www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

USEUROPEAFRICAASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
China
Home / China / Society

The new tea party

By Pauline D. Loh | China Daily | Updated: 2013-07-28 10:35

The new tea party

Cakes of pu'er tea are collector's items, carefully kept and aged like fine wines. [Photo/China Daily]

Even outside China, specialist teashops are mushrooming all over the United States, Europe, Australia and even Africa.

They sell loose-leaf teas in boutiques that are educating the world on how to appreciate teas like Dragon Well tea plucked before the spring rains, monkey-harvested silver needles, peony-scented white teas and the furry buds of the gigantic ancient pu'er tea trees from southern Yunnan.

The new tea party

 

Cheng Yu, a middle-aged wholesale tea merchant in Kunming, is a major supplier to these teashops. His family's Jiuwan Tea has its own factory and tea plantations, and Cheng is a one-man reference library on all things tea.

In fact, he is so respected that he is quoted often in the locally published Encyclopedia of Yunnan Tea, where his family business has an entire chapter to itself.

Ed Grumbine, 56, a research scholar with the Chinese Academy of Sciences at the Kunming Institute of Botany, was drinking black tea from China back in the United States long before he arrived to work here.

As soon as he had settled in Kunming, he started exploring the city's famous wholesale tea markets, which are more like tea towns. He soon found a tutor in Cheng Yu.

Grumbine took us to visit Cheng recently, and it proved an extremely educational experience.

There was a huge motorcycle outside Cheng's shop, a 1,800-cu-cm monster with upholstery that looked as if it was hijacked from a car. Images of Jack Kerouac on the road in designer jeans refuse to fade.

Indeed, when we meet Cheng, he looks more like a Beat Generation poet than a tea merchant, with long wavy locks and an easy confidence culled from a lifetime in the business. And he is wearing designer jeans.

We are invited to join him for tea at the table that is a fixture in every tea merchant's shop in Yunnan, with its supply of water at hand and a kettle almost constantly on the boil. The pu'er Cheng was drinking was very mellow - its natural tannins so tempered by age that it slid smoothly down the throat like the finest silk.

The new tea party

[Photo provided to China Daily]

As we settle, he cues the two young ladies brewing tea to make a new pot. This time, the fragrance wafts up as soon as the hot water hits the leaves, and the room is scented with the unmistakable bouquet of jonquils, daffodils, narcissus - whatever you called the flower.

"This is a tea that has been recently developed," Cheng says, adding that it first came out around 2005.

It's a very floral black tea named zhongguohong, or China Red, linking it to a much older sister, the traditional dianhong cha, or Yunnan Red.

It is a tea very much in demand, but the harvest is small, and Cheng is reluctant to part with too much. The asking price here is 400 yuan per 100 grams, but by the time it is retailed abroad, the price may be $400. Even in Beijing, where small amounts are sold in the tea distribution center of Maliandao, the cost will be double what it is in Kunming.

This is a fair indication of how tea-buying habits are changing.

The most expensive teas are now finding a market, and so Qimen red tea is no longer exclusively for the Queen's afternoon cuppa, for example, but is offered in the specialist tea bars of international hotel chains all over the world.

There are some teas that can be drunk young, such as green teas or the jasmine teas so popular in the hutong courtyards of Beijing.

Tea is generally divided into black, red and green. The categories refer more to their processing rather than their color. The varieties are vast, and, like wine, different terroir also produce different tastes, aromas and colors.

There is a quiet revolution going on now that involves not only Chinese tea drinkers but also those abroad.

More Westerners are getting in on the act and developing a sophisticated taste for tea - without sugar or milk, if you please.

Previous 1 2 Next

Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
 
主站蜘蛛池模板: 亚洲综合图片人成综合网 | 三级免费网站 | 96精品免费视频大全 | 国产成人18黄网站免费网站 | 国产精品久久久久久久久99热 | 韩国精品欧美一区二区三区 | 欧美色成人综合 | 免费一区二区 | aaa成人永久在线观看视频 | 成年女人免费观看 | 99免费在线 | 青青久草 | 日本道久久 | 亚洲天堂男人天堂 | 欧美黑粗特黄午夜大片 | 久草高清在线 | 亚洲精品m在线观看 | 国产亚洲精品资源一区 | 免费一级a毛片在线 | 999成人网| 三级全黄的全黄三级三级播放 | 亚洲欧美国产中文 | 一级特黄特色的免费大片视频 | 久久国产免费一区 | 国产tv在线 | 欧美视频一区二区 | 国内精品伊人久久久久妇 | 欧美性videofree精品 | 日产一区二区三区四区 | xo欧美性另类 | 久草视频福利资源站 | 久草在线2 | 日韩精品免费一区二区三区 | 中文字幕精品一区二区绿巨人 | 欧洲美女与男人做爰 | 亚洲天堂男人 | 美女又黄又免费的视频 | 亚洲经典乱码在线播 | 国产亚洲午夜精品a一区二区 | 国产精品永久在线 | 欧美国一级毛片片aa |