Depending on where you are in China, there are tea farms where you can do everything from picking to drying to tasting. This past summer, I visited what is deemed the birthplace of Chinese tea, in Sichuan Province on Mengding Mountain.
The tea in this area is called Mengding Ganlu which means "Sweet Dew of Mengding." The tea is hand-picked and hand-roasted. We had the opportunity to pick and roast the tea.
We are instructed to pick the newest baby tea leaves. While we thought we were following this direction, when we bring our bounty back to the tea growers, they pick through and remove about a third of our leaves.
The roasting is done in an enormous wok over a blazing fire. The fire is stoked by the woman of the house while the man mixes the the leaves around...using his bare hands! The leaves need to be constantly mixed so that they do not burn.
After the hard work, we sit down to a tea ceremony in which the growers show us how to steep the tea and let us taste several varieties. Join me on a Chow Fun Tour and taste some of the best teas in the world!
The tea in this area is called Mengding Ganlu which means "Sweet Dew of Mengding." The tea is hand-picked and hand-roasted. We had the opportunity to pick and roast the tea.
We are instructed to pick the newest baby tea leaves. While we thought we were following this direction, when we bring our bounty back to the tea growers, they pick through and remove about a third of our leaves.
The roasting is done in an enormous wok over a blazing fire. The fire is stoked by the woman of the house while the man mixes the the leaves around...using his bare hands! The leaves need to be constantly mixed so that they do not burn.
After the hard work, we sit down to a tea ceremony in which the growers show us how to steep the tea and let us taste several varieties. Join me on a Chow Fun Tour and taste some of the best teas in the world!
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