Tea Stories & Gallery:
All the tea stories began in ancient China about 2737 B.C. First of all, we would lay out some definitions about tea’s name. “Camellia sinensis” in Latin is tea plant’s scientific name. Camellia means ‘tea’ and sinensis means ‘China’ in English.
One day, Shen Nong, the Chinese Divine Cultivator was sitting beneath a tree to boil a pot of drinking water. Accidentally some dried leaves from the tree blew and fell into the water. And those leaves slowly infuse a brown liquid into the water. He was curious about the new liquid, decided to try the infusion. Shen Nong shortly found the liquid very refreshing with a pleasant fragrance. Thus as an herbalist, he began his fascinating search to identify and classify tea variety and quality.
Another Lengendary Tea Story:
There is another legend saying that as an experimental herbalist Shen Nong sampled various kinds of plants to determine their individual effects. This boldness sometimes resulted in poisoning and he used tea as an antidote. From his discovery, tea has now become part of the lifestyle of many nations. It has become a general beverage in every corner or the world today.
A legend of a much later date about A.D. 520 concerns about Chinese Zen Buddhism. The emperor gave Zen a cave-temple, where he proceeded to demonstrate the benefits of meditation. Just staring at a wall for his years’ meditation, he often fell asleep. To make sure that his eyelids did not drop again, he cut them off and cast them away. Where they fell a plant grew, the tea plant, from whose leaves a drink can be prepared which drives away sleep. The aid of tea during long hours of meditation may indeed explain how monks became instrumental in spreading its fame. Later Zen monks took to honoring their founder by sipping tea before a statue of him.
Tea Spreads Internationally:
During the fifth century, tea drinking spread rapidly in the south and more slowly in the north. By then, tea has well become as a beverage. A Jin dynasty poet wrote, “Fragrant tea superimposes the six passions; the taste for it spreads over the nine districts (meaning the whole country).” Tea was sent to the emperors of the Eastern Jin dynasty tribes, for Chinese records note its use in barter trade with Turkic peoples in A.D. 476.
In the far reaches, tea compressed into cakes or bricks served as a medium of exchange almost from the beginning of the tea trade. Tea Bricks continued in this role even after paper money was introduced in the eleventh century. The merchants were responsible for the first bank drafts in the Tang dynasty. They found it difficult and dangerous to carry the gold payment for their sales back to the south from the capital Chang’an (today’s Xi’an). So provincial representatives in the capital had to turn in certain sums to the crown each year. Frequently those people used the gold from tea sales for this purpose. And later, they wrote drafts entitling the merchants to collect their proceeds on their return to the provinces.
Tea Spreads Continuing:
It has been nearly 420 years, drinking tea is a form of enjoyment among European counties. In fact, tea had already been in use for more than 4,000 years before non-Asians got to take their first sip. As most record shows, Westerners began to drink those loose teas starting from 1600s. And it began as a medicine and later took as a tonic. Starting about the time of Christ, its popularity as a beverage began to spread throughout China along with Buddhism. For the Buddhists are to tea in Asia, what the Catholics are to wine in Europe. It is not entirely far-fetched to think of tea as Buddhist communion.
Cake Teas Come Up
The earliest tea was manufactured into cakes which now we call them as ‘tea bricks’. And people bring them to perfection as a drink, these required boiling, after other elaborate preparation. This is the form of tea described in the world’s first tea book, the Cha Ching, written by a Buddhist-trained tea master named Lu Yu around 780 AD.
Later on, cake tea was ground into a fine powder. People often whip it in hot—not boiling—water with a split-bamboo tea whisk. The frothy liquid was then drunk with the tea particles suspended in it. Japanese copied this form of tea and perpetuated it in the Japanese tea ceremony to this day. Only after 1300 did the Chinese discover how to manufacture tea in loose-leaf form, best prepared by steeping. This is the form of tea that the world knows today. All the various kinds of tea that have ever been developed continue to be produced and enjoyed in China. But tea is prepared by steeping, gradually seeped throughout the whole world to become mankind’s most popular beverage except for water.
The trade in tea, outside of China, has always been a business like no other. China was the source of the world’s tea until well after 1839, when the British had its first tea production in India. During the centuries of the China monopoly, tea was handled by specialty purveyors like Twining. It set up business in London in 1715 with 18 different teas, priced and sold by type and quality, straight from the chest. Not until 1826 was the first packet tea introduced by the honest English Quaker, John Horniman.
Tea Story relates to American Independence:
China Tea Event triggered American Revolutionary War starting in 1775. It finally led thirteen colonial States of America independent from Great Britain in 1776. Here are our tea stories:
The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest on December 16, 1773, by the Sons of Liberty in Boston in colonial Massachusetts. Their target was the Tea Act of May 10, 1773. That Act allowed the East India Company to sell tea from China in American colonies without paying taxes apart from those imposed by the Townshend Acts. The Sons of Liberty strongly opposed the taxes in the Townshend Act as a violation of their rights. In response, the Sons of Liberty, some disguised as Native Americans, destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company.
The demonstrators boarded the ships and threw the chests of tea into the Boston Harbor. One evening, a group of 30 to 130 men, who dressed in the Mohawk warrior disguises, boarded the three vessels. Over the course of three hours, those men dumped all 342 chests of tea into the water. The British government considered the protest an act of treason and responded harshly. Days later the Philadelphia Tea Party, instead of destroying a shipment of tea, sent the ship back to England without unloading. The episodes escalated into the American Revolution, and the Boston Tea Party became an iconic event of American history. Since then other political protests such as the Tea Party movement have referred to themselves as historical successors to the Boston protest of 1773.
The Tea Party In Government:
The Tea Party was the culmination of a resistance movement throughout British America against the Tea Act, a tax passed by the British Parliament in 1773. Colonists objected to the Tea Act. They believed it violated their rights as Englishmen to “no taxation without representation”. Their own elected representatives should have rights to make decision on taxation and not by a parliament. The well-connected East India Company also had been granted competitive advantages over colonial tea importers. They resented the move and feared additional infringement on their business. Protesters had prevented the unloading of tea in three other colonies, but in Boston, embattled Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson refused to allow the tea to be returned to Great Britain.
The Boston Tea Party was a significant event that helped accelerate and intensify colonial support for the American Revolution. Parliament responded in 1774 with some Acts and ended local self-government in Massachusetts and closed Boston’s commerce. Colonists throughout the Thirteen Colonies responded to the Intolerable Acts with additional acts of protest. By convening the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia, this Congress petitioned the British monarch for repeal of the acts and coordinated colonial resistance to them, culminating in the October 1774 Continental Association. The crisis escalated, leading to the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. It marked the beginning of the American Revolutionary War and independence from the British.
—Excerpted from Wiki
Steps in the manufacture of Tea (Camellia sinensis):
Evolution and change of the Teacup:
Things got changed in the mid-1800s when British had India produce the tea. Teas there were entirely different from anything and anywhere before. They adopted some kinds of plantation-grown and machine-produced for black tea. It is totally different from the China-type tea plant. Those British also discovered that the tea plant is growing wild in India and gave it a name as Assam jat (“type”). Assam jat selected the colonial monoculture method for growing and the industrialized Orthodox Manufacture method for producing. Eventually it spread to every new tea-producing country around the world.
By 1890, over half of England’s tea came from India. Colonial tea had replaced China tea decisively in the West. British colonial-built industries took root in one new tea land after another produced all black teas, but nothing else. It was a uniform, standardized product ideal for packet tea blends and it could be mass-marketed more profitably than any other agricultural commodity. The mass marketing of this kind of tea is best exemplified by Thomas J. Lipton’s worldwide brand. His success has hardly been equaled since he bought his first Sri Lanka estates in 1890.
--Irish Breakfast
Irish Breakfast tea comes from an Irish famous gourmand and a prolific author — James Joyce. His protagonist, Leopold Bloom, recounted every meal consumed on what is now known as Bloomsday. The meal, including Fry, is typically served all day long. It consists primarily of porridge, bacon, sausage, smoked salmon, eggs and tea. The latter was required equally strong, as it was customary to dilute it with milk. Irish Breakfast commonly consists of China Keemun Black, Ceylon and Assam. The proportion of each varies greatly from blend to blend. The tea is a full-bodied, malty brew. In Ireland, most local people would like to refer it as simple as “tea’, but not as “Irish Breakfast”.
--Keemun Tea
Keemun (QiMen in Chinese) tea is orginately from eight different types of tea bushes in AnHui and JiangXi provinces, China. Those areas are the best sourcing counties for Keemun Black. Their leaves have a little red vein running down the backside of the leaf. Until around a century ago, those regions produced only green tea, which was unremarkable at best.
However, in 1875 the local farmers switched to the manufacture of black tea and the results were spectacular. Small, thin, slightly twisted leaves that are naturally sweet and refreshing characterize the style and flavor of the best Keemun tea. Believe or not, tea farmers painstakingly hand-sort those tiny leaves both before and after processing. Keemun teas come in a wide range of quality, e.g. Hao Ya (“hairy bud” in English) is the highest grade and Keemun Mao Feng (“hairpoint” in English) is the next. Those two elegant teas can range from very dark black to black that is tinged with a soft, matte gray. You may see a shining golden ring circle at the liquor edge of cup after they have properly been brewed. Both are in very small quantity production, which makes them pricey, but always well worth it.
--Pu Erh Tea
Pu Erh tea gets its name from a small town located in southern Yunnan. Tea had been cultivated in this part of China for about four thousand years. Its popularity owes much to the many trade routes that flowed through this region. With popularity came royal inquiry.
And so, locals were used to offering Pu Erh teas in tribute to many a generation of Chinese emperors. It is among the few teas that improves with age in either raw or cooked versions of Pu-Erh tea. Similar to wine, one may find very expensive Pu Erhs that are decades old. “Slimming” is one of the properties the locals attribute to it. Recent studies seem to show there is some validity to this reputation. This tea’s unique fermentation process imparts it with some cholesterol-fighting powers. Moreover, we should mention that the tea will have a better taste if you choose a decent teapot to brew.
--Lapsang Souchong
Lapsang Souchong is a unique spelling way by Chinese Fukienese dialectic pronunciation. The word ‘Lapsang’ means “from high mountains” and ‘Souchong’ means “sub-variety”. According to popular mythology, farmers discovered its smoky flavor and the way of process purely by accident.
During Dao Guang era of Qing dynasty in ancient China, due to the local turmoil, a band of soldiers passed through ChongAn Star Village of Fujian and occupied a tea factory. There were a lot of unprocessed fresh tea leaves stored there. As such, the factory was unable to dry and to process those leaves on a timely base. Those leaves turned into dark color with unexpected partial fermentation.
When the soldiers left and the workers lit open fires of green pine wood to hasten the drying in an unusual way of processing. Beyond their predictions, the unique smoky flavor of Lapsang Souchong attracted the great interests of the Royal families in the United Kingdom. Not only did the tea catch the market in time, but the very strong odor of smoked pine flavor created a sensation!
Another legend claimed that the tea was accidentally developed, when traders left packs of tea too close to the pine wood fire. As a result, it led a thoroughly smoky flavor when the tea reached the market.
Tea Stories Continued for Lapsang Souchong:
On mentioning those legends of Lapsang Souchong, people may commonly connect it to Russian Caravan. It refers to the long, overland journey that tea would travel on from China to the markets in Moscow around 19th century. Those chests of tea would travel on camelback for almost a year. Russian-bound tea was famous for the smell of the many campfires it would absorb along the way. And thus, the smoky tea varieties became associated with Russia, and often have Czar Nikolai and other Slavic or Russian monarchy names.
--Yunnan Black Congou
Yunnan Black Congou is a black tea from the province of Yunnan in the south west of China bordering Vietnam. Congou (“gong fu” in Chinese) refers to one of the highest grades of black teas. A term of black congou is meant to underscore a process or something that is time consumed, well produced, carefully made, labor intensive, well executed.
This tea also requires extraordinary skills in all steps of their manufacture–from the plucking to the initial sorting to the manufacture and final sorting. Yunnan had been a tea-producing region for close to two thousand years. Here grows China’s oldest wild tea tree – about seventeen hundred years old. Yunnan’s most senior cultivated tree is a relative youngster – a mere eight hundred years old. The place also has the distinction of producing more black tea with larger-leaf types, although it’s a relative newcomer to this variety. The first production of this black tea happened there at the end year of 1938. And its unique peppery taste dominated the tea market for years. It was a news spread that the Queen of England flauntingly displayed this tea in a crystal glass during the Second World War.
--Jasmine Tea
There are so many tea stories about Jasmine Tea but the following one sounds more interesting.
In the Ming Dynasty of ancient China, there was a farmer, called Uncle Zhao, in Su Zhou City having three sons and living in penury. He had to go far away from his home to Canton of Southern China in order to make money and support his family. Two years later, he brought back a bundle of saplings and named them as “fragrant flowers” by that time. His eldest son planted those saplings next to tea bushes and unexpectedly found them blooming with tiny white flowers.
Surprisingly, the teas from that garden scented with its unique fragrance and went extremely well in the tea marketplace, from which the eldest son made astounding profits than his brothers could. The other two sons felt unbalance and fought with the eldest against their father’s favor. In the settlement, Uncle Zhao had to invite a respected old hermit, named “Dai Kui”, from their town to judge the case. By considering the family unity first and profit (pronounced ‘Li’ in Chinese) last (pronounced ‘Mo’ in Chinese), the hermit suggested to spread the eldest son’s profits for the tea sales and saplings among three of them. As a result, the judgment by old hermit completely persuaded Zhao’s family, including three sons. Actually, ‘Mo Li’ is currently referring to and translated into “Jasmine” in English.
Since then, they united together and named the tea as “Mo Li” tea (Jasmine Tea), which means that selfish interests should be last. Now Jasmine tea implicates a sense of unity to bring up success in China.
--Grading Black Teas
The size of the tea leaf and types of leaves could be a main determining factor for black tea grading. However, leaf size is not, by itself, a guarantee of quality. The term cupping is to describe the tasting of different teas to determine quality, color, smell and taste. Cupping similar teas against each other will enable you to determine quality vs. price when making a purchase for your shop.
--Golden Needles
Golden Needle tea, the most superb black tea, hails from Wu Yi Mountains of the Fujian province in China, whereas the province is one of its most prolific in teas. This region accounts for one-fifth of China’s total tea output. And the high quality of its teas keeps them in high demand. This region’s exports of tea used to be accounted for a quarter of the country’s total. Fujian teas benefits from an excellent climate, combining mild temperatures, abundant rainfall and mountainous terrain. This tea shapes like shiny golden needles with one leaf and one bud. It has a long history of cultivating tea over one-thousand years and has been stepping in to a organic category.
--Sticking with one teapot for one type of tea
To enjoy the full aroma and better taste of tea, we strongly recommend to use the same type of tea in the same pot, which means, green tea for one pot, black tea in other, Oolong tea in another and so on. The residual or mixed flavors of the different types of tea should not cross over into each other. Never clean the teapots with detergents or soaps, because the clay could absorb those detergents or soaps, which will affect the taste of the later teas.
--How much caffeine is in tea? Is it different for different types of tea?
Caffeine levels vary with the type of tea, when it is picked, how it is processed, and most importantly, length of brewing time. While many sources state that black tea has the most caffeine and greens the least, it’s hard to rely on such generalizations, because so many variables affect the final caffeine content. Caffeine levels in a five-ounce cup of tea can range from six milligrams up to 110 milligrams per cup. The same amount of coffee yields 40 – 180 mg per cup.
--What do OP and FOP mean in tea designations?
In the tea grading system these designations are mainly used for whole leaf black teas and refer to the leaf size and amount of tip in the tea. OP, or Orange Pekoe, is a full-leaf black tea, whereas orange originally refers to the “prince of orange” and thus conveys tea of “noble quality”, and whereas Pekoe means teas picked as two leaves and one bud. FOP, or Flowery Orange Pekoe, is not only a longer leaf than an OP but also has more buds. Grading systems and terminology vary with tea type and country. Generally, the more whole the leaf is and the more buds it contains, the higher the grade of tea. The typical examples we may indicate here from our listing are Keemun OP Quality and China Keemun Tea, which obviously the latter belongs to FOP.
--Pi Lo Chueng (Bi Luo Chun)
Pi Lo Chueng has been produced for over 1000 years. It is grown on the eastern banks of Dongting Lake of SuZhou in Jiang Su (Jags) province, and so originally referred to by locals as Dongting Tea. Later, it garnered the name “Astounding Fragrance.” The name stuck but the story about this tea began.
Given as a tribute tea in late Tang and early Song Dynasty periods, it was only when the Qing Dynasty Kang Xi Emperor tried it. This tea story comes up when the empire was on his southern tours and the name of this tea is given by that empire mainly because he loved that tea so much. Pi Lo Chuen as named is more befitting its imperious quality. It translates literally from Chinese to Emerald Green (or Jade) Spiral Spring (or Green Snail Spring) in English. This is one of tea stories in Chinese history books.
Emerald Green is the color of the Eastern peaks of the Dongting mountains in early morning. Choosing the word ‘Spring’ is because this tea is harvested in the Spring. The word ‘Spiral’ refers that the shape of the tea likes a tiny hair-covered spiral. Its leaf size is around 1/2 – 1 inch long, hence one pound contains about 60,000 – 70,000 buds. The tea bushes are normally planted crosswise with loquat trees, from whence Pi Lo Chueng gets its unique fruit flavor.
--Brewing A Perfect Cup Of Tea
Your tea will only be as good as your water, which has been addressed by many Tea Masters. Begin your brew by bringing filtered or spring water to a boil. Heat water to a rolling boil and then allow boiling water to cool for a moment to different temperatures depending on different types of teas, such as Black Tea, Green Tea, Oolong Tea and so on. Place certain amount of tea within a strainer or a infuser into your cup or our Yixing teapots (see suggested amount from our brewing tips) and pour hot water into your cup. Infuse for 3 to 6 minutes (see details from our brewing tips) or until you find the taste for your palate. Now sit back, sip and enjoy!
--Grading Green Teas
There is no uniform grading system for green teas, but the better quality green consist of a leaf and a bud, then 2 leaves & a bud and so on. Traditionally, the eight criteria for good green tea are appearance, shape, color, completeness, aroma, liquor, flavor and wet leaf. All of those judgments need some kinds of experiences and expertises.
--Quenching Decent Iced Tea
You could choose some of our black teas, e.g. China Keemun, Yunnan Black Congou or Keemun Mao Feng and normally two teaspoons of those teas per one cup. Fill a kattle with desired amount of fresh cold water and bring to a boil. Remove the kattle from the heat when water gets boiling. Let the desired tea steep for about 5-8 minutes and pour the tea into the pitcher straining the leaves. Add sweetener or sugar to the hot water if you prefer sweetened iced tea. Let the brew stand for another 2 minutes and then fill a glass pitcher up with ice cubes (half cup of ice per one cup of brewed tea). Pour the hot & steeped tea over the ice and add some slices of lemon or garnish to serve.
When preparing fresh brewed iced tea, it is suggested to double the strength of hot tea since it will be poured over ice and diluted with cold water.
--Oolong Tea
Because Oolong teas (cha) are to produce a full-bodied beverage, their leaves must not be picked too early or at too tender a stage. They must be processed immediately after picked. Unlike leaves for green tea, those destined to be Oolong are wilted in direct sunlight. Then some types of Oolong are shaken in tubular bamboo baskets to bruise the leaf edges. This bruising is what makes the edges oxidize faster than the center. A typical example of this appearance is Ti Kuan Yin (Iron Goddess of Mercy). The fermentation is arrested halfway through by firing (semi-fermented). The less fermented, the more greenish they will be.
Normally there are two shapes for Oolong tea. The first is the tightly rolled balls with a stem tail. And the second is a long curly leaf shape, which can look like the dragons in Chinese mythology. To get these shapes, oolong is typically harvested from older leaves on the tea plants, so two leaves and bud are unexpected. It is more common to find four leaves and a bud or what is sometimes five older leaves.
More Tea Stories:
Please come up to check this site and more tea stories will be added in the near future. Actually, in short, most of the above tea stories are narrating the history of tea. Thanks!