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Finding Tea in Western Hubei
浏览次数:1716次 更新时间:2018-07-02

Finding Tea in Western Hubei

——Li Zhang


Looking at a cup of tea, then you gain the preference of the mountains.

You can feel the time unwrapping on your hands.

As if the blossom of spring only needs a handful of water

And could let life stump on death.

——Tujiayefu

 

In the early spring, the world starts a new cycle. When leaves start to sprout among the branches, the tea men begin to walk toward the mountain following their stirring heart. This spring tea season, I didn’t go to Yunnan or the home of Longjing where everyone goes. Because I had an unfinished love of one place.

Enshi.

Enshi Tujia Autonomous Prefecture in Hubei Province has a beautiful name, which is City Full of Selenium. There are endless tea fields, magnificent cliffs, clear waters. This place makes you feel like living in a painting. The astonishing creation of nature gifted this place with the unique environment. The tea of Enshi isn’t only full of selenium but also full of amino acid. The tea smells excellent and tastes sweet. Living in the breathtaking place, the hard-working Tujia nationality has passed on an ancient and mysterious Chinese culture. Steamed Tea has been popular since Han and Tang Dynasty. After thousands of years, this way of making tea is only completely cherished and preserved here. The difference between Steamed Teas and other ways of making tea is that using steam to cook the tea, using high-temperature steam to terminate the activity of the enzyme quickly and maintain the green color of the tea. This way can keep the freshness of tea perfectly. But this method also demands high-quality tea leaves. This ancient technology was lost once during thousands of years of history and wars. The famous tea educationalist Mr.Wanfang Zhuang passed the huge responsibility of rejuvenating the Steam Tea method of Enshi Yulu Green Tea to his protege——Teacher Shengwei Yang who graduated from Tujia Nationality Tea Collage.

Walking in the tea mountains, I could see five mountains connected to each other standing beside a river. The climate here is mild and here rains a lot. Clouds and fogs surround here during sunup and sundown. A clear and raging river cuddles the mountains. The land here is fertile and the best place to grow Enshi Yulu Green Tea which is pretty, fragrant and tasty. But I was really looking forward to experiencing the complete process of Steamed Tea.

I finally met Master Shengwei Yang. He was 83 years old, but he still appeared in the tea factory wearing fancy Tujia costumes. He had worked so hard to accomplish his teacher Mr. Zhuang’s will to let the world know Enshi Yulu Green Tea and Steamed Tea again. He was 83 years old, but he was still working on the Inheritance of Steamed Tea cautiously and conscientiously.

Enshi Yulu Green Tea shapes like pine needles. The tea leaves are green and the white parts are as white as jade. The tea tasted refreshing. Under the personal instruction of Teacher Shengwei Yang, we gathered the fresh tea leaves ourselves and started our journey from leaves to needles. The warm smiling face of Teacher Yang was like a ancient tea that traveled time, which was experienced yet pure. And his smiling face was also like how wind and moon touches people’s heart. Under the guidance of a scholar like this made the process of making Enshi Yulu Green Tea purified out hear and soul, even though it was hard. The making procedure of Enshi Yulu Green Tea nowadays is one bud, one leaf and the size should be equal. The leaves need to be short but dense. The buds need to be longer and the leaves need to be short. The color needs to be bright green. Only the leaves fit all the description above can be used as ingredients. The tea leaves need to be steamed first, then cooled with fan, dried with fire, rubbed with bare had, dried with fire again, shaped, polished, cooked and screened during the making procedure which would take eight hours. Afterward, you can see the shining oiled tea leaves which are straight and tight. The color of the green tea is bright and clear with mellow aromas.

The sun was setting west, and the wind at the tea mountain was moisture and warm. It felt as if the wind was murmuring some ancient love story of Han and Tang Dynasty. I finally finished half of my wishing list. Yes, I was going to another autonomous prefecture which is another essential tea origin. There was a touch of red dancing in the sunset.

Lichuan

If the tea mountain at Enshi was rugged and dangerous, then the tea mountain at Lichuan was curving. The car moved slower at Lichuan because there were too many turns and beside the turns were cliffs. One mountain after another and we even saw the bizarre image of a mirage. I still can not believe that I saw a city in the sky. When I entered the core of the tea zone which had a good ecological environment, I was fascinated by azalea trees that was all over the mountain. The flowers were flourishing. Seemed someone had prayed in front of Buddha and wished for this encounter at the mountain way. But who made the wish? Was it the fancy azalea trees? Was it me who loved tea as much as life? Or was it the hard working maidens who ran this tea plantation? It did not matter anymore because that was must be fate’s will.

The tea mountain at Lichuan is as pure and simple as Tujia nationality’s maidens who have their girl’s secret and Tujia nationality’s poet who loves this place although he was rebellious yet chivalrous young man. He would describe the Lichuan Organic Green Tea and Lichuan Black Tea with sentences like, this a planet of Hubei Mountains, its green exuded from this virgin land and the green is pure and fresh like a young maiden who has never influenced by the world. The tea shaped like the tongue of a sparrow; smelled like an orchid, colored like jade, tasted like life. There is long-lasting sweetness in the bitterness, and you would expect spending life together whenever you drink.

The boundless tea mountains are full of plants. The trees shaking because of the wind, the tea trees standing still below. Grasses and flowers were spreading the feeling of spring on the ground mischievously. This ecological environment is most suitable for tea trees which do not like exposed to the sunshine. Lichuan Tea has the organic certification. The tea farmers here don’t need and won’t use chemical pesticides and fertilizers. They weed manually and use biological and physical methods to pesticide and prevent bugs. They try to damage the environment minimally during the production of tea and maintain the freshness and sweetness of tea maximally.

Walking down the ancient streets of Lichuan, the freshness of tea still remained in mouth and mind. Living in the deep mountains, staying away from the world, absorbing fragrance and energy just for falling in love with you. Tea is like this, and so am I.

Enshi and Lichuan, I will come back again.

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