A bank of precisely milled stone matcha grinders. No process powders tencha into matcha as accurately as a stone mill (Uji, Japan).
Freshness is very important to Japanese tea drinkers, and because production of Japanese tea is small, the finest teas are costly. Gyokuro and matcha top the list for cost. Matcha is sold in small containers to maintain the freshness of the powder at its peak, and even in Japan, it is quite expensive. The best matcha is jaw-droppingly expensive. In a teashop in Kyoto we discovered half-ounce (20 gram) containers of matcha selling for $35, $26, $17, and $14. Later, in Uji, we spotted small tins of matcha tins selling for $80, $65, $50, and $40. We were told that the price goes up from this, especially for matcha that has been shaded in the most traditional manner with the grass mats for preparing thick tea. In both cases all of this fresh matcha was custom blended and ground in stone mills by the shops selling it. Depending on the use one has in mind—ceremonial matcha for Chanoyu, for ice cream and baked goods, or for Western-style iced tea or hot tea—the correct matcha is purchased accordingly.
JAPAN’S ROASTED TEAS
Houjicha. This is made by roasting sencha leaf and kukicha twig tea to create a chestnut-brown-colored tea with a crumpled appearance and a pleasant, toasty flavor. Houjicha can be made at any time throughout the season as long as there is bancha leaf available. Houjicha is often served to Japanese children, as it is low in caffeine.
Ire bancha. This tea offers a delicious smoky flavor. It has an unusual preparation: it is comprised of large, flat tea leaves that are roasted flat and open. The tea is light and bulky and is brewed by adding a fairly large quantity of leaf to a pot of boiled water. Iri bancha is simple and delicious and excellent for sipping before savoring a sampling of sashimi.
Kamairi-cha or Tamaryokucha. This green tea is a specialty of the island of Kyushu, in the vicinity of Ureshino. It is processed “Chinese-style” by pan-firing (roasted or parched) and hand-rolling the leaves in iron pans.
MR. MORITA AND HIS SHADED TEA
On a chilly, rainy afternoon we met with Mr. Haruhide Morita, a young and energetic tea grower, producer, and tea merchant in Uji who specializes in the production and blending of gyokuro and matcha teas for his company, Morita-en. We walked (with umbrellas) through his tea garden to view his shaded gyokuro tents. Even in the darkened interior of the tents, we could see the slightly eerie pale-green color of the new growth on the tea plants. Plenty of rain still filtered through the cloths covering the tents; the tea seemed well watered and thriving in the trapped heat of the tent.
Next, Mr. Morita gave us a tour of production at a cooperative tencha factory. He explained that the major difference between leaf plucking for gyokuro and for tencha is as follows: for tencha the pluck is the bud and three leaves, which introduces slightly older, larger leaves, to add “influence” to the final flavor of the matcha, while for gyokuro, the pluck is the bud and two leaves. Technically, tencha production is a variation of gyokuro production, but with an additional difference. The leaf for tencha is steamed and dried but not rolled, as it is for gyokuro. The reason is that the leaf must remain flat so that it can easily be stripped of its stems and the veining. After stripping, the remaining tencha leaf is ground in slow-turning stone mills, which yields silky smooth matcha powder.
Fresh leaf for tencha is sent into a brand-new factory built to manufacture only this form of tea. After undergoing considerable processing, this leaf will be transformed into highest-quality tencha and ground into matcha (Uji, Japan).
In the Japanese tea ceremony matcha is brewed two ways. For more elaborate ceremonies a communal cup of koicha (thick tea) is made and passed around for all of the guests to share. In the shorter versions of the ceremony, individual cups of usucha (thin tea) are made for each guest. But there is more to it than that. For the fresh leaf that will be plucked to make matcha for koicha, Mr. Morita covers the tents with the extra layer of straw matting, something that he does only for his highest-quality teas. While a cup of usucha is made by whisking matcha and hot water to a frothy consistency with a bamboo whisk, the thin thread of bubbles that form around the edge of the bowl from this action are unwelcome in a bowl of koicha. So, for koicha, the matcha and water are gently mixed together with the bamboo tea scoop until a thickened consistency is achieved and a smooth, level surface forms.
JAPAN’S TWIG TEAS
Karigane cha. This twig tea is made from the stems and twigs of gyokuro. Sometimes sencha leaf is added, in which case the tea is called Karigane Sencha.
Kukicha. This twig-and-leaf blended tea is made from carefully rendered leaf and stalk cuttings of sencha production. The leaf is processed separately from the stalks, and both are cut to create a precise, uniform tea. A specialty made just in the early spring, this tea brews a clear, bright yellow-green color and has a fresh, herbaceous aroma.
Korea: Tea Continues Its Spread
As tea drinking spread in both China and Japan in the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries, Buddhist monks returning from study in China first introduced the culture of tea to Korea. This was a time of a great exchange of information and ideas among scholars, men of religion, and trade emissaries as travel between these countries blossomed. Although the country is geographically aligned between China and Japan, Korea’s history did not allow it to realize as famous or as firmly entrenched a tea culture as was achieved in China and Japan. Korea’s tea culture was underway in the early days of the Koryo dynasty (918–1392). It was recorded that King Tae Jo, the first ruler, gave Uh Cha (tea gifts given by the king) to Buddhist priests and monks and to members of his military. As time passed, successive kings gave gifts of tea for loyalty to families who lost a loved one and to those suffering from illness. Tea was referred to as New Woun Cha, or “mind origin tea,” for clearing the mind and as Dae Cha, meaning great tea. Custom was established for placing boxes of tea with the dead when performing funeral rites.
For centuries Buddhist monks had nurtured tea drinking in Korea as an ritual offering to Buddha. Buddhism also extolled the virtues of tea as a contemplative beverage essential for developing mental discipline. During the Koryo dynasty tea began to be used as an offering to the spirits of such natural places as rivers and mountains and to one’s ancestral spirits at the New Year and on the full harvest moon ceremonies known as Ch’a-rye. Various tea ceremonies developed that were performed as special seasonal rites and events honoring important occasions. Unlike in China and Japan, where tea drinking for many years was reserved as an exclusive practice for aristocrats or warriors, all classes of Koreans practiced tea drinking, including making ritual tea offerings known as Hon-ta to statues of Buddha in the temples. A culture of tea drinking followed that developed the tenets and philosophy of this practice in a way that was unique to Korea. During the Koryo dynasty Korean ceramicists had learned the craft of producing fine celadon wares from Chinese potters proficient in the production of Chinese celadon-like wares known as Yue ware. Korean celadon became known as Chongja ware, and these were later followed by white porcelain wares, and then blue-and-white wares with applied decoration.
But this appreciation of tea was destroyed during a time of a shift in power and abrupt religious change.
At the end of the Koryo dynasty (918-1392) in the fourteenth century and the beginning of the Choson dynasty (1392-1910) the Yi family gained power and replaced established Buddhist ideals with Confucian views. This new religion—a radical variant of Chinese Confucianism—pushed the familiar ways of drinking, preparing, and appreciating tea into the background. Despite this, however, Buddhist monks tried to keep interest in the tea ceremonies alive. In retaliation for the influence the Buddhist monks held over society, the ruling government placed a tax on tea as a way to force the monasteries and temples to destroy their tea fields. In fact, so disdainful were the Choson rulers of the Buddhists and their tea that they also destroyed many temples and monasteries and stripped the remaining ones of their wealth and treasures.
By the end o
f the sixteenth century only a few tea fields remained in southern Korea. Korean literati shunned the new religion and became major proponents of the former tea culture, which they tried to keep alive through poetry and art. Korean potters who continued to make simple tea bowls, along with bowls for rice and food and other utilitarian objects, developed utilitarian baekja and bunch’ong stonewares.
In the late 1500s the ill-fated Seven Year War with Japan again packed a wallop to what remained of Korea’s tea culture. By the war’s end Korea was a devastated place that had incurred countless damage to farmlands, villages, and cities.
The human toll was further devastated after the war with the capture of thousands of Korean potters and other craftsmen, who were forcibly removed from their country and sent to live in exile and to ply their skills in Japan. This influx of manpower and skill is largely responsible for the formidable advances that Japan gained in ceramic arts and handmade pottery skills. It was at Korea’s expense that the great pottery-making traditions of Japan developed and flourished.
Despite all of this, the late-eighteenth century brought a return to interest in Buddhist ideals and ways, and the first of three men who account for the restoration and slow revival of traditional Korean tea practices. The first was a scholar named Tsan Chong Yak-yong (1762–1836), who learned tea discipline and practice from an enclave of Buddhist monks who grew tea in Jeollanam Province. He in turn introduced a Buddhist monk named Ch’o Ui (1786–1866) to the way of tea. Ch’o Ui cultivated the practice of tea in an isolated tearoom near Haenam county in Jeollanam. He then penned two important books on tea and tea preparation in the nineteenth century.
A Korean tea bowl and tray, with a hand-carved Korean tea scoop.
Fate turned against Korea in 1910, when the country came under Japanese colonial rule and once again the nation was repressed in its ways of tea drinking. But as soon as Korea won independence from the Japanese in 1945, Choi Beom-sul, later known as the Venerable Hyo Dang, a renaissance man active in the independence movement, began his lifelong efforts to rekindle a strong interest in tea. The abrupt arrival of the Korean War (1950–1953) returned Korea to chaos again, but fortunately this strife did not stop the forward advance of tea culture.
Venerable Hyo Dang accomplished three important things in his lifetime: First, he composed the first modern-day study of tea in 1973, which he titled The Korean Way of Tea. Second, from the ideals set forth in this work, he codified the “natural” and “open heart” methods of brewing green tea that became known as Panyaro. He also founded the Korean Association for the Way of Tea, the first alliance and resource center for tea historians and devotees interested in reviving the culture of tea in Korea. The Venerable Hyo Dang was an acclaimed teacher of tea to all of the leading figures working today in Korea’s revitalized tea industry. After his death in 1979, he was followed by his successor, the great tea master Chae Won-Hwa, a female tea master who continues to promote the Way of Tea to her graduate students in tea culture from her Panyaro Institute for the Way of Tea in Seoul, South Korea.
Today, Panyaro embodies Zen practices of purification and strengthening of body and mind while keeping the practice of the Korean Way of Tea accessible to all. The gestures involved in making tea are simple, and the environment in which tea is served should also be conducive to adopting an appropriate spirit of heart and mind that expresses naturalness, simplicity, moderation, firmness, flexibility, and gratitude. Panyaro is not a ritualized tea ceremony but remains a way of life that embodies simple but essential values of life through the activity of serving tea. The benefits of drinking tea in the Panyaro way include sharper hearing, clearer sight, and enhanced appetite, as well as awakening the mind, ending fatigue, quenching thirst, and inducing warm in winter and cool in summer. In 1979, the Federation of Korean Tea Masters Society was founded to encourage people to rediscover the joys of tea drinking. Today, the society has more than 100,000 members in Korea who are dedicated to helping restore Korea’s traditional tea-drinking culture.
METHODS OF KOREAN GREEN TEA PRODUCTION
Korean tea is hand-plucked and the leaf is fired or “parched” or lightly roasted in an iron caldron or a tea-firing pan. The steps are driving off the moisture, rolling and shaping, drying, and parching. These parched teas, known as puch’o-cha, are dried over a wood fire or gas flame similar to the way that green teas are pan-fired in China. But there is one difference: for puch’o-cha the fresh leaves are heated in the tea-firing pan to begin to drive the moisture from the leaves. But after a few minutes the leaves are removed from the heat of the pan and placed on a flat work surface where the leaves are exposed to vigorous hand-rolling and shaping. Shaping is usually performed on a bamboo or straw mat, which aids in curling the leaf. Following this, the leaves are hand-separated to declump the moist leaves, which can become sticky from the leaf juices.
After a few minutes the leaves are laid to rest on flat mats to air-dry for a short time before being returned to the heat of the pan. The leaves remain in the pan for another few minutes, and then they are removed once more for shaping, separating, and air-drying. This ritual is repeated as many additional times as is deemed necessary to shape and dry the leaf, after which the leaf is laid out to air-dry for four to five hours. The final charcoal parching follows, which is performed in the same caldron or tea-firing pan but at a much lower temperature. During this stage of processing of “taste giving” (mat-naegi) and “fragrance enhancing” (hyang-olligi), the tea’s character is released.
Chung-ch’a is a variation on the Japanese method of steaming the tea leaves at the initial step. For chung-ch’a the fresh leaves are briefly submerged in a vat of boiling water and then removed and allowed to drain before being put into the tea-firing pans. Once the firing process begins, the tea leaves remain in the tea-firing pan during shaping and rolling. Chung-ch’a is the old, traditional way of tea-firing, and it is more costly to produce. Tea Master Chae Won-Hwa presides over the final finishing of batches of chung-ch’a tea that is prepared for use at the Panyaro Institute for the Way of Tea in Seoul.
KOREA’S TEA GARDENS TODAY
Successful tea gardens have been established in southern Korea in South Jeollanam Province, on the southwestern quadrant of the island in Haenam, Yeongam, and Jangseong counties. Cheju-do Island, the largest of nearly two thousand small islands lying off the eastern and western coastline of South Jeolla, and Mount Wolchul, located in Yeongam county, both offer excellent weather conditions for growing fine tea. Mount Jiri, which spills over into three provinces—North Jeolla, South Jeolla, and South Gyeonsang—provides a sheltering environment for several wild-tea gardens that blanket the slopes in several places. Korean tea is available in limited supplies, and as a result the prices of the most select pluckings are high. The best teas are plucked according to the established dates of the seasonal divisions of the lunar calendar. And, as in China and Japan, the premium teas are plucked the earliest.
The first plucking of the season occurs just before April 20 or Koku (the first grain rain), the sixth seasonal division of the year based on the changing location of the sun. This is a bud and single-leaf plucking called Ujon, which is followed a few days later by a second plucking that consists of a bud and two leaves and is known as Sejak. A third plucking, and the first summer plucking, begins around May 5 or Ipha. This is followed throughout the summer with pluckings of several lower-quality teas.
India: Diversity of Tea and Place
Images of India conjure up a colorful swirl of people, places, and exotic animals. From Mogul monuments and Buddhist temples to vast deserts and lush tropical jungles, India casts a seductive spell. In the cities daily life is a juxtaposition of tradition and today’s fast-paced new economic opportunities. In the country nomadic tribes hold yearly camel fairs, and bustling silk and spice markets entice both locals and tourists with exotic wares. Nature reserves protect large populations of elephants, tigers, and gray rhinos as well as exotic native flora. Every facet of this
former jewel in the crown of the British Empire offers another glimpse into the vibrant pulse of this populous continent.
Although India is surrounded by water on three sides—the Bay of Bengal to the east, the Arabian Sea to the west, and the Indian Ocean to the south—the soaring peaks of the magnificent Himalaya define its northern border. Sharing the border with neighbors Bhutan, China, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan, northern India is edged with revered holy mountains, sharply cut vertiginous valleys, a multitude of ethnic populations and religions, and the most famous tea gardens in the world. In the north tea is produced in the geographically diverse states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Dooars, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, Orissa, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttaranchal, and West Bengal (Darjeeling region). In the south tea is produced in Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu.
A clay tea set from India.
India is the world’s largest producer of tea. In 2005 tea production in that country was 927,984 metric tons of tea, a figure that represents the combined total production from 111,979 tea estates, and the efforts of millions of tea-estate workers. Because much of India’s tea is consumed by its own people, the country assumed fourth place in worldwide tea exports in 2005, behind China, Kenya, and Sri Lanka, with 123,620 metric tons of tea exported. Most Indian tea is sold at auction, passing through one of six regional auction centers. In Assam, the capital city of Guwahati provides one location, as does Siliguri in the north. Auction centers are also found in Calcutta, Cochin, Coimbatoor, and Coonoor.
The Story of Tea Page 23
