The Story of Tea

by Mary Lou Heiss

  Thailand: Home to Wild-Growing Tea Trees

  In the remote jungle regions of northern Thailand both cultural diversity and tea thrive where the borders with Myanmar and Laos surround Thailand. Mountain populations of such ethnic minority tribes as the Akha, Hmong, Kosen, Labu, Lisu, and Lua originated in Mainland China and Myanmar; these groups have been settled in this region for centuries. Their well-established foot trails through the jungles allow them easy access across the borders, where they sell their goods and trade at village markets for cloth, tea, food, and herbal remedies. Tea flourishes in the tropical environment of the thickly forested mountainous Chiang Rai Province in Thailand.

  Anthropologists and tea historians believe that the birthplace of tea is a wide swath of adjoining areas in the remote jungle wilderness extending from Assam, India, to southern Yunnan Province, China, across the top of Myanmar and Laos, down into northern Thailand, and across the northern regions of Vietnam. In these jungles centuries-old wild tea plants have grown into stately trees. Local populations have always concocted tea from these leaves, as well as from roots and herbs found in the forests. For generations people across these regions have made slightly differing versions of pickled tea known as letpet or miang. Letpet is still a diet staple of many of these people, and it is used as an offering on religious occasions, served as a sign of respect to elders, and brought out for special social occasions. Letpet is made by steaming fresh tea leaf and then packing the leaf into large stalks of bamboo that are buried for several months. The letpet will slowly ferment and take on a characteristically pungent flavor and aroma. Pickled tea is not served as tea but instead is usually mixed with oil and garlic and served accompanied by fried peanuts, sesame seeds, fried shrimp, fresh tomatoes, and fresh green chilies. It is only since the 1960s that Camellia sinensis has been cultivated in the mountain villages of Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai Provinces.

  THAILAND’S TEA-GROWING REGIONS

  In Chiang Rai the village of Mae Salong has become famous for its unusual tea—Thai-style Taiwan oolong tea. How Chinese tea came to be produced in Thailand is an interesting chapter in the history of this region. In the 1950s members of Chiang Kai-shek’s Chinese Nationalist Kuomintang Army fled Mainland China after being defeated by Mao Tse-tung’s People’s Liberation Army during the Chinese Civil War. While Chiang Kai-shek and more than 700,000 of his soldiers and political refugees escaped across the Taiwan Strait to the island of Taiwan, other Kuomintang soldiers posted in the border region of Yunnan fled south into Myanmar.

  Myanmar had gained independence from the British in 1948. For many years refugee Nationalist Chinese troops assisted Myanmar in rebuilding the country after years of war and strife. But in 1960 guerrilla war with the communists broke out, and the Nationalist Chinese soldiers and their families fled Myanmar for northern Thailand. They were allowed by the Thai government to settle in Chiang Rai Province, and today the area surrounding Mae Salong has a decidedly Chinese feeling to it. One of the first tasks in their new home was to plant tea bushes. But due to their status as Chinese refugees, these former soldiers could not return to China for tea bush cuttings, so they had to rely on their connections residing in Taiwan.

  From the Taiwanese they received clonal varieties of tea bushes that had been developed for the manufacture of Taiwan’s famous semioxidized oolong teas. In this way oolong tea production came to be a way of life and eventually a thriving livelihood in northern Thailand’s remote mountain regions. In this lush, tropical environment the tea bushes flourished, and cultivated tea gardens multiplied rapidly. After not too many years, unforeseen government assistance helped to bolster this fledgling industry.

  THAILAND’S TEA PRODUCTION AND MANUFACTURING

  In the early 1970s a project initiative started by the Thai king Bhumibol Adulyadej focused on eliminating the lucrative but destructive opium poppy cultivation that had become deeply rooted in Thailand’s northern highlands. The project encompassed numerous programs that also focused on eliminating slash-and-burn land use, conserving highland soils by reforestation, and creating profitable cash crops such as stone-fruit trees, vegetables, flowers, and shiitake mushrooms, as well as Chinese tea that would improve the lives of the mountain inhabitants.

  Today almost fifteen thousand families grow more than eighty market crops, thanks to the creation of thirty-four extension programs in northern Thailand. From those early beginnings, scientific research and advanced techniques in tea cultivation have helped the tea industry grow. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s tea experts from the Taiwan Tea Agricultural Research Center visited Thailand and supplied the tea producers with tea-processing equipment and provided extensive training to farmers in the highland areas in such subjects as soil management, effective farming techniques, and improvements in manufacturing. Of equal importance were new clonal varieties of oolong tea hybrids supplied by the Taiwanese to increase production in the tea gardens. Today Thai tea farmers speak proudly about their Number 17 (soft stem) and Number 12 plant varietals and the tea-making skills they have learned.

  In this region days are warm while night temperatures are cool, creating perfect conditions for the bushes to have daily contact with a cooling cover of mist. Sharply delineated mountains ascend in elevation from 3,900 to 4,420 feet, and from a distance the hillsides are blanketed with neatly placed rows of carefully maintained tea bushes in well-tended tea gardens.

  The yearly output of Thailand’s oolong tea is small, and much of it is consumed internally. Thai oolong tea is also dispersed throughout Southeast Asia via the booming crossroads hub of Bangkok and to tourists visiting the resorts in Chiang Mai. In Chiang Rai the Chinese village of Mae Salong is being marketed as a colorful tourist destination with a special emphasis on Hmong and Aka fabric and jewelry arts, fantastic Chinese and Thai food, and the production of fragrant and flowery local tea. It’s an easy day trip from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai—take the bus from Chiang Mai as far as you can, then take a cab the rest of the way—and be sure to visit the 101 Tea Factory.

  New Tea Beginnings

  Generations of tea drinkers have looked to China, Japan, India, and Sri Lanka for their favorite teas and familiar, trusted tea blends. Now the old dominions of tea production are being joined by new tea gardens elsewhere in the world, including Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Iran, Malawi, New Zealand, Turkey, and the United States (in both Hawaii and South Carolina). New ideas for tea, such as bottled tea beverages, tea extracts, instant tea, and tea blends formulated exclusively for making iced tea beverages, are driving much of this tea production in other directions.

  Argentina. From wine to olive oil and now tea, the rapid development of fully mechanized tea production in 1960 has resulted today in an industry with an average annual production of 60,000 metric tons.

  Australia. Another country that excels in wine, olive oil, and now tea, Australia has the soil and climate for it all. Most of the tea is grown in North Queensland, followed by a small amount grown in New South Wales. Annual production averages 1,500 metric tons.

  Bangladesh. Commercial tea cultivation started in Sylhet in 1854. The main growing areas are the Surma valley and the Halda valley. Approximately 90 percent of production in Bangladesh is CTC black tea. Extremely large internal consumption of tea taps into close to half of the country’s annual production of 56,853 metric tons of tea.

  England. Yes, England. After all the years of angst over tea during the China tea trade, a family-owned estate known as Tregothnan, which has been owned by the Boscawen family since 1335, is taking up the challenge of growing Camellia sinensis. Tregothnan is a horticultural specialist in rare plants and ornamental camellias in particular. So it is no surprise that today a new path is being forged. Thirty varieties of Camellia sinensis are being cultivated on just over twenty acres of land, and Tregothnan manufactures this leaf into a line of three estate-produced black teas.

  Hawaii. Hawaii’s rugged Kona Coast is known for its fine specialty coffees. Today adventurous loca
ls are experimenting with whether tea cultivation can repeat that success. The weather is blessed, the location is killer, and the players are optimistic. The Hawaiian Tea Society boasts that its Big Island Association of home tea growers has close to forty members, each of whom cultivates tea in half-acre or less backyard gardens. So far the tea is thriving and appears to be doing well, but no one is sure about how the flavor will intimately fare. Will the proper techniques of firing and shaping be mastered? Is it possible to coax the best from the leaves when “tea knowledge” has not been passed from one set of hands to another over generations? Research is being conducted to develop quality-control standards in Hawaii and to learn the age-old art of processing tea by hand. The U.S. Department of Agriculture in conjunction with the University of Hawaii has been cultivating small plots of tea at different altitudes, ranging from 600 to 4,000 feet above sea level. At best, meaningful production is several years away.

  Iran. Tea cultivation in Iran began in 1900, and today tea is grown mostly by smallholders in Rasht, Lahizan, Lanagroud, Rudasar, and Tunekabun, located in the northern part of the country near the Caspian Sea. Originally seedlings were brought from the Himachal Pradesh region of India. Iran is tenth in the world for tea production, with 58,051 metric tons, but the country exports very little tea. Internal demand requires that Iran buy tea to augment its own production.

  Malawi. The second-largest producer of African tea following Kenya, Malawi was actually the location where tea was first cultivated in Africa. Smallholders in the areas of Mulanje and Thyolo produce most of the tea, which has an annual production of 41,963 metric tons. The United Kingdom is the largest importer of Malawian tea.

  South Carolina. Tea cultivation in South Carolina has an interesting history. Three attempts at serious tea cultivation have been tried since 1790, when the French botanist Andre Michaux first experimented with planting tea shrubs on land outside of Charleston. The nineteenth century saw two commercial tea enterprises fail. Another attempt by philanthropist Charles Shepard resulted in the creation of the Pinehurst Tea Plantation in Summerville, near Charleston, in 1888. By the time that Shepard passed away in 1915, he had reached a degree of success with tea production that no one else before him had achieved in South Carolina. But after his death, however, the tea plantation was abandoned. In 1960 the Thomas J. Lipton Company purchased Shepard’s plantation and removed the bushes to replant them on Wadmalaw Island, a well-watered ten-mile-long and six-mile-wide oasis south of Charleston.

  Numerous varieties of tea bush cultivars were added to the mix, and the plantation served as a tea research station. The plantation was sold again in 1987 to William B. Hall, who renamed it the Charleston Tea Plantation and began to market American Classic tea from production on the thirty-acre plantation. Today Hall and the Bigelow Tea Company jointly own the tea plantation, and plans for further expansion and increased production are in the works. Their product is the only tea commercially produced in the United States.

  Turkey. Turkish tea grows close to the border with Georgia along the Black Sea. Smallholders, who comprise the bulk of the landowners, grow most of the tea. The first tea plantation was started in 1924 in Rize with tea seeds brought from Georgia. Turkey ranks fifth in world tea production, with an average annual yield of 155,000 metric tons of black tea.

  New Zealand. No tea is commercially cultivated in New Zealand, but an archival collection of tea varieties is being established on the Purangi Estate, located on the North Island. The collection maintains sixty-six specimen varieties of Camellia sinensis and is being propagated and maintained with the idea of selecting the best clonal varieties to use to generate eventual tea gardens planned for future development.

  Tea has always been one of the world’s most powerful commodities. During the heyday of the China trade in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the mesmerizing effects of Chinese tea on the West and the subsequent interactions between China and England had profound effects on the development of these two countries. Tea also played a role in the independence of a fledgling American nation and the transformation of England from an agrarian society into an industrialized nation. Today, tea is enjoyed and appreciated in countries around the world, and in many cultures the tenets of social order have been established over the practices and habits around a tea table.

  ON THIS GLOBAL SHOPPING TRIP WE EXPLORE THE WORLD OF TEA, one leaf at a time. Because so many countless teas are available today, we have chosen to illustrate and describe them organized by leaf style. This method yields good results both with face-to-face customers in our store and with our off-premise shoppers. Most tea drinkers establish their custom for enjoying tea using a particular method that remains quite consistent in their daily life. Our categorization is compatible with probable cultural predilections, familial tendencies, brewing techniques, and individual taste preferences. But it also encourages the exploration of new tea.

  Some tea drinkers are enthusiasts, but many are not. If you are perfectly happy driving down the same road every day, perhaps we can convince you to stop on the other side of the road to try a new tea. And if you are ready to take that fork in the road that you have always wondered about, this guide ensures that you won’t get lost along the new route. If you are an enthusiast, this section melds perfectly with your discovery process as well, because we intend to further stimulate your zeal. There are so many teas in the world that there should be at least a few new ones discussed in this chapter that spark your interest!

  For each class of tea (see chapter 3 for detailed descriptions of each class) we profile one or more tea growths in that class. There are far too many teas in the world to attempt a complete encyclopedia of tea growths, however. Furthermore, teas change regularly (similar to wine vintages) and go in and out of season, production, and availability, especially from country to country and importer to importer. So rather than get you excited about a specific single-growth tea, only to discover that you will never be able to find that particular one wherever you happen to be, this guide helps you to recognize styles and then bracket tea growths into groups. This knowledge is helpful when you are trying to decide between a superb golden-tipped Yunnan black tea and a competition-grade Tung Ting oolong from the tea-producing heart of Taiwan.

  In this chapter we move through the six great classes of tea in an expansive order based on the overall strength of flavor of each tea’s brewed cup characteristics—from the most exquisite budset white tea to the darkest pu-erh. We start with the largest leaf style in each class and move through that class with examples representing the variety within each class. At the chapter’s end, we take a side excursion to encounter a few extraordinary teas, such as jasmine and Lapsang Souchong.

  It is imperative that you refer to other chapters throughout this book to fill in the details of production technique, trace a bit of history, find explanations of leaf processing, and explore the comprehensive brewing procedures. The mission of this chapter’s journey is simply to portray various styles of leaf and their attributes, to give you a feeling for what these particular teas represent. There are often several equally correct spellings for the same Chinese tea. This is the result of the changes in translation from Chinese to English over the years (tea vendors primarily use pinyin and occasionally the Wade-Giles spellings). It is rarely difficult to ascertain which tea is which, as the spellings are most often quite similar.

  Much like wine, olive oil, and other artisanal products, tea has developed a rich and nuanced vocabulary to describe its origins and flavors. See the glossary at the end of this book for a full list of terms, including words used for classic leaf styles, dry leaf, and brewed tea, as well as descriptions of each specific class of tea.

  The journey begins with one of the most pure and time-honored of Chinese tribute teas: traditional budset white tea.

  White Tea

  BAI HAO YIN ZHEN (SILVER NEEDLE)

  Region: Fujian Province, China

  Manufacture: Air-dried white tea (about 5 p
ercent oxidation)

  Style: Full budset with downy hairs

  Flavor: Smooth, sweet, soft

  Aroma: Clean, floral

  Liquor: Pale silver

  Brewing: Brew numerous short infusions at 160 to 170°F. Drink plain.

  The real McCoy, Silver Needle is true white tea from the proper varietal, grown in the correct place. As Champagne has specificity, so does this tea. It must be tasted at least once in a tea drinker’s lifetime. Beware of very expensive budset white tea, however, as it is now being produced essentially everywhere that tea grows. For details, see “White Tea” in chapter 3.

  BAI MUDAN

  Region: Fujian Province, China (and many other locations worldwide)

  Manufacture: Air-dried white tea (about 8 percent oxidation)

  Style: Open leaf, usually blended with budsets

  Flavor: Smooth, sweet, soft

  Aroma: Clean, floral

  Liquor: Rich straw

  Brewing: Brew numerous short infusions at 160 to 170°F. Drink plain.

  This new-style white tea is from China bush if sourced from Chinese gardens, and from China or Assam bush if sourced from most anywhere else. Perfectly good and tasty tea, Bai Mudan is an inexpensive source of a delicious light tea.