Compétition de thé de Lugu des Oolongs de Dong Ding

Le weekend dernier, je me suis rendu à Lugu (comté de Nantou) pour la fête bi-annuelle de la grande compétition des Oolongs de Dong Ding (c'est à dire avec une torréfaction plutôt poussée). Ce printemps, on a compté un nombre impressionnant de lots soumis aux juges: 5729! L'autre chiffre qui a retenu mon attention est 2099, soit plus d'un lot sur 3 éliminé de la compétition car sa qualité ou son style ne correspond pas aux critères des juges. C'est là un bon indicateur du sérieux de cette compétition qui répartira les thés restant en 5 catégories.

C'est aussi l'occasion de discuter et de boire des thés avec les fermiers présents. (Les vainqueurs des premiers prix partent les premiers, car ce sont les meilleurs lots qui se vendent les plus vite!) Personnellement, je trouve la torréfaction des ces Oolongs un peu trop forte et je ne m'attarde pas trop à essayer d'en acheter. Je me dirige vers le lac au pied du mont Dong Ding:

Puis, je prends la direction de Feng Huang pour me promener dans les plantations d'Oolong. J'y sens le terroir et les souvenirs de mes infusions passées me reviennent en mémoire. Malgré la chaleur déjà estivale, les théiers renvoient une certaine fraicheur et douce fragrance.

Unleash the fierce dragon

In this year of the Dragon, I am glad to propose 2 new small (54 x 33 cm) Cha Bu decorated with flying dragons. The mythical Chinese animal is a link between Heaven and Earth. His purpose is to bring harmony between both worlds. This could also summarize what tea does to us: resting and then lifting our spirits so that we find the energy and happiness to face the real world.

During the Qing dynasty, the Dragon was the symbol for the Emperor. Nowadays, in the West, the power to direct and manage our life doesn't belong to the leader of the country anymore. We are the Dragon! Inside us, we have the power to change and adapt, to rise to new challenges and overcome difficulties. As a student who just graduated, a new parent or a professional at a crossroad, we can summon the Dragon within ourselves and unleash its (creative) power. (I was thinking about this subject while swimming the other day and I immediately felt a burst of energy in my arms and swam faster for several strokes!)

This Dragon Cha Bu reinforces this symbolism:

Of course, I'm also using my 'dragon' cups and the longquan celadon jar.

As for the tea, what else than an Oolong could it be?! These rolled high mountain qingxin Oolong leaves come from Da Yu Ling: they were harvested halfway between heaven and earth (at 2300 meters altitude) on May 10th of this year!

The tiny dry leaves unfurl and return to their majestic original size. Unleashed in the gaiwan, these Oolong leaves produce a balanced and powerful brew. This sweet power is felt from within as it rises stronger and stronger. 

(If you liked this article, you can also read again this one.) 

And with the same theme, here is another 'small' dragon Cha Bu that I'm also adding to my selection. (Same size: 54x33 cm) :

Les douceurs de ma concubine de Dong Ding

Cultivar: qingxin (luanze) Oolong
Origine: Feng Huang, Dong Ding, Taiwan
Elévation: 700 mètres.
Récolte à la main en novembre 2011 (hiver)
Process: Plantation organique (sans pesticides ni engrais chimiques). Oxydation forte. Roulage en boule et torréfaction traditionnelle au charbon de bois.

Dégustation test en porcelaine. Infusions longues.

Les odeurs de cet Oolong Concubine sont très fruits mûrs. Les odeurs de grillé (de la torréfaction) se ressentent surtout à sec, mais ne dominent pas. Dans l'infusion, il y a aussi une odeur un peu boisé qui accompagne cette abondance d'arômes fruitiers.

L'infusion est transparente et d'une couleur or foncé presque ambrée.

Mais le plus impressionnant, c'est le goût et l'arrière-gout moelleux, voire carrément sucré de cet Oolong! Les infusions se suivent, mais la douceur reste! J'ai beau pousser les feuilles à leur limite avec des infusions très longues, mais je n'obtiens pas de mauvaises notes. Seule la douceur et un sentiment de chaleur persistent. 

L'arrière-goût ne semble pas vouloir disparaitre. Il est toujours présent lorsque je déguste les infusions suivantes. Le tout est très harmonieux et 'clean' grâce à ces feuilles organiques. Leur oxydation est effectivement très poussée (plus que les deux Oolongs concubines précédentes).

Le seul reproche qu'on pourrait faire à ce thé, c'est de ne pas avoir la finesse d'un thé constitué uniquement de bourgeons et la force des hautes altitudes. Mais ce sont des contraintes de son terroir. Je vois mal comment un Oolong Concubine de Dong Ding pourrait être plus doux et facile à infuser.

Cette Concubine de Dong Ding, si douce et suave, va devenir ma nouvelle compagne pour mes sorties au restaurant! Sa propension à exceller dans les situations difficiles en fait le thé idéal quand les conditions ne le sont pas! (Par exemple, on peut la garder en thermos).

Memorial Day, Pentecôte, Life and Death

Today may be a good time to share these 2 videos I shot this winter. At first, I felt the grave, beautiful Requiem music (by Doulce Mémoire) may be too much 'bordering the mystical'! But on this day of rest and remembrance, I think they caught a fitting mood.

The tea ceremony starts like an ancient rite, a sacrifice. The leaves meet boiling water, trapped in a white gaiwan. (In China, white is a symbol for death). The slow and careful gestures add gravity, capture our attention and rest the mind.



In the second part, bright colors fill the white cups. In their ultimate death, the leaves give their best flavors. Death and life are part of the same cycle... Tea is then a further source of comfort. We can drink it in a way of communion, absorbing the 'spirit', the energy of that plant.


The view from above is peace...

Aging and improving tea, a conference in Brussels

Some of my English readers wonder what was I doing in Brussels, Belgium from May 5 to May 7, 2012. (No, it wasn't a Tea Party in front of the European Parliament to protest Europe's excessive taxation and deficit spending!)

I attended the TeaWorld Rendez-vous, the first European meeting about tea. Last fall, in Taiwan, I had met Roland Dacos, the organizer of this event. He wanted to organize a fair that wasn't purely commercial, but that would emphasize the cultural aspects of tea. This was a good fit for my blog, I thought, and accepted his invitation to go to this event. I would animate a booth and make a lecture on tea storage and improvement. It's this second part of my lecture that I would like to share with you in this post.

The calligraphy in the center of my booth caught the attention of these Japanese Sencha-do ladies! On one table, I had Cha Xi, which I used to prepare tea for my guests. On the other table, I brought some of my teas and teaware for display and sale. The weekend was a success. There were so many visitors that I hardly had time to sit down! And despite the jet lag, I felt great talking and drinking tea with fellow tea lovers.

The lecture on 'Conservation and Improvement of tea' happened on Sunday, May 6. (The first part of the conference can be read here with an automatic translator)

The second part: Tea Improvement

For the improvement of tea, there are many similarities with wine:
- White wines don't age so well, but there are exceptions. The same is true with green teas: most are meant to be drunk quickly, while fresh, but there are also some that can be aged well. Example: Liu An tea or top quality Bi Luo Chun or Longjing.

-  Table wines and mediocre wines in general aren't collected or aged. Wine lovers age great wines for special occasions (wedding anniversaries, the birth of a child, Christmas, the start of retirement...). It's the grands crus, the wines with the highest quality that are aged. This quality requirement also applies to tea. Improving wine or tea isn't alchemy. It's not turning the bad into good, but the good into better.

- Old wines fetch record sums. So does old tea. If I mention this, it's not to suggest tea as an investment. (The resale of old tea is more complex due to the lack of labels). If old teas can be worth so much money, it's because they can yield special pleasures. I can testify that I had the opportunity to taste some very old puerhs and Oolongs, and found their tasting sometimes bordering the mystical! Not always, but when it happens, it's an experience that isn't soon forgotten.

A. To select a tea for aging, quality is king.

How do we determine quality in tea?
The longer your pleasure lasts, the more value (and quality) a tea has. The longer the taste lasts in your mouth, the more potential the tea has to age. Aging means a certain loss of strength, so it's necessary that the tea be quite strong when young.

But length of taste isn't the only criteria. The tea should also feel pure, clean and comfortable (inside your mouth and your whole body).

Scents are less important, since they are going to evolve with time. Nevertheless, you probably won't want leaves that carry a bad, artificial or foul smell.

B. What teas or most suitable for aging?

1. Raw/sheng puerh

Raw puerh is most associated with aged tea. This is so much the case that some vendors tell their customers that you have to wait X years before you can start to drink your young puerh. This is false. A good puerh, suitable for aging, will be good to drink now. Another pitfall is due to the boom of puerh production since the 1980s. Before that, puerh was harvested in small quantity from mostly old trees that were growing without much human intervention (fertilizers, pesticides). Such leaves were very natural, clean and strong (= excellent quality for aging). After the 1980s, more and more large puerh plantations have been established. An increase of output has led to a general decrease of quality.

The place where puerh is stored will impact its taste. Even in Taiwan, the same puerh will taste differently depending how it's stored. Asia, with its humid and high temperatures, is generally regarded as more suitable to store puerh. The dry and cooler regions of Europe (and North America) may not be the best places to store puerh.

2. Roasted Oolongs

The other tea family with good aging potential is Oolong and more specifically roasted Oolong. Charcoal roasting is a process that was perfected to keep the tea fresh on those long ship journeys across oceans to Europe or North America. A good roast dries the leaves, create stronger, sweeter flavors, but also retains the feeling of green freshness of the tea.

Thanks to modern, faster logistics, we can enjoy unroasted Oolongs, but these leaves contain more moisture and aren't suitable for long term storage.

Once an Oolong is well roasted, it doesn't have to be roasted again. (This is something tea stores do with their left overs). It is best kept in a glazed jar (preferably porcelain), filled completely with tea. This will minimize the air inside the jar.

Oolong prefers a cool and dry environment for its storage. This favors continental Europe and America.

Examples of roasted Oolongs: Hung Shui Oolong, roasted Wu Yi Yan Cha, traditional Oriental Beauty...

Conclusion: The metaphysical pleasure of tasting youth and freshness in an old tea rewards years of aging of good tea. Regular monitoring and tasting along the way also yield a lot of pleasure and understanding about tea.
Good luck!

Thé vert (luanze Oolong) du Wenshan du printemps 2012

Cultivar: qingxin (luanze) Oolong
Cueillette manuelle du 8 avril 2012
Origine: Wenshan, nord de Taiwan
Process: thé vert

Vue
Sec: Petites feuilles vertes, noires ou blanches (= bourgeons).

Odeurs: fraiches, végétales et douces. L'infusion a des notes d'amandes. Les feuilles ouvertes sont plutôt forestières.

Goût: moelleux, frais et léger. C'est sans accroc et cela glisse tout seul!

Pour mon Cha Xi, j'utilise un large zhong 'ivoire' et relativement peu de feuilles. (Ouvertes, elles ocuppent environ le quart seulement du zhong). Cette façon de faire est inspirée de la dynastie Ming. Mes accessoires (coupes, jarre, bol à eaux usées et cruche) sont en céladon. Cette couleur céladon (qu'on retrouve aussi sur mon Cha Bu) est en phase avec le thème "nature verte" d'un thé vert. Le céladon était déjà recommandé par Lu Yu lors de la dynastie Tang. Il recommandait aussi l'argent pour chauffer l'eau.

Certes, à l'époque Tang le thé n'était pas infusé en vrac, mais cuit à partir d'une poudre de thé vert compressé.  Cependant, Lu Yu n'en reste pas moins le premier "classique" du thé, le premier à écrire son expérience de ce breuvage. Pour mieux comprendre ce qu'il buvait, comme nous, il s'intéressait aussi bien à la culture, aux terroirs, à la production, aux ustensiles, à la préparation, à l'histoire... du thé. Les questions, les thèmes sont restés les mêmes. Et sa démarche critique et orientée par la qualité n'a pas pris une ride!

Les jeunes bourgeons s'ouvrent doucement dans le zhong. On remarque que certains sont un peu oxydés. C'est un peu la caractéristique des thés verts de Taiwan: les fermiers sont tellement habitués à faire du Oolong (semi-oxydé) que même leurs thés verts ont un côté 'Oolonguesque'! Cela les rend plus moelleux et doux aussi.

 

Mais l'infusion n'en est pas moins claire et transparente.

Le thé vert est à l'origine de tous les autres types de thés. C'est à partir de lui qu'on a inventé le Oolong ou le thé rouge, par exemple. Avec ce thé vert fait avec des bourgeons d'un théier qingxin Oolong, nous retournons aux sources historiques du thé.

En conclusion, je rajouterai que ce thé vert de Wenshan a deux particularités: une bonne longueur en bouche due à son cultivar et des fragrances de forêt subtropicale dues à son terroir. Lu Yu nous a servi de guide ; c'est cela la force des grands classiques! On peut les réinterpréter et adapter leurs écrits pour nos thés d'aujourd'hui.

Simplicity for a Cha Xi

In Taiwan, the aesthetic pleasure of a tea preparation has been influenced by the Japanese sense of presentation of their tea ceremonies. The seasons play a strong part in these displays because the tea traditions were established when Japan and China were agrarian states. (Japan originally found its tea inspiration in China). Much of the country's prosperity depended on the weather. The purpose of (religious) ceremonies was keep the harmony between heaven and earth.

Another Japanese element that is even more imitated is the sense of zen like simplicity and beauty. Below, is the first Cha Xi I made this weekend: 

When looking at it, I didn't feel sufficiently at ease. So, together with my wife, we simplified the Cha Xi. The exquisite blue and beige Cha Bu (made by my mother) can be better appreciated below. Even the color of the Hung Shui Oolong becomes brighter in the flat cups (vs the high cups):

These 2 pictures of almost the same Cha Xi are a good example of how small changes can have a big aesthetic impact. With this second Cha Xi, my mind felt much more free and 'zen'.

But a Cha Xi's purpose, raison d'être, isn't simply based on aesthetics (or the seasons). In his book, Cha Xi - Mandala, Teaparker has proposed the mandala as a unifying concept for all Chinese tea displays. The mandala is a picture of a harmonious world. Similarly, for the brewer, the Cha Xi is his world for the time he's brewing tea. Each item has its function, has its place in his display. Depending one the tea that is chosen, we choose the wares that will best bring out the flavors, mood of this tea.

For roasted Oolong, for instance, we achieve the best results with the Chaoshan gongfu cha method. This is why I'm using a zhuni teapot and small 'ivory' dragon cups from De Hua.

The Cha Xi transforms tea into a liquid art, enjoyed by body and soul!