Three Anhui Classics
by Lydia KungAs I prepare to send this out, it occurred to me that these are very place-specific teas. Not only are these not produced outside China, these teas (and quite a few more) are not produced outside a certain small region in Anhui province. In the context of a possible tariff increase, these are unique products that are not candidates for being manufactured elsewhere.
From the high-speed train’s window heading out of Shanghai, it is easy to sense the transition into Anhui to the east, as the distinctive white and black traditional architectural style of villages comes into view.
Situated closer to the imperial court than most other tea producing regions, Anhui provided many of the tribute teas proffered to the capital, and in so doing established the province’s claim to fame where teas are concerned. Perhaps the most famous is Yellow Mtn Maofeng (Huang Shan Maofeng), due in no small part to its association (proximity) with the best known mountain in the country.
The HuangShan Mountains are famous for their high, steep, unusual-shaped peaks; grotesquely shaped ancient pines; clear, trickling springs; and surging seas of clouds. These cloud seas create a perfect natural environment for growing tea.
This green tea is a good example of how the place from which a tea originates can propel it to great renown, and it’s also a good example of what maofeng means. “Downy summit” in this instance shows how minimal rolling with light pressure results in a leaf that is not very compact.
The sign shown above identifies the Yellow Mtn./HuangShan cultivar, shown here:
The trek up to one of the origin gardens was not an easy one. The elevation was not particularly high, but the ride from the flats took over 2 bumpy hours, on a narrow road with no guardrails. We had to transfer from a minivan to smaller vehicles as we wound our way up to 700 m. The village of Zhu Ling is small, with just a few houses widely scattered, backed by steep hills of tea that seemed very challenging for tea pickers.
The recently finished pre-Qing Ming Yellow Mtn Maofeng we were shown was a small budset, the smallest I’ve seen for this tea. The flavor of this famed tea is light and slightly cleansing, with a very subtle lemony note. This is not a tea that pops; but once the processing is understood, the delicacy makes sense. It’s made from early growth pluckings, and is processed with a very light hand. That said, it’s probably best appreciated within its larger context: its association with Yellow Mtn and all the referential meaning in art and literature. Our spring tea was finished after Qing Ming, making for a friendlier price.
At lunch I thought I recognized the tea on the table, a Gold-Flecked Green, because of its distinctive curled, slightly hooked shape and leaves showing tiny gold specks.
But there was some confusion at first because I was given its local name, Trickling Water Fragrance. The formal name of Jin Shan Shi Yu was created during the Qing dynasty, and before that, the tea was known as Jin Shan Tea Mist, Jin Shan being the name of a village that is still part of the Yellow Mtn region.
Made with the Yellow Mtn. cultivar, the processing is very different from the better known eponymous tea, resulting in a tea that looks totally unlike the Maofeng. The highest grade consists of a bud and one leaf.
Because of the tender pluck, de-enzyming is done at a high temperature but in short spurts. (Shown at left)
The warm tangled bunches are cooled before they are returned to the rotating de-enzyming drums to separate the leaves, somewhat sticky at this stage.
Next, the leaves are placed in semi spherical pans for shaping, spending about an hour in these containers.
The pressure alternates between light, heavy, light. At the end, the leaves are well dried and are placed on trays in a chamber to elevate aroma, by means of low heat.
With this gift tea in hand, my tasting partner and I held our own tasting back at our hotel. Water temperature happened to be what the restaurant wait-staff could bring in thermoses for us, but comparing three teas (Yellow Mtn Maofeng, this Gold Flecked Green, and Ding Gu Da Fang) made for an enjoyable couple of hours
My notes for the fancy Gold Flecked Green:
- an immediate punch of flavor
- no harsh edges
- borders on being almost savory at the finish
- rich and full tasting, with a lovely vegetal note lingering
- approachable, with the sweetness of something green at the outset
- wonderful aroma from the dry leaf, very even rolling, beautiful leaf
- aroma evokes watermelon rind (?)
- focused, refined flavor, has “the clear, clean, bright character of a really good green”
- shows complexity, long umami that draws across the palate to the finish
Anhui shares a border with Zhejiang province, another region with delectable green teas. At the border is Mount TianMu, a big name green from Zhejiang. On the Anhui side of the mountain, we arrived in time to see Ding Gu Da Fang processing. This is another tea that offers wonderful aroma in dry from. Its most pronounced feature is how much it resembles Dragonwell.
The gardens sit above fields of rapeseed that were still in bloom (mid-April 2019), making for bright yellow vistas wherever we turned. Summer is when rapeseed is processed into oil, and in the fall, work turns to picking walnuts in this area.
But spring means green teas. Shown at left is a picker making his way down from tea plots above the rapeseed.
This is not a floral tasting green tea; DGDF is woodsier with just a hint of peanuts. Kit Chow refers to this green as a “rougher” version of Dragonwell and cites its chestnut flavor as a standout feature.
The workers gave us a brief demonstration (at left) of manually working the leaves into the desired shape, to show us how the leaves used to be processed by hand, now a task left to equipment designed in Zhejiang. (See right)
This may dispel some of the romance associated with teas like Dragonwell, but the batches going into these machines are very small, just a couple of kilos at a time.
Finally, the primary tea is moved to a factory down the hill for refining and finishing.
If we add another Anhui tea, Tai Ping Hou Kui, to this group, we have an array of leaf styles that is hard to beat for variety. First, we saw the looser leaves of Yellow Mtn Maofeng being one type, offering a light delicate cup. Then there is the more compact and more vigorously rolled Gold Flecked Green, yielding deep concentrated flavor. Then the flat spear shape of Ding Gu Da Fang that could easily be mistaken for Dragonwell, and indeed, producing similar sweet nutty notes. And few would argue that Tai Ping Kou Kui is perhaps the most dramatic in appearance.
At right: Tai Ping Kou Kui leaves neatly arranged in a carton at the local wholesale tea market:
In previous posts, I have looked into and wondered about (mostly wondering) the intent behind different leaf shapes in China green teas. Some are easier to decipher. Lu’An Gua Pian (Melon Seed) uses only the 2nd leaf. For a costly tea, it may be surprising to find that no budsets are used for this famed green. Digging a little, we learn that the 2nd leaf is preferred for its bolder flavor, a taste preference among those who first made this tea.
With respect to the 3 Anhui teas considered here, the strikingly different look of each tea only leads to further queries. Contrasting manufacturing methods of Yellow Mtn Maofeng and Gold Flecked Green can explain very disparate, distinct flavors, but how did the traditions begin? How did a specific processing method come about? Was local taste preference the primary driving factor, cementing into tradition over the years and formalized into the classics we see today? There are several ways to elevate and expand the tea conversation, and exploring processing methods and finished styles for green teas like these points to one fine direction.
June 27, 2019