Week 4 - Tea

The cool breeze from the van window carries the subtle fragrance of the passing bamboo groves, a whiff of pine from the forest and as we climb, the unmistakable and alluring aroma of tea. We are deep in the heart of Puer, winding our way up into the mountains flanked with terraced tea trees painted vibrant green by the spring sun. Smiling tea pickers show the children which leaves to pick and how to pinch from the top stems, a technique unchanged in thousands of years. Freshly picked tea gently browns in the sun on the cottage roofs and bamboo platforms of the villages that grace the slopes. This is home to the ancient tea plantations of Yunnan.

We work our way a few kilometers along a dappled woodland track through 200, 300, 400 and 500 hundred year old tea trees to a huge gnarled tree dating back to the year 1200. Such ancient trees make Bang Zhang, a shen cha so prized by the dealers of Beijing and Shanghai that it is booked a year in advance. In my notes I have scrawled; 'light in color, a little bitter at first, mellowing after a few brews. Leaves an extraordinary almost sweet after taste in the throat and back of the tongue which gets stronger over time.' This was one of ten teas we slurped over two days in a pretty teashop on the edge of Menghai. Our exceptional hosts, Ms May and Ms Cher, effortlessly satiate our thirst for both tea and knowledge and we leave with a small shipment on route to Singapore and a dozen pages of scribbled notes. A few more steps along our journey into the magical world of tea.

I now lie in the sleeper bus on route to Kunming, gazing out into the darkness. The black lit by flashes of humanity as villages speed past the window and imagine the world of the folks who planted those ancient trees. I see pressed cakes packed onto the horses of the mulateers on route to Lahasa; months of unthinkable hardship through some of the worlds toughest topography. A route we now follow for a while in modern convenience as we head back along the ancient tea horse road to our friends in Shangri La. Time to unpack our woolies...

- Posted by Dave using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Menghai, Yunnan, China