Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Chang Cha Sheng Jin, by Teaparker

Teaparker's latest book is available! It is from the same collection as Cha Xi - Mandala, Cha Hu and Cha Bei.

Its title means: store tea and turn it into gold. Its subject, obviously, is collecting tea.

At auctions, old puerh prices have reached 3 times the price of gold. This means that collecting tea could even be a good investment.

In this book, Teaparker answers the questions a potential collector would ask: What teas are well suited for collecting? How does good tea evolve with time? What is the impact of roasting? What is the impact of using different materials to store tea: Silver? Porcelain? Zisha? Pewter? How to appreciate old tea?...

This book is in Chinese, but, as always, the pictures of the tea accessories are stunning. They feel like this excellent picture a reader submitted 3 years ago:


3 comments:

toki said...

Beautiful pictures, thanks for sharing your master's work again. Just curious to know teaparker's thoughts on the relationship between aged tea and opium? Cheers - Toki

TeaMasters said...

Toki,
Teaparker has traveled to Myanmar and met with opium growers who were converting to Oolong cultivation. But I don't recall him trying the forbidden substance. However, aged teas are those that bring him most happiness.

slurp said...

could you do a post sometime summarising Teaparker's view on how different materials affect the stored tea. I'd love to know but can't read chinese.

thanks,
slurp