Adapt your tea to winter

Heavily roasted Dong Ding Oolong of 1999

This was the subject of a class I made 10 days ago and that you can see here on YouTube. I wanted to make an additional observation that just struck me recently.

During the class, I explained that in winter one is rather looking for quality tea, teas with strong aftertaste that have a warming impact on the body, rather than teas that are simply fragrant and light and that have little impact on the body (or a cooling impact). The reason is that the weather is cold, and therefore we are looking for a powerful and warming effect on our body during winter.

And, what do you usually do when you want a stronger, more powerful cup of tea? You use more leaves, right? Well, this doesn't always work well. I actually had a better brew when using fewer leaves of my 2006 spring gushu puerh from Lincang than when I used more! With roasted Oolong, especially younger ones, there can also a point when more leaves means less enjoyment. With some teas, a too strong cup will feel awkward and saturated. You loose the details and the harmony.

So, what's the solution? Shorter brews will lots of leaves? This is the emergency solution after you have identified the problem and you are already brewing with too many leaves in your teapot. However, short brews tend to focus on the scents and reduce the taste of the tea. This is still not what we are aiming for in winter. So, the best solution to get your winter brew right is to use the same amount of leaves than in summer and increase the brewing time in order to get more taste and aftertaste out of the leaves. Of course, there are exceptions. Some teas can be brewed longer and with more leaves in winter. But in general, I feel that the key to adapting your tea to the winter season is to use longer brews, not more leaves. And use an Yixing teapot over porcelain! This will also help get more aftertaste.

 

The secrets of Song dynasty style tea

The tea of the Song dynasty (960-1279) is the finest tea in Chinese history, both literally and figuratively speaking. Its powder is ground much finer than during the Tang dynasty (618-907), and it stopped being ground at the beginning of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). And it's fine in the sense that it's the most imperial of all teas! It's the only tea for which the reference book (Da Guan Cha Lun) was written by an emperor (Song Huizong)! Thanks to Japanese tea master Sen no Rikyu (1522-1591) who adapted this method and codified it, top grade made matcha (green powder) tea continues to be produced and practiced in Japan. For a long time, the 3 tea schools that go back to Sen no Rikyu, Urasenke, Omotesenke, and Mushanokōjisenke, were only teaching the Japanese nobility! It's only quite recently that they have opened up to the rest of Japanese society and even foreigners. To this day, top grade matcha continues to be more expensive than sencha or gyokuro, and the Chado tea ceremony is still one of the most important tradition in Japan. 

So, while Rikyu was born 500 years ago this year, the Song dynasty style tea brings us back over 900 years ago, as the Song Huizong wrote his book in 1107! And if you want to study any subject, it's always best to go to the original source! 

There's another good reason to learn about what may appear like ancient tea history: you can still practice it today (especially thanks to the fact that matcha continues to be produced in Japan)! Actually, it may appear easier to prepare matcha in the Song dynasty style than in the Japanese way, because it's not ceremonial at all. It's all about the technique and getting the most of the tea. That's why it feels so well linked to modern gongfu cha, even though that technique is quite different. And to help you get a better understanding of this ancient tea method, I've made this class about the secrets of Song dynasty tea:

   

Of course, this class doesn't teach everything there's to know about Song dynasty tea. There's much more to learn. But the points I make go to the core of the preparation. Literally!

Le thé en hiver, un ami pour la vie

Hung Shui Oolong de Dong Ding 1979

Je suis désolé pour la mauvaise qualité du son de cette première vidéo de l'année. J'ai du oublié de remettre mon micro sans fil en marche... Mais ce qui manque à la forme, le fond le compense assez bien, selon le retour que j'ai eu.

Or, j'ai même oublié un argument que j'avais fait le jour précédent, lors du même cours en anglais. Cet argument, le voilà:

Le pin (ou sapin) est l'un des 3 symboles de l'hiver. Cet arbre est aussi le symbole de la longévité et de l'amitié. Les deux vont ensemble, car une amitié brève n'est pas une vraie amitié. L'amitié se construit sur de la confiance, une capacité à répondre présent et avec de bons souvenirs et de beaux projets.

Je crois que cela définit parfaitement ce qu'on attend d'un thé de garde. C'est un thé de bonne qualité qui ne nous déçoit jamais. On a de bons souvenirs de dégustations antérieures et on en conserve précieusement les feuilles pour les bonifier, car on s'attend à encore plus de plaisir et de finesse dans les prochaines années.

Contrairement au printemps où la nature abondante produit de nouvelles feuilles à foison, l'hiver nous inspire donc de nous concentrer sur ce qu'il y a de meilleur. Place à la qualité!

D'ailleurs, j'en ai refait l'expérience aujourd'hui avec ce puerh des années 1970! C'est tellement bon. OK, là c'est un peu triché, car je n'ai ce thé que depuis quelques années. Par contre, celui de 1973, très similaire, je l'ai depuis 2008 déjà! 

Il y a un sentiment de satisfaction de constater que ce thé se bonifie encore. Il ne s'agit pas d'être misanthrope comme la devise à Washington DC: "Si tu veux un ami dans cette ville, achète un chien!" qu'on pourrait compléter par "et si tu es allergique aux poils, bois du vieux puerh!" 

Bien entendu, le thé ne sera jamais comme un vrai ami, mais cette analogie entre ami et thé nous indique une voie basée sur la compréhension et la qualité. Il faut savoir parfois se concentrer sur un bon thé pour bien le connaitre. Et ce n'est qu'avec des thés de qualité qu'on trouve assez de raisons pour les boire encore et encore, car ils ne finissent pas de nous ravir.

Le bon collecteur est donc celui qui se trouve des thés pour la vie!