The 7 habits of highly effective tea people #2

The second habit of the '7 habits of highly effective people' book is "Begin with the End in Mind". This habit involves visualizing the principles that will guide the result. It means starting with a clear understanding of your destination, so that you can better understand where you are now and take steps in the right direction. It also involves identifying old scripts that are taking you away from what matters most, and writing new ones that are congruent with your deepest values.

This habit can also be applied to tea, especially if you wish to create a Chaxi for your tea preparation. You must have a good idea of what kind of brew, taste, flavors and colors you want to enjoy as a result of your Chaxi. Why? Because the best results come from the harmony between the senses. And since the end result of a tea is the brew, the very first question you have to start with is 'What tea do I want to taste?'

You can't choose your ware or you setting or sometimes even your water without first deciding the tea you'll brew. The tea is indeed the central subject your preparation. You have to choose everything in relationship to the tea you will be brewing. Which vessel brings the most out of these particular leaves? What cups are the best fit? What feeling do I want to achieve with my Chaxi?

Of course, we can sometimes experiment and change one piece of tea ware for another during a tea session if we feel that it is not in its place and hurts the overall harmony. However, such mistakes can often be avoided if one prepares each detail with the end result in mind. For important Chaxi, you may even want to test it first!

(Click here if you wish to read habit #1)

Note: The TeaMasters blog started to select tea and tea ware exactly 18 years ago. To celebrate this milestone, the online boutique proposes 18 products at 18% discount for 18 days!

The 7 habits of highly effective tea people / 1

Alishan tea plantation in July

Published in 1989, 'the 7 habits of highly effective people' is a book that sold 25 million copies since. My son recently received this book and I thought it would be fun to see how these 7 habits can also apply to tea. So, let's start with the first concept for this article (and I'll do the other 6 habits) in the coming weeks.

#1 Be proactive. 

"Being proactive means taking responsibility for your life. It means recognizing that you are in charge of your own life and that you have the power to make things happen. For example, if you have a problem at work, instead of waiting for someone else to solve it for you, you take the initiative to find a solution yourself."

This is great advice and it can definitely also be applied to tea. It means that you are in charge of making good tea. In case you are not happy with the brew, you are not going to blame anybody else than yourself. You recognize that you have full control over the ingredients, how the water is boiled, the tea ware and how you are brewing the leaves. 

Most importantly, you understand that preparing tea is a skill that requires learning (in theory) and practice. So, you proactively look for a book, videos or a tea master in order to learn about the basics of tea making (and more if you are inclined to). 

Even the quality of the tea is your responsibility! It's so easy to order from a passionate tea expert in Taiwan instead of purchasing tea bags or stale leaves from your local (super)market. 

And if a tea problem arises, the most scientific way to deal with it is to change one parameter at a time. Imagine that you're not pleased with the tea you just brewed. Here's a list of things that you can change, one after the other, in order to identify the source of the problem:

1. If you forgot to pre-heat your ware, try again but pre-heat the vessel and the cups first.

2. Use a different water or a different kettle. Water is the mother of tea, since 99% of the brew is water. So the quality of water is of utmost importance.

3. Use a different vessel. In case of porcelain, the risks of failure are low, because porcelain is rather taste neutral. However, with a teapot or cups made of pottery (like Yixing clay), the vessel can have a powerful impact on the brew. This happened to me 20 years ago: I was brewing my fresh high mountain Oolong teas with a red clay teapot that wasn't suited for such teas, but was suited for roasted Oolongs.

4. Change the parameters of your brew: more leaves or longer brews if the tea was too weak or vice versa.

5. Change the leaves. I place this change at the end, because it's the most expensive. However, tea pleasure is our priority, so don't brew tea that doesn't bring joy. Life is too short to waste it on bad tea! 

to be continued...

Alishan summer red tea

I went back to the tea plantation I discovered for TF1, a French TV crew last year. The TV channel still hasn't aired the interview with the tea farmer and with me, or any picture they shot in Alishan, but I'm still happy that the opportunity arose, because the summer 2022 red tea I sourced on this trip got high marks from many tea friends! Indeed, this was the first high mountain red tea I selected in Taiwan, because its oxidation level stood out (usually it's too light, probably due to the cooler mountain weather and the skills of the tea makers who focus on partial oxidation).

Left (cut trees) vs right (growing leaves)

So, I returned full of great expectations to this tea field, but quickly noticed that it looked different (see above left and below). Instead of seeing lots of tea leaves ready to be harvested, the tea trees in the field where the red tea came from have been cut midsize. This is done once in a while to prevent the trees from growing too high and to entice the trees to produce more (valuable) leaves instead of (worthless) stems. This cut was done after the spring Oolong harvest and the next harvest will be in Oolong again, in fall. This means that the farmer won't be making any red tea from his plantation this year. 

This was the bad news. The good news (and it's very good) is that I met the farmer in his field again, without an appointment! When I asked about red tea, the farmer told me that he still has a few kg of last year's red tea batch and he agreed to sell it to me at the same price! So, it's available again on my online boutique. 

Le roi des Oolongs de compétition de Dong Ding

Ma rencontre avec ce 'roi du thé de compétition' a eu lieu le 14 juillet, jour du début de la fin de la royauté en France... Ce nom aristocratique, il l'a choisi lui-même et il figure sur sa carte de visite. Je l'avais rencontré lors d'une remise des prix du concours de Dong Ding, fin décembre 2016 (Il est sur la dernière photo de groupe)! Les juges du concours ne tarissaient pas d'éloges pour son savoir-faire, car à chaque concours depuis 2004, il remportait de nombreux prix. Il a tellement de plaques de victoire en bois comme sur la photo ci-dessus, qu'il en a tapissé les murs de plusieurs salles! 

A l'époque, je le sentais un peu imbu de sa personne et n'avais pas eu l'occasion de lui rendre visite. Vendredi dernier, sa carte de visite m'a intrigué et, à l'occasion d'un voyage dans le centre de l'ile, j'ai décidé de lui rendre visite pour goûter à ses thés et notamment à ses Oolongs torréfiés.

Je me rendis donc à son adresse. Sa salle de réception et l'atelier étaient désert. J'allais repartir quand un vieux monsieur me demanda ce que je cherche. "Du thé, pardi!" C'était lui, mais il a pris cher en 6 ans et demi! Je ne le reconnus pas. Je lui demandai de goûter des Oolongs torréfiés de ce printemps en lui précisant quel type de saveurs je recherchais. 

Il prépara 3 Oolongs de la compétition de Dong Ding et un Oolong plus faiblement torréfié (mais pas assez à mon goût). Une telle dégustation comparative est intéressante, car elle permet de voir des différences de styles entre les différents Oolongs, mais aussi un style chez ce producteur surtout spécialisé dans la torréfaction. Même un 'roi du thé de compétition' ne produit pas que des champions. Parfois il alterne les profils de saveurs pour répondre à des demandes variées ou parce qu'il comprend le potentiel de chaque récolte de thé. Goûter avant d'acheter est le meilleur conseil qu'on peut donner!

J'ai la joie de vous annoncer que j'ai adoré le dernier Oolong du test. La finesse de son goût mêlant douceur et fraicheur m'a rappelé les meilleurs Dong Ding Oolongs de compétition qu'on peut goûter lorsqu'on assiste à la remise des prix. Pour certains, ce n'est qu'un détail, mais pour moi cela veut dire beaucoup cette petite touche qui donne vit au thé et prolonge encore plus son plaisir. 

Ayant fait mon choix, je demande plus de renseignements sur ce thé. Les feuilles de qingxin Oolong proviennent de Shan Lin Xi et il est issu d'un surplus d'un thé primé parmi les 5% meilleurs Oolongs de la compétition. Puisque je prends tout, le producteur me fait un prix de gros bien plus avantageux que le prix officiel.

Vous remarquerez que la différence de prix avec un Oolong frais de Shan Lin Xi est très raisonnable. En effet, entre ces 2 thés on enlève beaucoup de tiges et le producteur consacre du temps, de l'énergie (et un risque) à torréfier les feuilles. 

Après cet excellent Hung Shui Oolong de 2023, je voulus goûter à ses Oolongs âgés et partageai avec lui un Oolong de 1980 de ma collection pour à la fois le remercier de m'avoir fait découvrir cet Oolong torréfié et pour lui permettre de savoir quel genre de feuilles anciennes je cherche. Il m'en proposa trois (et un Oolong concubine jeune), mais aucun ne pouvait soutenir la comparaison. Il me félicita d'avoir si bien conservé ces feuilles depuis que je les ai acquises (il y 15 ans déjà!), et il me souhaita que le Oolong torréfié devienne aussi bon que celui-ci dans 40 ans! 

Ma déception de n'avoir pas pu trouver de bon Oolong âgé était largement compensée par la joie d'en avoir sélectionné un jeune à un bon prix, et d'avoir fait briller mon savoir-faire dans les yeux de ce 'roi du thé de compétition'.