The third and final part of my interview with Nigel Melican is now posted on Cha Dao. Excerpted:

Cinnabar: The attempts at growing one place’s regionally-specific tea in a different location seem strange to me, because if you’re taking a type of tea varietal and growing it somewhere else, with a totally different climate and different soil conditions, it’s not going to taste the same. It seems like the more reasonable approach, rather than trying to reproduce a traditional kind of tea in a new place, would be to figure out what works best under the new conditions, and represent the tea as a new type, but perhaps that’s not as marketable.

Nigel Melican: If you look at consumers, they often go for what they know. Someone who knows a Sencha will always, given an unknown tea or the old-fashioned one that they know and love, they’ll choose the one they know and love. But you’re right, that’s what they ought to do, and it’s what I push people in Africa to do, to take the plants that they were growing for CTC tea, and do wonderful things with it.

The fellow in the photo above is certainly a handsome little frog, but you wouldn’t want him darting among the young leaves of your tea plants. He is a Phantasmal Poison Frog (Epipedobates tricolor), one of the poisonest of the poison arrow frogs.

The photograph is from Wikimedia Commons. The reason that this post is accompanied by a photo of a frog will be evident if you read the last part of the interview.

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The second part of my interview with Nigel Melican is now available for you to read on Cha Dao. Excerpted:

Cinnabar: I guess there are really two focuses of organic farming. I wasn’t even thinking about how it affects the end product, because it seems like that’s not the same conversation. The impact on the land is quantifiable and obvious, but the land doesn’t know the difference between a molecule of nitrogen, whether it’s certified organic or not, right?

Nigel Melican: No the land won’t, but — and this is why there’s the argument — people say that organic meat tastes better than inorganic meat, and often it does, because the guy who grows organic takes better care of his animals, is a better animal husband, and that shows up, and it’s the same with plants.

C: And that’s clearly the case with tea. If you’re using practices that end up contaminating the end product with dangerous toxic chemicals, the end product is going to taste bad, so that’s not going to fly.

NM: Ultimately you’re right, but if you had — God forbid — tea contaminated with mercury you wouldn’t taste it, and similarly, many of the ways that you fertilize don’t have an effect on taste. Where you do have an effect with organic on tea is that you’re putting on less nitrogen. Nitrogen leads to fast growth, and fast growth tends to be more about kilograms than it is about quality … so slow growth, as in the spring flush. Everyone says, go for the spring flush. That’s because it’s growing slowly, and the quality is definitely better. So organic should come out with slower growth.

C: But in reality, the quality of a lot of product that’s labeled as organic tea is terrible.

NM: Yes.

The image above, of mercury on cinnabar is from a photograph by Parent Géry on Wikimedia Commons.

Note: Cinnabar is a compound of mercury, and I have a strong affinity for the toxic element in its liquid metal form as well. But I wouldn’t want my tea to be tainted with it!

Note two: For an additional connection of tea and mercury, milliners during the Victorian period often suffered from mercury poisoning due to the use of mercury in the process of transforming fur into felt for hats, thus we have Lewis Carroll’s “Mad Hatter” and his uproarious tea party. In addition to insanity, mercury poisoning produces hard looking red skin, which I would expect to result in those afflicted looking a little like they were made out of cinnabar.

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The export tea industry in Taiwan was established by the Japanese during their occupation of the country, which lasted from 1895 through the end of World War II, and included systematic attempts at assimilating the Taiwanese people into Japanese culture. Black tea production began in earnest after the Japanese brought the larger-leaf Assamica plants into the region from Burma in the 1920s. These plants were cultivated with the local Taiwanese wild plants to produce the bushes which now produce Hong Yue.

Naturally we wouldn’t even be discussing a black tea from Taiwan if the Taiwanese had not maintained and improved the local tea industry and trade following retrocession of the island to the Republic of China in the mid-forties. Within the relatively short span of time since the end of Japanese colonialism, Taiwan has built up a stellar reputation among tea drinkers, primarily for its oolong teas, such as the various types of Bao Zhong and high-mountain oolongs. While not as well known, Taiwan’s black teas deserve wider recognition for their unique character as well.

From the description on Rishi’s site:

“The five year old Hong Yue black tea farm in Nantou is too small for organic certification but the tea is still cultivated without any pesticides or harmful chemicals. Special yellow flowers are planted between the rows of tea bushes to help nurture the young tea bushes in place of fertilizers. Their roots aerate the soil and create an environment where beneficial bacteria thrive. They are mulched into the soil when the tea trees are older and stronger.”

For more details, including photographs and more about the nitrogen-fixing yellow flowering plant that is planted alongside the Hong Yue bushes, read the post on Rishi’s blog.

I brewed this tea using Gongfu methods, in a Taiwanese clay dragon teapot, with a high leaf-to-water ratio and 30-second steeps. The tea has a luxuriant red/orange color and yields a delicious, flavorful liquor through multiple steeps. As one would expect from a leaf with Assamica in its pedigree, Hong Yue produces a strong brew, with intense depth of character. I’ve read descriptions that compare it to brandy, which is understandable given its wine-like tones. It has a deep, slightly bitter woody quality, somewhat akin to the character imbued in a wine casked in oak rather than stainless steel. Even before the first sip, I recommend inhaling deeply to experience the rich complex aroma, which includes a slight note of peppermint.

Note, there is a limited amount of this tea available from Rishi, and I’ve been told it is almost sold out already.

For more on the history of the Taiwanese tea industry, read The Art of Tea on Cultural Taiwan, which is published by the Republic of China government.

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It’s probably not time yet to start running about in a panic wondering what to buy all of the people that you have to buy stuff for this holiday season, but you should plan ahead if you want to take advantage of the Christmas Range on special now at Canton Tea Co., particularly if you are in the United States. And really, you might as well make it easy on yourself and just buy everyone you know good tea. It will benefit you to supply family members or friends with good tea for their cabinets for when you visit, or you might just be able to show someone what a wondrously great thing excellent tea is in the first place. Plus I presume there must be those among you who have people to give gifts to who are already well-informed, devoted tea lovers. They will most certainly appreciate gifts from this selection.

Here are a details on a few of the special packages. You can receive 10% off of your order by using the promotional code GFG, and any orders placed before the 30th of November will include a free hand made bamboo strainer.

A few selections from the Canton Christmas 2010 Range:

Two Tea Pack $15.89
Contents:
Box Green Tea (Pouchong 50g)
Box Oolong Tea (Tie Guan Yin 50g)
Save £2 by choosing a pack containing two of our most popular teas, presented in two Canton gift cartons packed in a white card box – and ready to pop under the tree.

Gold Award Tea Pack $23.84
Contents:
Eight Great Taste Award-winning teas (in 10g taster packs)
Eight outstanding teas in one pack giving you the opportunity to taste the very best teas right across the spectrum – from jasmine and white to black and puerh. Packed in two Canton gift cartons.

New to Tea $31.78
Contents:
Straight Glass Teapot
Five 10g taster packs
The easy way to kick off a love of fine, whole leaf tea. Five of our most popular teas including a jasmine, white, green, oolong and black tea with an easy-to-use 400ml glass teapot and a Canton Tea leaflet on how to brew the best tea.

Monthly Tea Box from $95.35 for 6 months
Contents:
A 260g box of 16 handmade tea infused chocolates
Five 10g tea taster packs in a Canton gift carton
Like a veg box, sign up for you or a friend to have seasonal teas delivered every month straight to the door. Free P&P. If you don’t love it after your first delivery we will refund your money. We will send out a gift certificate if you’re buying it as a present.

Visit Canton Tea Company to place your order and view the rest of the specials.

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Looks aren’t everything, especially in the world of tea, but one of the things that struck me when I first got a look at the sample of Golden Bi Luo was that it was one of the most beautiful teas I’ve ever seen in dry leaf form. Some of the half-ball style, lightly oxidized, rolled oolong teas from Taiwan are quite pretty, but these little golden swirls are exceptionally lovely to look at. Its appearance made me quite curious to find out more about it.

The company’s description:

David Lee Hoffman has been traveling China for over 20 years. His work has led to vast improvements in the quality of tea available to the West. David is especially proud of this tea. Golden Bi Luo is a high-grade black tea made in Yunnan Province in the style of Jiangsu Province’s Green Bi Luo Chun. The name means “snail spring” — spring because this tea is harvested in the spring; snail because the two leaves and down-covered tips are carefully rolled into tight spirals that slowly unfurl to release more flavor during steeping. The spirals are formed using three different hand movements in a heated wok. This tea produces a golden, creamy-tasting liquor with sweet notes of vanilla.

The tea also smelled wonderful, and as I expected, it brewed into a wonderful liquor. Black teas from Yunnan province in China are some of the best black teas I’ve ever tasted, and this tea is no exception. It has the nice malty, sweet flavor that is typical of a good quality Yunnan Hong Cha. As stated on the company’s website this tea can stand up admirably to multiple steepings, and I found this to be the case in my tastings of it.

If you’ve never tasted any Yunnan Hong Cha this one would be a very good tea to start with. If you’ve already tasted other Yunnan black teas and enjoyed them, this one will certainly live up to your expectations.

Note: Bi Luo Chun (碧螺春) translates literally to “Green Snail Spring,” a tea named for its color, spiral shape, and the season during which it is picked.

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Over the rough course of many decades during which her country has seen a great deal of political turmoil and transformation, and during which she must have experienced a somewhat grueling agricultural subsistence lifestyle, she has outlasted even her official documentation. Although she does possess a Soviet-era passport which cites her birth as July 8th 1880, her birth certificate has been lost, resulting in some doubts as to the authenticity of the claim that she is truly the oldest living person today.

The woman, who lives with her 40-year-old grandson in an idyllic vine-covered country house in the mountains, retired from her job as a tea and corn picker in 1965, when she was 85, records say.

“I’ve always been healthy, and I’ve worked all my life — at home and at the farm,” said Khvichava, in a bright dress and headscarf, her withering lips rejuvenated by shiny red lipstick. Sitting in the chair and holding her cane, Khvichava spoke quietly through an interpreter since she never went to school to learn Georgian and speaks only the local language, Mingrelian.

- from an article on Yahoo.

To be fair, nothing I read about her indicated that Ms. Khvichava credited years of close contact with tea plants for her longevity. In at least one article, she suggested that it was due to imbibing vodka. (Additionally, the region she lives in is known for longevity, which undoubtedly plays a part.)

The tea industry in Georgia is an interesting one.  Most of today’s crop yield goes to Lipton and other large scale producers for export.   However, alongside the mass-export tea crops, there is also some small family-run orthodox-method specialty tea output, and the tea that it produces is well worth a taste if you can get your hands on some of it.

More information, from the description of one of Georgia’s wonderful teas, available from Nothing But Tea:

Georgia (ex USSR) has many tea growing villagers who manufacture their own tea by hand in their homes. The whole process is completely natural and performed by hand, in the typical white tea way. They pluck buds and tender tips from the bushes, wither them in a single layer over night. Next morning the leaf is hand rolled to curl it and get the fermentation going, and the tea is spread out to dry in the sun. Our roving teaman persuaded a venerable tea making lady in a village near Ozurgeti (in West Georgia) to part with a little of her tea. This unique tea is exclusive to Nothing But Tea, available nowhere else outside of Georgia and only in limited quantities.

The Georgians themselves drink tea, as do people in neighboring countries.  So some efforts are being made towards localizing sales of tea leaves grown in Georgia. This would, of course, benefit Georgian agriculture, which is still trying to recover from the 2008 conflict with Russia, which also damaged the Georgian wine industry.

For more information on agriculture and tea production in Georgia, read this article on Georgian Daily.

For some added flavor, here’s a photograph of Svetitskhoveli Cathedral (სვეტიცხოვლის საკათედრო ტაძარი), a Georgian Orthodox cathedral in Mtskheta, Georgia, near the capital city of Tbilis. Its name translates into “the Living Pillar Cathedral.”

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Filmmakers Phoebe Brown and Charlene Fisk of Unblinking Eye Films became supporters of the project and are now in the planning and funding stages of a film about it, featuring Christie and one of the young women beneficiaries, now making her way from the Buddhist orphanage where she grew up to university, thanks to the support of the project.

The goals of The Learning Tea are quite ambitious, but appear to be within the grasp of its founder. In addition to supporting the project through purchasing the teas directly, interested persons can support the film project through Kickstarter. An excerpt of the film’s description:

In the summer of 2009 Katrell went to India looking for tea. What she found in Darjeeling is the darker side of the region: a hub for trafficking girls into forced labor and child prostitution. Non-Governmental Organizations in the area estimate that between 7-10,000 girls are tracked annually to Indian brothels from Nepal which borders Darjeeling. Girls—some as young as 6 and 7— are frequently forced into prostitution. Not wanting to be consumer profiteer, Katrell came up with a plan: The Learning Tea.

Through the sale of Darjeeling tea from a Fair Trade tea plantation Katrell hopes to create a sustainable system that supports jobs in the community and funds higher education for girls. The question is—can this simple plan work?

Unblinking Eye Films–producer Phoebe Brown– will document Katrell’s return to India and introduce you to the young woman Katrell is sponsoring from orphanage to university. These girls—many of Nepalese origin—age out of a Buddhist run orphanage at 16 and face the grim realities for young women lacking opportunity and education: a life of forced prostitution, hard labor or servitude–too often under brutal conditions. The sexual enslavement of women is one of the most pressing issues of our time and the world’s eyes need to be opened to the possibility and importance of change.

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In order to more fully appreciate the hundreds of teas available, here are 10 that will serve as guiding lights and points of comparison. As there can be distinction even between retailers’ teas, it is recommended that you try the same kind of tea from at least 2 different retailers or sources.

The list includes teas from the main 4 categories of tea: white, green, wulong (or oolong) and black.

1. Silver Needle: this white tea originated in China, although other countries are developing silver needles. Silver needle consists of the downy tips that are light green to silvery color.
2. Bai Mu Dan (sometimes Pai Mu Tan, White Peony): White Peony is the bridge between white and green teas. It includes more mature green leaves, silvery tips, and the stems that connect the two.
3. Dragonwell (or Long Jing, Long Ching): This Chinese green is pan-fired and shaped to give it a “grasshopper wing” shape. Fresh long jing has flavors reminiscent of steamed wild rice.
4. Sencha: A Japanese green. Sencha often resembles emerald green sewing needles. A good sencha, when prepared properly, delivers a creamy or brothy coating in the mouth and brings savory hints of seaweed and sweet spinach notes.
5. Li Shan: A Taiwanese oolong with fragrant floral scents. Li Shan usually consists of 2 leaves and a tender bud on a stem that is lovingly rolled into a compact ball resembling a small paper wad.
6. Tie Guan Yin (also Tie Quan Yin or Ti Kuan Yin): While the ali shan offers fragrant flower reminders, tie guan yin has a stronger roasted element with a rich woody or smoky touch. TGY resembles li shan in its paper-wad shape, but is distinguishable by its roasted smell and its browner colors compared to ali shan’s brighter green leaf.
7. Darjeeling 1st flush: While this Indian tea is usually classified as a black tea, it bears similarities to oolongs. 1st flushes deliver fruit notes of grape and some of the briskness of a black tea.
8. Golden Monkey comes from Southwest China, the suspected origin the tea plant. The name of this tea comes from the dried leaves that range from gold to a lighter brown. Golden monkey steeps to deliver a black tea liquid with malty, sometimes chocolate tastes.
9. Keemun: Keemun teas stand as shining examples of Chinese black teas. Several variations exist, most notably keemun mao feng and keemun hao ya, and they offer a range of aromas that extend from chocolate to peach/plum notes.
10. Puer (also pu’ erh): Puer is unique in its processing. While many teas depend on an oxidization process to develop flavor, puers rely on a bacterial process for fermentation (think wine or cheese). The result includes both sheng (i.e. raw) puer and shu (aged), the latter one known for earthy tastes and a dark, inky brew.

As you begin to taste these teas, don’t forget to make notes on the smells, textures and colors. A journal can help you immensely when you search for your perfect cup.

Guest post provided by Jason Walker of Walker Tea Review.  Jason’s site hosts online tea tastings and video tea reviews.

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Of particular interest, accompanying these other Russian food and drink items was a selection of teas. The array was not huge, but it appeared to provide some valuable insight into what Russians in the United States would purchase in their attempts to recapture some of the flavor of Mother Russia. These particular teas were not the expensive, refined teas that members of the Russian aristocracy would have poured out of blue and white Lomonosov “Cobalt” teapots. These were teas of the proletariat – inexpensive and convenient, most of them manufactured by a company called “Czar Nikolas II.” Although I later found out that the company also sells one-pound bags of loose tea, this particular store only sells the company’s boxes of tea bags, in varieties very much geared to the Russian palate. Along with basic green and black teas, they sell “Valentine,” which is flavored with rose petals and safflower and a bergamot-scented tea similar to Earl Grey, and “Nostalgia,” which is Ceylon tea with the addition of black currant leaves and strawberry leaves.

To get an idea of a similar, but more extensive selection, take a look through the Russian teas available through Skazka Russian Food.

It might seem a little surprising that I’d be attracted to a tea that is both flavored with non-tea ingredients and, quelle horreur!, in tea bags, but my expectation was to investigate commonly available Russian teas, not to discover the most exquisite and sublime tea taste imaginable. Plus, I have no resistance whatsoever to items that fascinate me and also happen to bear the name of my favorite film – Nostalghia (Ностальгия), by the visionary director Andrei Tarkovsky – thus the compulsion was strong to buy a box of the Nostalgia tea, so I did.

I was intrigued by the notion of the addition of currant and strawberry leaves to tea. These were two flavors I had not experienced before, but I didn’t think they’d be fruity or sweet. From what I already knew about Russian cuisine and the types of flavors that appeal to my palate, I expected this tea to be one I would like, in spite of it being so very different from the pure-leaf teas I drink the rest of the time and I was not disappointed. The non-tea taste is hard to describe. I can’t think of a more familiar flavor to use to describe what it tastes like by analogy. Imagining the flavors of currants and strawberries, but slightly pungent and bitter and without any sweetness, ought to provide an approximation of what this tea tastes like. It’s kind of hard to talk about it as tea since the dominant scents and flavors are not tea, but that’s to be expected. As one would expect, the Ceylon black tea in this tea would be pretty substandard on its own, but that’s not important. Why would anyone add weird dominant non-tea flavors to good tasting teas in the first place?

I don’t have any Russian grandmothers to ask whether they like this tea or not, but it certainly fits my definition of a very Russian character. Czar Nikolas II’s “Premium Nostalgia” tea tastes like Russian tea because it is made for consumption by Russians.

“I wanted to make a film about Russian nostalgia—about that state of mind peculiar to our nation which affects Russians who are far from their native land. I saw this almost as a patriotic duty in my understanding of the concept. I wanted the film to be about the fatal attachment of Russians to their national roots, their past, their culture, their native places, their families and friends; an attachment which they carry with them all their lives, regardless of where destiny may fling them. Russians are seldom able to adapt easily, to come to terms with a new way of life. The entire history of Russian emigration bears out the Western view that ‘Russians are bad emigrants’; everyone knows their tragic incapacity to be assimilated, the clumsy ineptitude of their efforts to adopt to an alien life-style. How could I have imagined, as I was making Nostalgia that the stifling sense of longing that fills the screen space of that film was to becone my lot for the rest of my life; that from now until the end of my days I would bear the painful malady within myself?”

- Andrei Tarkovsky, from his book “Sculpting in Time”

After doing some additional reading in preparation for writing about the tea, especially the passage by Tarkovsky above, I became aware of how appropriate it was for a Russian tea in an unassuming suburban grocery store in the United States to be called “Nostalgia.” The signs of an influx of Russian culture into the area are there, from older indicators like the two beautiful Russian Orthodox churches in Seattle, to more recent signs, like the ease of finding Russian language as an option in local ATMs. But there aren’t restaurants or neighborhoods or many of the more blatant signs visible here, so I only notice the signs when I seek to spot them. I have fantasies of a Russian teahouse opening up with a running loop of Eisenstein films in one room and Stravinsky playing in the background, with banks of bronze samovars holding teapots of Keemun perched on top, but until then I can console myself with strong cups of cheap Russian tea.

(The image above is a still from Nostalghia.)

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Looking at the pictures I took of Tea Source’s Golden Spirals I’m tempted to describe the experience as a strange art project instead of a tea tasting, but the visuals are half or less of the story of this unusual tea. Tea Source’s description:

“This hand-tied display tea is made of long golden/brown tea leaves and brews up with a silky smooth, medium-bodied, sweet (rosy-like) flavor. Wonderful.”

I have an inherent distrust of “display teas,” but this tea is more than a mere novelty object. It brews into a very good tasting tea. As you can see by looking at the dry tea, the leaf is long and golden. It looks and tastes like it must be made from the leaves of a golden Dian Hong from Yunnan Province in China, although its origins are not identified on the packaging or on the company’s website.

As a tea drinker who really enjoys Yunnan Black teas, I was quite pleased to discover that this tea tastes quite similar to the loose leaf Yunnan gold teas that I like. It has that delicious burnt sugar taste that I enjoy with Yunnan Gold teas, although not to the extent that a very high-quality Yunnan Gold Tip would have. But it also has the added element of having been tied and twisted into a neat little cone-shaped bundle that emerges into a wet, brown, drowned flower-like thing as it absorbs hot water and transforms it into tea liquor.

At least one of the times that I drank this tea, I brewed it in a teapot that holds more than one cup of tea and chose not to decant it, so the second pour into my cup steeped considerably longer than the first. It did not have any bitterness or unpleasant strength in spite of the long steep, which was probably at least ten or fifteen minutes. It was a little more boldly flavored, but was still just as nice to drink.

The second infusion was lighter in flavor, but almost as good, and the color of the liquor was not significantly lighter. The third infusion was completely unexciting in taste and color, which is what I expected. The soggy anemone of tea held together throughout. This is a very nice tea, to watch and to drink, and very convenient if measuring spoons or tea scales seem like way too much work.0

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