Test du Shan Lin Xi du printemps 2024

Je vous montre le réchaud à gaz et la bouilloire en inox au pied du Chaxi pour vous montrer qu'il suffit de peu d'accessoires pour pouvoir préparer son thé dans la nature. A Taiwan, quand je vais dans les montagnes de thé, ce n'est pas chez le fermier, mais directement dans la plantation que je préfère boire mon Oolong! Ce n'est plus une connexion avec la nature, mais une immersion!! On sent cette nature printanière qui embaume l'atmosphère, on entend le oiseaux gazouiller et le soleil vient illuminer monts et forêts de bambou entre deux passages de nuages.

L'infusion désaltérante après mon escalade de la plantation et la prise de nombreuses photos récompense mes efforts. J'ai beau y avoir été de nombreuses fois, chaque visite permet de nouvelles découvertes. C'est aussi une manière de tester le thé : les arômes de l'infusion correspondent-ils aux arômes du terroir autour de moi? Le thé parle un langage qui ne triche pas. Contrairement au discours du fermier, il n'essaie pas de se vendre. Il est lui-même.et en harmonie avec son environnement.

Toutes ces vertes feuilles sont si reposantes pour la vue. J'en cueille quelques dizaines pour en décorer mon Chaxi. Et je le ramène chez moi pour en faire du thé blanc (donc simplement séché).

Les bambous entourent la plantation et lui confèrent un ombrage rafraichissant. Ces bambous suggèrent de  la vigueur, de la jeunesse et de la flexibilité. J'associe ces qualités à cet Oolong de Shan Lin Xi avec la finesse en plus.

Après plusieurs jours de pluie, je redéguste cet Oolong chez moi et suis instantanément transporté dans mes souvenirs au sommet de la montagne par la même magie que la madeleine et le thé de Marcel Proust. Le plus beau, c'est que cette gorgée ne recrée pas un endroit du passé, mais une belle plantation de thé, bien entretenue et bien réelle. Elle vit pour elle-même, mais aussi pour nous en donnant ces boules vertes de fraicheur. Un peu d'eau bouillante suffit pour créer un feu d'artifices dans le gaiwan et le palais!

Ci-dessous, vous pouvez constater que le temps peu changer extrêmement vite en montagne. Le soleil éclatant est remplacé par des nuages bas laiteux. Mais c'est justement cela qui fait la fraicheur de ces feuilles. Elles ne restent pas trop longtemps exposées à de trop fortes températures. La haute élévation est synonyme de fraicheur et de lenteur dans la croissance des feuilles.

Taiwan, ce n'est pas que la micro-électronique qui vous permet de voir ces photos. C'est aussi des Oolongs printaniers magnifiques issus de jeunes montagnes qui tremblent parfois, mais il en faut plus pour me faire peur!

Wine in the Iliad and in the Odyssey

My love of tea has led me to pay special attention to the meaning of beverages in art, history and literature. So, when I read the Iliad and then the Odyssey, I counted the number of times Homer mentioned drink related words. Spoiler: he never mentions 'tea', but mostly 'wine'! Still, it's interesting to analyze, because tea and wine are very much interchangeable in Chinese culture. They often even used the same porcelain wares to drink wine or tea!

I already did the analysis about Iliad here, in French Iliad here, in French. A good online translator should be able to translate the text if you wish to read it. I'm going to do a similar analysis about the Odyssey in English, because I read this book translated by Walter Shewring (1906-1990).

However, before I write this detailed article about the meaning of wine in Homer's Odyssey, I think it's interesting to compare the 2 books for the vocabulary related to wine. Let's do an arithmetic analysis:

First we need to keep in mind that the Iliad is 15,693 lines long vs 12,109 lines for the Odyssey (-23%). This means that if 'wine' had the same importance in both stories, its mention should drop by 23% in the Odyssey. However, they go from 37 mentions to 125! 

Likewise, the word 'libation' goes from 8 mentions to 27 in the Odyssey! 

Ambrosia had 2 mentions in the Iliad, here 5.

How does the wine taste in the Odyssey? It's described as 'sweet' (11 times), 'glowing' (10), 'delicious' (6), 'fragrant' (5), 'pleasant' (2), 'honey sweet' (2), 'good' (1) and 'lovely' (1)

What's also interesting is that the word 'water' was mentioned 9 times. Other liquids are also mentioned: 'dark blood' (4 at least*), 'nectar' (3), liquor (1), elixir (1), milk (1), olive oil (1). 

And the expression 'wine dark ocean' is used 11 times.

* So, Homer is giving us much more material to analyze! I probably forgot to count some words that had a connection with wine. I quickly stopped to count 'cups' for instance, because there were just too many! Now, with all this wine flowing, we would expect a lot of 'drunkenness'! This word is only mentioned once, though! However, my analysis will make the case that this problem is one of the core messages of the book.

Are all Oolongs from a tea mountain the same?

The word 'Shan Tou Qi', energy of the mountain, is the equivalent of the word terroir in French. It refers to common characteristics shared by produces coming from the same region. Indeed, it's possible to distinguish a Bordeaux red wine from a Napa Valley red and a Shan Lin Xi Oolong from an Alishan. But does it mean that all high mountain Oolongs from a specific mountain taste the same? That they are of the same quality? No, just like with wine, there are still great differences within the same mountain. For instance, you can experience the difference between these 2 AliShan Oolongs from 2 different plantations. Or 2 Ali Shan from the same plantation and 2 different days (organic 1 and 2). Or you can taste the difference in Shan Lin Xi, with Qingxin Oolong harvested from this plantation on May 3rd (Day 1) and May 4th (Day 2). The difference is larger than what I expected and shows how both the weather on the day of harvest and slight changes in the process can have great impact on the flavors of high mountain Oolong.

The next picture shows how plantation management also matters:

Side by side plantations in Shan Lin Xi

A simple red rope separates 2 plantation in the middle of the picture. The plantation on the right is where I get my Shan Lin Xi high mountain Oolongs. What is amazing is how much darker and greener the color of the leaves in the field on the left. (Both fields have already been harvested.) This is evidence that the way the trees are treated, which kind of fertilizer is used and if pesticides are used or not does matter a lot. My farmer's only property and source of income is this field, so he tells me that he uses only the most natural fertilizer and that he didn't spray any pesticides. For him, this explains the color difference in the leaves with the adjacent field. We don't know how the other farmer manages his field and I'm not saying that yellow is better than dark green. But this is evidence that not even from the same tea mountain there are differences from one plantation to another.

And that's why tasting is fun and interesting. Tea isn't a commodity, but it's the most sensitive product I know. Everything has an impact on its flavors: the mountain, the field management, the weather during harvest, the time of the harvest, the season, the cultivar, the process... and the brewing!!

Démonstration du thé des Tang

C'est mon cours le plus important de l'année! Dans la vidéo ci-dessus, je réalise un thé à la manière des Tang (618-907) en suivant les instructions de Lu Yu dans son Cha Jing. Pour ce faire, j'ai utilisé un thé vert compressé de Corée appelé Ddok Cha, que m'avait offert Matt en 2008! (Merci à lui.). Cette démonstration résume donc le livre et montre comment les Chinois cuisaient le thé vert il y a plus de 1000 ans. Je trouve que cela permet de mieux comprendre comment on a pu passer de cette méthode à celle des Song.

The organic Alishan Oolong plantation

July 2022

In the summer of 2022, I stumbled upon this organic plantation by design. How can you tell which plantation isn't using chemicals as weed killer? One way is to visit the tea growing region unannounced and see for yourself in which plantation there are people taking care of the weed with their hands or simple mechanical means. 
 

July 2023

That's how I found this beautiful Qingxin Oolong, which also happens to be one of the highest in the Chang Shu Hu area. This is important detail, because this means that chemicals sprayed on neighboring plantations are less likely to flow or upstream or fly upwards to its trees!

May 2024

2 years ago, I selected this red tea from this plantation. I was also interested in tasting the spring 2023 Oolong, but it sold out almost as soon as it was produced! This is another lesson I learned: when a farmer works hard in his tea field, he often doesn't have to work much selling the tea. Quality and reputation are the best marketing.

This year, I called him beforehand and was able to snatch 2 batches of his spring high mountain Oolong: May 1st and May 6th. I liked the fact that each batch has a distinctive personality and that both tasted very pure. I also drove to the plantation and could see that there's work right after the harvests.

We can see these workers trimming the Qingxin Oolong trees so that they don't grow too tall. Instead of trees, I should use the name 'bushes', which better describes them. By the way, I also like how this plantation is surrounded by bamboo and pine trees. It protects the field from the cold in winter and from wind.

This trimming may look unnatural, but it helps keeping the plantation organic. See below, the cut leaves and stems remain on the soil. This protect the ground from erosion and provides natural nutrients to the soil as they decompose. It also helps to retain moisture for dry days and stops weed from growing for a while.   

So, these leaves were harvested by hand on May first 2024. This is rather late for this area, but this is normal if you consider that this is the highest field in this region and that organic tea is growing slower, because it isn't overfed with fertilizer. 

I brew this fresh high mountain Oolong on a dark green Chabu to underline the spring feeling of this tea. It's so fresh, mellow and well balanced! The leaves have fully expanded in the gaiwan. That's how you get them to release all their natural high mountain flavors. 

The power and beauty of Alishan is in the cup and soon it will be dancing in my throat and exhilarate my nose! Spring has arrived!