A tea journey to An Xi - Part 1
As more and more customers are asking us information and details about the An Xi oolong tea harvest. We decide that it was time to share some of our experience and photos from our annual trip to An Xi. We will try to cover some of the most demanded questions such as what is the best harvesting period, what are the differences between traditional An Xi oolong tea and modern An Xi oolong tea. We have been told from the very beginning that there were two good harvesting seasons in An Xi for tie guan yin oolong tea, spring and autumn. Spring harvest has the best liquor and tea taste while autumn harvest has the best fragrance and smooth mouth feeling. Since the autumn harvest is the one that is the most famous, we decided from the right beginning to attend this one. And that is the one we will be mainly covering in notes.
The best harvesting period for Tie Guan Yin oolong tea starts on the "Han Lu" date, every year. This period will last for 15 days until the "Shuang Jiang". Then, the winter harvest will start to take place and it will be the time to look for Huang Jin Gui oolong tea and Mao Xie oolong tea.
The Han Lu date was on the 8th of October during our last trip so we decided to arrive 3 days before so we could settle down, take some rest and visit our friends' tea mountain. However, on the day of our departure from Guang Zhou, the weather channel announced that the typhoon was hitting Fu Jian and that the rain will last for 2 to 4 days. For once, the weather prediction was quite alright since we did most of our travelling under heavy rain. We were going on the road hoping to find the sun in An Xi and when we finally arrived, after a 14 hours trip, it was 10pm and still raining. The temperature was 17C which was a big change from the 32C from Guang Zhou! All in all it wasn't bad because the typhoon had cool down the temperature and it was now raining just a little bit. Once in Long Juan, we went to our little restaurant right away to enjoy some Fu Jian style fried noodle and pork. We had missed them! We then took our quarter in the mayor of Long Juan village who is now a good friend of ours. It is always fun to see him because he is a tea farmer, a tea maker, and also an official taster. Because of him we had some incredible insights on what are tea competitions in An Xi since he enters them every years. After a couple of cups of tea, we decided to make it a day and went to bed.
Two more days passed by, and that little thin rain was still hitting us, we could see a lot of sad faces in the village because like every seasonal business, if you miss one season, it makes a big hole in the yearly budget!
When we woke up early in the morning on the 7th of October, the weather was much better but it was still a bit humid. Some farmers whose tea fields are located around the village had to start to harvest because the tea bushes were already shooting due to the low elevation of the fields. The leaves coming from this type of fields and harvested in this type of period are called "Tian Qing" (field green), they are never considered as high quality and are therefore not interesting to us. During that day, we just walked around to give our best to all the people from the village. Every visit is the occasion to have some tea but we had to make it quick because after travelling to Long Juang for 4 years now, we got to make some good friends. One thing we did learn that day and that we never paid attention to before, probably due to our addiction to tea and tea processing, are the osmanthus trees in this village. That day we got to learn that there are over 200 osmanthus trees in the village and not all of them are from the same varietal. There are some "Yue Gui" (Monthly Osmanthus), that bloom every months. Some "Jin Gui" (Golden Osmanthus) that bloom once a year and some "Dan Gui" which bloom once a year like the Jin Gui. After a long day of drinking and eating, it was time for some rest.
On the 8th, we opened the curtains to a bright shinny day. The whole village was effervescent and we could see the smiles that were back on the faces. Women were chatting and men were getting everything ready. At noon, and right after lunch, the women took the way to the mountains to start the harvest which we last till 5pm. Typically, the best cutting time is around 2pm to 3 pm because it is when the sun is the brightest and people say that the sunlight "steam" the juice from the tea leaves and that will give more fragrances. The leaves from this period are the best in terms of quality and it is why it is so important to be there as tea buyer, you get to pick and reserve the leaves right away, before the tea is ended, sold to other tea buyers who will mixed the different batches later on. There is no way to get single harvest unless you are there the day they make the tea or travel to what Westerners called the tea auction in An Xi which is basically a market place where little farmers brings their productions there because nobody would travel to their places to buy directly the tea.
On that day, there were 5 different batches of fresh leaves brought back to the village before sun set. Each batch of leaves had to be withered in the sun right after they had been brought back from the tea mountain. If the sun was too strong, a dark cover would be suspended over the leaves to lower the impact on the sun light. It is when all this is done, and the day is ending for women that the day starts for men. The processing starts before dinner and it will last late in the night. The first Yao Qing then the first Liang Qing are done, then the second, then the third, then it is time for the Sha Qing and then the shaping. The last step will be to bake the leaves just so they dry. This is the modern way of making fragrant An Xi oolong tea. This process last over 2 days for each batch of leaves and about 5 batches are made per day. It doesn't sounds like it, but when you are there, you realize the amount of work and the hours put into processing that tiny tea leaf. Each batch are being tasted during the making process, this is kind of fun because when you try the leaves after the Yao Qing, it doesn't look like much, just like wrinkle leaves in a gaiwan. However, the taste is here! To be able to make the best out of each tasting, it requires, a strong and full stomach, a clean mouth, a clear mind and a lot of memory storage. That day finished at about 3am in the morning.
The next day, the Yue Gui Osmanthus started to bloom. This was a good sign and we could smell the fragrances mixing with the tea being made in the village. This is something that we really love and look forward every year. This beautiful fragrance just invades your head while your eyes only see people shaping, doing the Yao Qing everywhere. You just need to take a look around and to realize that you are surrounded by mountain of tea and you rich a feeling that has to be very close to the one of peace. For the farmers, the blooming of osmanthus only means one thing, the real deal is starting now and they will be waiting for the best batches of fresh tea leaves.
The days are following are they all look the same, the only thing to break this repeating process is the tea; different fragrances, different varietals. All these tastings requires several meals a day but thanks to that magical leaves, the weight seems to stabilize. This is most certainly due to tea but also to the couples of walks we take with the kids to go and fetch some fresh and delicious persimmons right from the trees. While quite messy to eat, they are a true delicacy with great fragrance, beautiful sweetness, very meaty.
End of part 1
