Still reeling from my latest tea estate visits I began to think what a fantastic idea a tea estate holiday would be. Of course like most great ideas someone has already thought of it.
Here is a list of very luxury places to stay where tea estates can be seen from your window.
May 2007 Archives
Back from a great trip to China and Taiwan. The yummy jasmine tea I found, will be appearing in a teapigs pack very soon.
A lasting memory from this trip has to be the food ranging from good, to bad, to interesting.
My last meal in China involved the freshest selection of chicken, fish and frogs. The food made it from dancing around the cage/tank to my plate in less than twenty minutes.
Very tasty if a little disturbing for the western palate
Now back in the Uk, teapigs is off to Cafe Culture.
Genuine white tea comes from the fujian province in China, today I am in Fuding a region renowned for white tea. The Fuding mountains, despite being surrounded in mist, are an impresive back drop for the rolling tea estates.
The real white tea is plucked from 'the big white' tea bush, the needles are downy and soft if plucked early in the morning. The taste is fresh and melon like.
There is an art to plucking tea, the hat doesn't help.....
For a while now people have been asking, 'Why no Jasmine tea?'
Therefore one of my missions while in China was to source a Jasmine tea which was worthy of the teapigs tag.
Good news is, today I found a Jasmine Pearl! Watch this space for the launch of teapigs jasmine pearls.
Alongside finding a perfect Jasmine, I also found a slightly less perfect supermarket. In contrast to the tranquil Chinese streets Carrefour china is a frenzy of activity. Not only do they sell a huge range of food and drink, they also sell scooters, jewelry and even in-store wedding photos (that is something tesco doesn't offer).
Dragonwell, a valley of tea outside the metropolis of Hangzhou. A beautiful wooded area based around the temple which hides the dragonwell itself. When stirred the whiskers of the dragon can be seen moving inside the well....(or perhaps it's just some weeds - who can say).
The dragonwell area has become somewhat of a chinese tourist attraction. The farmers now line the streets panfiring green leaf into dragonwell tea to sell to the Chinese tourists.
For years Chinese tea producers have been marketing their own teas direct to tea drinkers. I think this explains some of the flamboyant stories and tales which are told about the tea and tea growing regions. Dragonwell is a prime example with tales of the precious dragon which brought rain to the region saving it from drought and keeping the bushes alive.
Interesting food of the day - unlike toad in the hole, which isn't toads or holes. The Chinese offer no such misdirection, so duck beaks and potatoes, is just that.
What not to do with a tea leaf? Batter it and deep fry it.I wonder if this would go down well in the land of the deep-fried Mars Bar?
Unlike estates in Kenya, India and Sri lanka, Taiwanese (and Chinese) estates are very small and independent.
In India for example a tea producer is likely to own one or more factories surrounded by hundreds of acres of tea. The workers will be living on the estate and there is likely to be a school and sometimes a hospital on the estate.
In contrast Taiwan has whole villages which are dedicated to tea. Each family independently owns a small area of land (like an allotment) where they grow tea bushes. Each house has a minature factory and a front room laid out for tasting when a buyer visits.
The traditional tasting ceremony (Gongfu) is set up for every visitor, it involves a 'tea master' washing and brewing the fresh leaves, serving them into tiny cups.
My last visit of the day was to a farmer who grows very fine pineapples and tea. My day finished with the perfect combination of freshly made tea and freshly picked pineapple.
Today I am in the tung ting mountains with Mr Jackson Huang, my friend in Taiwan. He has been the chairman of the Taiwan tea association and at the age of 70 can certainly qualify as an expert in tea - 45 years working with tea in Taiwan.
Jackson has seen the country change from producing green and black tea to only producing the finest oolong - the majority of which is snapped up by the local tea drinkers for anywhere between $50 and $250 per kg.
Oolong (blue tea) is between green and black and is produced in 3 different areas of taiwan - ours comes from the tung ting mountains. The different regions produce very different style tea, in the tung ting mountains all tea leaves are tightly twisted into balls.
The ball shaped leaves are created through rolling and twisting the tea and wrapping by hand in a knotted mesh - not dissimilar to tights! The leaf is has a pure intense floral flavour very different to a green or black tea.
As we drive from farmer to farmer, Jackson is keen that I try a variety of tea based foods. Green tea cake - an alarming bright green cake with green juice inside. Oolong infused prunes - like normal prunes but with a sweet flowery tasting sauce. 'tea throaties' - a little gravely tasting but quite nice.
Just back from the night market and my first experience of genuine Taiwan bubble tea.
Traditional bubble tea is a combination of green or black tea with tapioca balls. It is served in a plastic cup with a bespoke straw large enough to slurp up the tapioca balls.
Where did this weird idea come from?
Apparently when Starbucks launched in Taiwan with coffee to-go the traditional tea drinking country feared that tea lovers would turn to coffee lover over night. Bubble tea was 'fun' and to-go, perfect for young Taiwanese. It was an instant success and has since been launched all over the world, it is drunk in the US with lots of sugar and flavours.
Nice story but what does it taste like...first there is a glug of green tea but then there is a giant rice ball in your mouth - green tea and slugs in my opinion?!
Probably will not be featuring on the teapigs website anytime soon.
A 15 hour flight and being woken for noodle breakfast at four in the morning has left me slightly dazed and confused. I have just landed in Taipei on my whistle stop tour of China and Taiwan - 7 flights in 9 days.
In the next ten days I will be visiting tea estates and looking for new teas which are worthy of making it into the teapigs fold - The search is on for a jasmine which hits the spot.
More later, as my food has arrived, a suspect bowl of water-like-soup with fish balls (ball shaped fish?... new to me)
