Pines and Needles

We arrived back at the farm house at 4am for the processing of Bamboo Green. After the wet leaves are picked, they are wilted indoors for a while and by 1am, they are ready for drying. First, 'killing the green' occurs at 300 degrees celsius, which removes the green lawn odor of the plant and brings forth the true fragrance of that particular tea. ( Here this tea smells exactly as its namesake, like a grove of fresh bamboo stalks amidst a forest of pine trees.) I bring this up because I asked the farmer what happened when they wok fired the leaves in the past by hand. Blisters, he said. At even 200 degrees celsius, he added, the wok wasn't hot enough. Thank god for electric rollers now!

The tea leaves are meticulously sorted by size of leaf. Only the tiniest needles can shift through for the top grades, the rest are fit for the village consumption. Would Americans be lucky enough to vie for their reject grade; one look at the supermarket offerings assures us of which part of the floor sweepings those 'premium green tea' in the pyramid teabags come from. Darius tries his hand at sorting. At 4am, his hands actually had coordination, so we should give him lots of credit. I tested his stamina by making him hike for the next 8 hours with me up Emei Shan. Or did you think this is like the stairmasters at the gym?

The Bamboo Green is definitely a rare, fine tea, grown under such heavenly conditions that defies description. But is this organic, I asked sarcastically to the farmer? He was confused. What does organic mean? I explained. No need for pesticides, he said, it's too cold up here to ever have pests. No need for fertilizer, he said, the soil is really really rich, and our particular tea plants are capable of reaching for their own nutrients. We just take care of the plants, he said. He smiles, so we must be organic!! I said no you aren't, only big corporations are, and that's that.

They can only make about 7 kgs a day. The average picker can only pick 1/4 kg a day. The processing goes daily from 1am to 11am for final shaping and final drying, and they work like this from after Chinese New Year to the Autumn Moon Festival. You can figure out how many months that is!

I decided to find this tea for Teance customers because I believe in supporting these small, obscure, traditional family farms who make such naturally organic handcrafted teas.

Actually,what the heck, I'll tell the truth. I simply love going up to these beautiful mountains.

We left to explore the rest of Emeishan.