Roasted Wild Tree Purple Tea

As you probably guessed from the teas in the Leaves of Cha Tea Chest, I love Yunnan black teas. The smoothness and low-astringency allowed me to kick my “English Breakfast with milk and honey” habit and just enjoy the tea. The wide variety of cultivars and styles that come from the province are mind-boggling. Purple Tea is one of those unique teas. There are three cultivars of purple tea and this is the naturally occurring original, knows as “Ye Sheng” or “Wild Tea”. Originally used to make puerh since it is quite bitter young but develops delicious complexity with age, it has recently started to processed into black tea with stunning results.

This roasted version is one of my favorite black teas and a very common start-of-the-day tea for me. I’m incredibly happy to be able to source this rare tea.

Provenance:

• Origin: Mangshi, Dehong Prefecture, Yunnan, China
• Grower/Teamaster: Mr. Li
• Elevation: 1600-2200 meters
• Harvest Date: Spring 2015
• Cultivar: Ye Sheng cultivar aka "Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze var. assamica (J. Masters) Kitam." or Camellia Assamica Dehongensis
• Cultivation: Wild harvested; naturally bug resistant cultivar
• Plucking Standard: 1 leaf/1bud
• Processing Notes:  Lightly Roasted. Only 90 kilograms in production for 2015
• History/Pedigree: Lü Yu, in his “Classic of Tea” says “Tea that grows wild is superior; garden tea takes second place. Whether grown on sunny slopes or in shady groves, the best leaves are russet.”

Tasting Notes:

• Strong aroma with sugarcane and hints of eucalyptus; complex mouth feel with hint of roast and caramel

Jing Mai Purple Needle Tea

This purple tea is from one of the three unique purple cultivars. Called variously “Purple Tea”, “Purple Bud”, or “Zi Cha”, it is a naturally occurring mutation of Camellia Sinensis Assamica. It grows all over the Yunnan Province but accounts for less than 1% of the cultivated Assamica produced there. The purple (or russet in my translation of Lü Yu) color is a result of the tea plants producing anthocyanin to combat the humid summers and high levels of ultraviolet light at the higher elevations.

This Zi Cha is a delicious tea and is another example of the wide variety of black teas from Yunnan. I simply can’t get enough of purple tea.

Provenance:

• Origin: Mangjing Village, Jing Mai Mtn., Lancang county, Simao, Yunnan
• Grower/Teamaster: Mangjing Village Coop
• Elevation: 1600-1700 meters
• Harvest Date: Autumn 2015
• Cultivar: Purple Varietal of Camellia Yunnan pu-erh tea, aka Zi Cha
• Plucking Standard: 1 leaf 1 bud
• Processing Notes:  Fresh purple leaves processed into a flat needle style
• History/Pedigree: Lü Yu, in his “Classic of Tea” says “Tea that grows wild is superior; garden tea takes second place. Whether grown on sunny slopes or in shady groves, the best leaves are russet.”

Tasting Notes:

• Stimulating mouth feel with hints of citrus, caramel, and sugarcane. Floral aroma.

Tea Sampler Six Pack

This is a great way to try out the delightful teas in the  Leaves of Cha Tea Chest. Just pick out six teas that you would like to try in the 12g sample size pouches. The price of the six samples is discounted up to 56%, depending on the teas you select.

A great gift idea for the tea lover!

Welcome again to Leaves of Cha! Where you can find real tea made by real people that you can think about and thank whenever you take a sip of their delightful creations. That’s the whole point for me: connecting you, the drinker, with an artist, the teamaker or grower.

But where did all this come from? Why a tea business when you should be quietly working that high-paying corporate job for those last twenty years until retirement? Why now? And why tea?

I guess in some ways I’m one of the “…unloosed, the wandering souls who were willing to scrape their lives clean and start again elsewhere”, as Jessa Crispin puts it in her book The Dead Ladies Project. My unloosening came four years ago when I lost my high-paying corporate job to right-sizing, restructuring, and a flat industry and economy with not a lot to offer to a 50-year-old. So I scratched my head and dabbled around in a couple of things to help pay the rent. One of those things was helping a local tea company wholesale tea to restaurants, coffee houses, and tea shops. Being a lifelong tea drinker, this gave me a way of combining my sales skills with a food I love. Those two years of wholesaling gave me an insight into how the tea business worked. Especially the fact that if you are buying tea grown in quantity as a commodity, you are probably getting inferior tea, the growers and workers are not being paid sustainable wages, and more corporate farming practices (i.e., agrobusiness fertilizers and pesticides) are probably being used. See this excellent article on these issues, or download a copy of TeaforMePlease’s newsletter. Coupling that experience with educating myself on tea to a much deeper level than I ever had before as a drinker, I almost unknowingly started incubating my next big move. Leaves of Cha. Quality hand-made teas with known provenance.