farmers are slowly changing as well. Many of us make Long Jing for more than just earning money. To keep our pride, we don’t make fake West Lake Long Jing. Because we have to learn to protect ourselves by having a longer term vision and make “West Lake Long Jing” a reliable brand in the tea world. We want that most people can afford to buy our teas. We are against extortionate profits, like what has happened before on West Lake Long Jing market.
 The laughing tea ladies of Bosong Since visiting Mr Ha’s small organic estate in Bosong, South Korea 10 years ago,I have believed natural farming methods often make better tea and certainly improve everyone’s health, as well as the environment. The other day there was an interesting article in The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/business/energy-environment/04weed.html) about a new strain of superweeds that are resistant to the latest herbicides and it made me think of Mr Matsumoto, another tea farmer we work with. He uses no pesticides, herbicides, or fertiliziers, not even manure. Together with his friend, Akinori Kimura the “miracle” apple man who you can read about at homepage.mac.com/tonysilva/download/magicapples-pdf.pdf , they are trying to change and influence farming in Japan. Through my conversations with Mr Matsumoto which we will become an interview in the future and through reading articles on Mr Kimura, it seems that even weeds have a part to play in their brave new natural world where they work with weeds not against them.
 Mr and Mrs Matsumoto, Pioneering Tea Producers
Since visiting Mr Ha’s small organic estate in Bosong, South Korea 10 years ago,
I have believed natural farming methods often make better tea and certainly improve
everyone’s health, as well as the environment. The other day there was an interesting article in The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/business/energy-environment/04weed.html) about a new strain of superweeds that are resistant to the latest herbicides and it made me think of Mr Matsumoto, another tea farmer we work with. He uses no pesticides, herbicides, or fertiliziers, not even manure. Together with his friend, Akinori Kimura the “miracle” apple man who you can read about at homepage.mac.com/tonysilva/download/magicapples-pdf.pdf , they are trying to change and influence farming in Japan. Through my conversations with Mr Matsumoto which we will become an interview in the future and through reading articles on Mr Kimura, it seems that even weeds have a part to play in their brave new natural world where they work with weeds not against them.
Interview 1 – 2010.Feb
Master Luo is the youngest winner of the Long Jing Tea Firing King (Chao Cha Wang) competition and also the youngest of the Long Jing Grand Firing Masters appointed by the government to pass on the traditional methods to the next generation. In 2007 he was asked to fire the tea from the famous 18 tribute Long Jing bushes selected by the Emperor Qian Long in the eighteenth century.
Before I went to China to meet Master Luo, Tim and I prepared many questions for him. Xi Hu Long Jing, as the Chinese call West Lake Dragon Well, is the most famous green tea in China. It has been always in a huge demand, culturally and economically. After many years of chaos in Xi Hu Long Jing market, China has come up with fairly strict rules to identify and to define the brand “Xi Hu Long Jing”. But still, there is much confusion about this very well-known tea. We hoped that Master Luo could help us better understand this secretive world.
 Master Tea Maker Luo pointing towards his 1 acre old varietal Long Jing tea field
Q-Question (by Tim & Lu)
A-Answer (by Master Tea Maker Luo)
In our very first meeting at Master Luo’s home, the conversation was like a chat more than a serious interview. The information may not be perfectly accurate and like all our interviews any mistakes are likely to be our mistakes in understanding what was said. If you have any questions about anything, you are very well come to send us your questions and we will collect them and pass them to him at a later date.
Q: Could you please describe the whole process?
A: First you pick the fresh leaves, and lay them out on bamboo mats, lift and keep the bamboo mat in the air. In this process, it will dry 70% water out from the leaves. There are a few steps during the fire process after drying the leaves. One is called “Qing Guo” (in Chinese, if I translate directly, it will be Green Wok), the temperature is about 230-240 degrees. Each time you fire about 100 grams. In this stage, you save about 20% water in the leaves. The main purpose of this step is to make the colour right. After this, is to make the shape. This step is called “Hui Guo” (in Chinese, if I translate directly, it will be Waving Wok). It is about 80 degrees, you will need to change your hand movements depends on how the leaves grow. The last step is called “Ting Chang Tou” (it will sound very strange if I translate this word, maybe it’s better to keep it like it is), which means “to sort out”, you will need to sift the tea leafs and reduce the water content to about 3-4%. This step will improve the glossiness of the leaves.
Q: How do you judge a West Lake Long Jing?
A: Colour, fragrance, shape and taste, there are four most important things to remember if you want to judge a Long Jing Tea. The best colour I think, it should be green with slightly yellowish. If you fire too much, the colour will be too yellow, or grey, if you fire too less, it will be tasteless. And of course, you always have to check the wet leaves and to see if there are broken ones.
Q: Who did you learn your technique from?
A: My grandpa from my mum’s side, he was from Long Jing Village, and later move to Mei Jia Wu in the 1940s.
Q: What was his name?
A: Ying Zhi Sheng.
Q: Tell me how it is like during the picking season every year, please?
A: Of course. Normally the first two days, you only can make a half to one kilo. The third and the fourth days, I have 8 to 9 people to help with picking, maybe 2 and a half kilo fresh leafs you can pick per person. I can make 2 and a half kilo per day. I don’t have time to sleep, maybe only 2-3 hours rest every day for the 20 days or so I fire every year.
Q: Why no time to sleep?
A: The leaves are changing every day. You have to compete with time. It terrifies me now when I think about it. I am actually getting more and more nervous and scared when the time comes closer and closer to the picking season. It will be a great physical challenge for every firer.
Q: Are there any differences technically between firing “Old Tea Tree” and “No.43”?
A: “Old Tea Tree” needs more time to fire, about 40 minutes each time. “No.43” needs less time to fire, only 25 minutes. “Old Tea Tree” is tastier, less distance between the two leaves. “No.43” is quite tasty, bigger distance between the two leaves. And you normally start picking “Old Tea Tree” 10 days after “No.43”.
Q: How big are the fields you have? Do you have both varietals?
A: Yes, I do. I have one Mu “Old Tea Tree” I got from my Grandpa. This piece of land is on the top of the hill beside Long Jing village. It produces about 10 kilos a year. I also have about four Mu of No.43 cultivar, and they produce about 100 kilos a year.
Q: What is the difference between a “Firing King” and a normal Long Jing Firer?
A: Everything is different, especially the taste of the tea. I normally don’t sell my teas to “Shi Feng” (Lion Hill – the top brand of West Lake Long Jing).
Q: Why?
A: (he laughed and then turned into a shy smile) because if they receive a top grade tea from one Long Jing firer, they will use it as a standard and the teas from the other firer will have to match that level. Unfortunately if I sell them my teas, it will be difficult to find other Long Jing to match my level as the teas are graded by how they look. The big Long Jing companies take tea from different firers and grade and blend them all together.
Q: Tell me a bit more about the fire process every year.
A: The leaves from the first day is the easiest to fire, anyone can do it well. The fourth to the sixth days, it’s most difficult to fire the leaves, the leaves are changing so much, and you will have to change your technique every day. From field to field, the leaves are different as well. If the soil is rich, the leaves are strong. If the soil is poor, the leaves are weak of course.
 A Long Jing firer demostrates his technique for tourists visiting Mei Jia Wu Q: By watching the firer firing, can you see who is better?
A: When it is the stage “Hui Guo”, you can put your hand into the wok to touch the leaves, if the leaves are hard, then it means a bad fire. The leaves only should get hard in the moment when they are taken out from the wok. If you can hear loud sound from the leaves rubbing against each other, then it is a very bad sign.
Q: Tell me more about “Hui Guo” please.
A: In this step, everybody has their own individual style and technique but one thing in common is, a crucial “30 second” period. Within these “30 seconds” the colour is the best, you will have to take the leaves out as soon as possible. If you are late, the colour will turn into grey. Therefore you often see the firers keep on checking the leaves during this process, which is because they are waiting for these “30 seconds” to come.
 The prizes Master Luo has received and two glasses of Long Jing Q: Tell me about the “King of Firing” competition you joined please.
A: I was lucky. The leaves were just right for me to fire. Normally we choose 4 firers from every village to join the competition which happens every two years.
Q: How many times did you win the title?
A: Two times.
Q: Then it’s NOT just luck!
A: giggling…
Q: Tell me more about your technique please?
A: I use the very old, traditional technique from Long Jing Village, because of my grandpa of course. The bud is slightly longer than the leaf if you look closer. And I don’t close the edge of the leaves like other firers normally do. The other firers’ leaves are normally round. The firers who can do the same as I do are normally over 60 years old. There are 7 or 8 of them. I am the only young firer who carries on this tradition from Long Jing Village.
Q: Could you please tell me more about the differences between the Long Jings from Long Jing Village and Mei Jia Wu?
A: There are some differences in the leaves. If you look at the final Long Jing, you will find the Long Jing from Long Jing Village is green with slightly yellow in it. The Long Jing from Mei Jia Wu is more yellowish, less lively, because of the overfiring.
 A view of the West Lake looking towards the tea growing hills Q: Any differences between West Lake Long Jing and Zhe Jiang Long Jing?
A: There is a big difference! West Lake Long Jing is from the area that is only 5 kilometers long (Shi Li Long Jing). Zhe Jiang Long Jing can never achieve the same quality. If you have two Long Jings in front of you, put your hand into them, the soft one is from West Lake, the hard one is from Zhe Jiang. The ones from Zhe Jiang are thick and hard, they prick your hand. The Long Jing leaves from West Lake are small and cute.
Q: How about machine firing?
A: It does the work, but it’s not so easy. Machine made Long Jing lacks fragrance. It won’t give you a nice feeling in your hands. The machine cannot change the pressure for different leaves, it will press the water. It is completely different compare to the hand fired Long Jing.
Q: Does anybody use machines here in your village?
A: No.
Q: How many Mu are there in your village?
A: 160 Mu in total, we are 165 people. Every year the village makes about 2500 kilos of top grade Long Jing.
Q: How many people help you during the firing season?
A: 8 to 9 people help me to pick the teas, they all have to follow the rule – two leafs and one bud. The only firer is me.
Q: Tell me about the fertilizer you use please?
A: Pressed rapeseed cakes. Each one weighs half a kilo. You bury them deeper than 25 cm in the soil near the roots. The roots are normally about 20 cm deep. By burying the rapeseed cakes deep, it will help the roots to grow deeper. When the roots grow deep enough, the bushes will not be easily dried out in the summer. We use compound fertilizer once per 2 or 3 years.
Q: Any pesticides?
A: Chinese Academy of Sciences is responsible for all the West Lake Long Jing area. They use low toxicity pesticides, mainly chili pepper water, and spray it about 10 times a year. West Lake Long Jing has been grown this more environmentally friendly way for the last 5 years.
Q: Tell me about Long Jing in different solar terms please.
A: To be honest, the day, the very same day as Gu Yu, Long Jing taste the best to me. Only on that day, the tea I fire on Gu Yu, I never sell it. I share it with my friends and important customers. I also blend some of it with dried sweet osmanthus, it tastes delicious.
Q: Tell me more about Pre- Qing Ming Long Jing.
A: I can guarantee you all the “Pre- Qingming Long Jings” you see on the market before the 20th of March are NOT West Lake Long Jing. We normally start our picking around the 22nd of March if the weather is good. On Gu Yu, I only make 3 to 3.5 kilos, as I said, I never sell them. The Long Jing after Gu Yu is more full bodied, cheap, I don’t drink them.
Part 2 coming soon……………
 New shoots on Mount Fuji April 2010 These are the first leaves of 2010 at Master Tea Maker Akiyama’s estate which has won many prizes including the top gold prize at the international World Green Tea Contest in 2008. This April on his small estate which is less than 10 acres, he told me has 30 different varietals from classic Japanese cultivars to oolong varieties from China and Taiwan. He even has some Assam jat tea bushes tucked away at the side of one of his fields for his experimentations with producing black tea. For his future tea trees, Mr Akiyama grows from seed and then selects which trees to take cuttings from. The tea world needs more farmers like him to compete with the tea research stations’ vision of the future.
 The Liu family ’s old Pu-erh tea tree grove on Mt Mengsong We are tea importers. For over a decade we have travelled to work with small scale traditional tea producers and crafts people across Asia. These artisans are true experts and the keepers of their local tea knowledge and heritage. At a time when tea is internationally appreciated like never before, we believe these often silent heroes of the tea world have much to tell us about their culture’s past, present, and future. The site is called Single Estate Tea because we wanted to help spread their knowledge and campaign for all good tea to have proper provenance starting with the maker’s or estate’s name.
 Master Wang, maker of ancient tree phoenix oolong teas Recently tea has often been compared wine, but unlike with wine rarely do people discuss the crucial contribution of the maker. This may be because most tea labels do not mention the maker or estate often just the tea merchant. But imagine wine connoisseurs trying to have a serious discussion or comparison of vintages from the same region without mentioning the makers or estates. Wine labels and some other drink labels detail the year, the varietal, the region, and the person or estate responsible for the drink or the blend and so should a tea label which is our reason for proposing a single estate tea label for tea companies and tea lovers who care about tea.
 A Traditional Tie Guan Yin maker’s home in Peng Lai village, Anxi As well as increasing knowledge which will build a new deeper appreciation of tea and its culture, better provenance can also help protect the consumer from misleading descriptions of teas. Information can also play a crucial role in helping to protect traditional tea culture which has become fundamentally threatened by globalization and ever larger scale factory tea farms in countries where tea has long been produced on small family farms. In the following sections, we list the areas that concern us and where we believe better provenance can help protect tea culture.
 Wu Yi Oolong Master Tea Maker Xu demonstrating traditional Yan Cha firing 1) Traditional Tea Processing Practices.
In China completely handmade oolong production is now rare. Even in Wuyi, the birthplace of Oolongs, there are very few makers who will take the effort and time to make the mountains’ famous Yancha the traditional way without any machines. A Wuyi Oolong grown outside the Scenic area, made in a factory where the leaves have been machine bruised, machine rolled, and machine fired is obviously not the same as a completely handmade Wuyi Oolong grown inside the true rock tea area. However if you read some descriptions on some tea internet stores you might easily buy a factory farm, machine made Wuyi oolong thinking that the tea was totally traditionally made.
 Honzu shaded Gyokuro plantations In Japan the Honzu (water reed and mochi rice stalk) shading of tea is a tradition kept alive by only a few families with virtually all of Gyokuro made using tea grown under modern black plastic sheeting. Many Gyokuro aficionados believe that Honzu shading influences the taste of the tea because the rain washes the goodness and flavour of the reeds and rice stalks into the soil which is then taken up by the plant. So if you want something approaching the original taste of Gyokuro you may want to try a Honzu shaded tea.
 Mrs Ma using a modern tea machinery to make tea Of course modern techniques and machinery have a central place in 21st century tea production but it is important centuries old hand processing practices don’t disappear and that modern processed tea is not passed off as something traditional.
 A small tea field in the Wuyi scenic area 2) Traditional Family Tea Farms.
In East Asia particularly in China, small family farms of no more than a couple of acres that produce one or two teas indigenous to their area are under threat from huge farms which produce many different kinds of tea, sometimes even copies of foreign teas.
 Factory farm Phoenix Dan Cong oolong production in China Well made mass-produced copies of famous teas produced can be found for sale in many tea stores around the world and on the internet. They are attractive to tea wholesalers, importers, and retailers because they offer copies of teas which are by their nature in short supply at lower prices and of course larger quantities. Despite these large farms and factories embracing modern machinery there is often hand work involved in production, so some merchants feel justified in describing them as “handcrafted”, “artisanal”, and “authentic”. These teas are also often described as “rare” but how these “premium” teas, million of kilos of which are produced a year, be described as rare? The type of Chinese tea farm that make these teas, typically export their teas (sometimes as much as 50% or 60%) and are large (usually between 100-2000 acres), making them a similar size to factory tea farms in Africa, India, or South America.
 Obayashi tea farm and yamacha bushes in Aichi Japan In Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and China few heritage teas are made on farms larger than 10 acres and many farms are under 5 acres. Unless these small farms and farmers can find a strong local market prepared to pay more for smaller production better quality teas, the huge loss of young people in these countries to the cities will continue and we will find fewer and fewer family tea farms making tea in small batches. The sight of huge factory tea farms producing “premium” “famous” teas in Fujian, Zhejiang or Guangdong is simply shocking when compared with the scale of traditional tea production.
 Master Tea Maker Luo pointing towards his 1 acre old varietal Long Jing tea field As we have already stated one of the goals of this website was share the thoughts and wisdom of small traditional tea producers. In the next 6 months we plan to publish interviews we have had with tea producers including: Master Tea Maker Xu, the maker of tea from the original Da Hong Pao mother trees, who farms 4 families’ land in the Wuyi Scenic area 8 acres in total; Master Tea Maker Luo, the youngest of the 16 Long Jing Grand Firing Masters who ran away from school at 12 to learn how to fire from his grandfather and has already had the honour of firing the 18 imperial tribute bushes. He makes tea from several of his family fields totalling 4 acres; and Master Tea Maker Obayashi, who is one of the few sencha makers in Japan to insist on all the tea on his 5 acre estate being hand picked. His “yamacha” style of tea has been grown without any pesticides since he was first asked to make tea for the Emperor of Japan over 30 years ago.
 Tea flowers in a gyokuro field in Nishio Japan 3) Traditional Tea Propagation.
Luckily tea is cultural and every tea culture is very different so there should always be a wide variety of tea cultivars to enjoy. However what has happened with industrial farming where high yielding vegetable varieties, become the dominant varietal of the market, has also happened in tea. Although the trend is now being reversed, until recently the Yabukita varietal accounted for almost 94% of all the Sencha made in Japan. It is an excellent varietal with a great history but one wants diversity both in tastes and gene stock, especially when disease or pests can obliterate one varietal at a stroke.
 Master Tea Maker Matsumoto with tea seeds from his 90 years old bushes The diversity of farmed tea varietals has been particularly under threat since tea started to shift from seed to clonal propagation by using cuttings in the mid 20th century. This has meant that the natural selection allowed by mutation in seed propagation has largely been eliminated in certain tea areas leading to a less biodiverse environment, as clonal propagation removes the very chance of variation as every plant’s DNA is the same. Many of the new clones developed and distributed by various regions’ tea research centres are excellent, but they are often distributed to the point of excluding older tea varietals. Moreover, some clonal teas’ main selling point seems to be that they can be harvested earlier or are higher yielding, rather than better tasting. Although many farmers are happy to just grow the in demand popular varietals, some sensible tea farmers are combining the strengths of both propagation techniques by, allowing their traditional tea varietals to seed and then over a long period of trials on the tea made by these seeds, selecting which ones they want to clone by taking cuttings.
 One of the four 100 years old Shui Xian tea trees that Master Xu makes tea from near Water Curtain Cave in the Wuyi Scenic Area Another concern about modern tea propagation is the destruction of old trees and their replacement with monocultures of young ubiquitous clonal plants which can damage both the natural biodiversity of an area as well as its landscape and people through landslides because clonal tea plants tend to have weaker root systems than seed grown tea plants. Seed grown tea trees, particularly old seed grown tea trees, tend to have more complex flavours and aromas which are in part due to their well developed root systems so their protection should be a priority wherever possible.
 The natural beauty of Alishan in Taiwan where forestry licences have been used illegally for the monoculture farming of tea and betel nuts 4) Traditional Tea and the Environment.
China is adding to the acreage covered by forests every year. However, much of this gain has been made by reforesting land and some older forested areas are still disappearing or are under threat (despite some efforts by local and national government). Expansion of large new tea farms and their monoculture has put pressure on natural biodiversity in different environments, particularly on forested mountains which are suited to tea. Recent deforestation in Taiwan and Yunnan for agricultural monocultures including tea are believed to be one of the causes of landslides in these areas. In Taiwan some producers of high mountain oolongs seem to have used forestry licenses illegally to cut back forestry for tea production at high altitudes. Consequently there are frequent calls to reduce farming above 1500m and the environmental farming bodies like MOA have refused to register and certify any farms above 1500m because it believes that farming above this altitude affects the Taiwanese mountains’ natural biodiversity and increases the risk of fatal disasters during the heavy rains of the typhoon season.
 Tim with Taiwanese Tea Maker Mr.Chun at his 6 acre tea farm certified by the MOA They believe High Mountain Oolong produced over 1500m damages the environment
We support organic production as it is always better for the land, the plants and the people involved, but organic tea especially in China is not necessarily traditionally produced tea. Business Week writes:
“China’s organic farms aren’t exactly the small, family-run enterprises many consumers expect. Even Pay, a fellow at the Pesticide Eco-Alternatives Center in Kunming, explains that “organic products destined for export are usually grown on large-scale farms where farmers are organized and managed by local governments or private companies.” Moreover, she says, “the decision to go organic rarely lies with the farmer.”
 An old tea tree on Nannou shan, Yunnan. Traditional Puerh production protects biodiversity and reduces the risk of landslides
We have found many traditional family tea farms use no pesticides and only natural fertilizers. However most are too busy, too small or uninterested in organic certification unlike the much larger estates that produce tea for export. In the future we would be pleased to see a certification scheme for traditionally made tea, specific to an area, which would also insist on traditional farming methods using no chemicals.
 Yi Xing Zi Sha artist He Jian's tools 5) Traditional Tea Crafts
Truly artisanal handmade tea ware from Japan, China, and Taiwan is getting harder to find as more and more of the teaware being sold is produced in large factories. Many of the “genuine”, “handmade”, “Zisha”, “YiXing” teapots sold are not slab built by a named craftsman or artist, but are slip-cast in their hundreds using clay slurry or at best slab built on a production line with little craft, art or originality. Some of the chasen tea whisks sold with Japanese labels are in fact made in Korea or China. There is nothing wrong with a good slip cast teapot or an inexpensive Chinese made chasen, unless the purchaser was been sold this as something authentic when it is not. This also denies the tea lover the chance to support a traditional craftsman and his craft through their purchase.
We should be proud of knowing where things come from so do ask any specialist tea store about their teaware as well as their tea and draw your own conclusions if your questions go unanswered.
 Tango Tanimura, the 20th generation of his family to make chasen tea whisks for the Grand Masters of the Sen families We would like to see all tea sellers aiming to label their teas with this kind of information:
1) The name of the tea.
2) The species, cultivar and age of the tea trees used.
3) Where it was made (country and region).
4) Altitude of the estate.
5) When it was made (season and year).
6) What processes were used in the production (hand picked, hand rolled, etc).
7) The name of the tea maker or estate.
8 ) The size of the whole estate in acres not just the field or garden where the tea was produced.
We have produced a downloadable label for anyone interested, please download or print from here — Single Estate Tea Label
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