Culinary Specialties CooksShopHere- Precious Leaves: China's Legendary Green Teas

About my photographs

I took these photographs in April 2000 at the height of the spring green tea harvest when Bob and I had the opportunity to visit three of the most important green tea producing provinces in eastern China - Anhui, Jiangsze and Zhejiang - on a tea-buying trek.

Our passion for handcrafted tea was rewarded by this experience, and the knowledge we gained from workers in the tea villages and regional tea factories fueled our desire to pass this information on to our customers back home in words and pictures.

We are thrilled to be able to share these photographs, and pleased that they serve as a tool to highlight a traditional agrarian way of life that is under pressure to change.

Fine tea is the result of skilled hand-labor and the dedication of hard-working men and women living in tea growing areas. No other tea producing country possesses the hand-skills utilized by Chinese tea workers, and these photographs illustrate the steps involved in bringing tea from the tea gardens to the marketplace.

By making people aware of the human side of tea production we hope to encourage interest in and demand for hand-made tea so that the future of artisan tea makers in China and other parts of Asia remains as bright as it is for artisan food producers in the West.

Historic Deerfield, Deerfield MA: The Canton Connection: Art and Commerce of the China Trade 1784-1860

From Fall 2005 until spring 2007 my photographs were on display at the Flynt Center at Historic Deerfield, in conjunction with their exhibition titled: The Canton Connection: Art and Commerce of the China Trade 1784-1860

The Link Between the Photographs and the Exhibition

In the exhibition, Historic Deerfield displayed a rare and magnificent Tea Production Album that was painted in China circa 1795. In the album a sequence of charming images guides the viewer through the steps of leaf cultivation and manufacture, conveying in colorful detail how tea was made in China at that time.

My color photographs of contemporary tea workers shows that the steps involved in the manufacture of hand-made tea is much the same today as it was in 1795. While some degree of modernity has been incorporated, the style and essence of the process has changed little.

The Importance of Tea in China’s History

Once called the 'Elixir of the Immortals' and renowned as the beverage of Chinese Emperors, Chinese hand-made green teas are highly prized today by tea connoisseurs worldwide for their unique leaf styles, and clean, delicate flavors.

From 1784-1860, the time-frame explored in this exhibition: The Canton Connection: Art and Commerce of the China Trade, China was in the middle years of the last great Imperial dynasty, the Qing Dynasty ( 1644-1912.). This dynasty saw trade and commerce with the West blossom and witnessed the brilliant glow of China’s imperial power fade into history.

Tea was the commodity that brought Westerners knocking on China’s door, and it became the single most important commodity that fueled the expansion of the China trade with the West. In Europe and especially England, this simple leaf and its humble beverage became an obsession, first with wealthy lords and ladies, then with the intellectual elite, until finally all classes of citizens came to depend on this invigorating brew.

I

Mary Lou

	The epicenter of China’s spring green tea harvest is the Golden Triangle - the provinces of Anhui, Jiangsze and Zhejiang. The topography here is stunning, with steep, rugged mountains claiming much of the land. The most famous mountains - Huang Shan, Mogan Shan, Qi Shan and Tianmu Shan - rise over five thousand feet and are accentuated with bamboo groves, waterfalls and stands of pine. Their foothills are compressed in folds and pleats, with tea gardens planted in rhythmic patterns that cover the landscape in a soft, green mantle.

	The common tea shrub, Camellia sinensis, is a specie evergreen related to the exotic flowering camellia. It produces the finest teas in high altitudes where sunlight, rainfall, cool breezes and mist coax the bushes to fullness. The Chinese variety - Camellia sinensis var. sinensis - is small and robust. In the wild, tea shrubs can grow to a height of nine feet, but cultivated plants are pruned to a manageable three and one-half foot tall by three-foot wide bush. Tea shrubs can live more than one hundred years, but they are cut back to the ground every twenty years to encourage new growth.





	Elegant, clean and fresh in flavor, spring green teas are known for their artistically shaped leaves. The choicest leaf configuration, mao feng, consists of two leaves of equal length and a bud; next comes mao jian, with a single leaf and a bud. Mao feng teas have a broad, flat shape and a sword-like curve from tip to end, while mao jian teas are thin and delicate, with a wiry twist to the leaf. All of these teas brew into a pale green liquid with tinges of gold; they are sweet, mild and slightly grassy. Their names - Snow Dragon, Clouds and Mist, Curled Dragon Silver Tip, Rain Flower, White Monkey Paw - reflect the aesthetics of China’s ancient tea culture.



	Once picked, the fresh leaves are placed in large, low piles on bamboo floor mats inside the tea factory. Next, they are partially dried in a de-enzyming machine, which heats them with warm air and dries them just enough to remove excess moisture. This process prevents oxidation and keeps the leaf green, ensuring as few physical changes as possible. This partially processed leaf is called primary tea.


	Basket-firing is also a traditional method of drying and leaf-shaping in one operation. Depending on the size of the basket, basket-firing tea requires a single worker or a pair of workers, who move together in a smooth rhythm, lifting the basket of tea on and off the heat source, all the while hand-shaping the tea as it slowly dries. Basket-fired teas are twisted and bulky, and more wiry in shape than pan-fired teas. Because basket-firing is close to air drying, these teas are more subtle and delicate in flavor. Pan-fired teas have a slightly toasted flavor from the contact with the hot surface of the wok-like pan.

	The traditional pan-firing of Lung Ching ( Dragonwell tea ) requires eight to ten repetitions to shape and dry it properly. Lung Ching acquires a long, flat, shiny appearance from the constant pressing and manipulation. The brewed tea reveals that each apparently separate leaf is actually two tender leaves cupped around the bud. This tea fulfills the Chinese expectation for a hand-processed tea: the brewed leaf returns to the original shape of the freshly-picked leaf, connecting the drinker to the tea's natural source


	China has the most complicated terminology and classification system of any tea-producing country, with over eight thousand distinctions for labeling and grading tea. Most of these classifications are for green tea, with a smaller number for black and oolong teas. Approximately twenty of the most prized teas - whether green, oolong or black - are known as Famous teas. These teas are place specific and instantly recognizable by their characteristic appearance, leaf shape and flavor. Several famous teas are produced in the golden Triangle, including Lu Shan Gua Pian, Huang Shan Mao Feng, Ming Mei, the very rare Tai Ping Hou Kui, China’s most revered Famous green tea: Lung Ching from Hangzhou, and the Queen of China’s black teas: Quimen ( Keemun. )