Welcome to the ninth in our series of blogs documenting our tea & teaware sourcing trip to China & South Korea. At Comins we are very fortunate to have friends all over the tea world. When we visit them on our trips we promise to share what we learn & in our recent survey you shared that our blog is one of the best ways to do that. So we hope you enjoy the journey!
In our last blog we were in the historically important area of Wuyuan. Today was to be a little different but no less special. We were to have the rare & wonderful opportunity to visit the Jiangxi Wuyuan vocational college. We are greeted at the entrance by this incredible statue of Lu Yu ; the Tang Dynasty tea master, writer and the countries tea saint.
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Jiangxi Wuyuan vocational college is the only vocational college for tea of its kind in China with 4000 students taking courses in Tea culture, Tea science, Tea processing & Tea trading. Ms Zheng [pictured above and below] is a teacher of tea science and was to be our guide for the morning. Lucky us!
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Ms Zheng first took us to the tea garden where students learn such things as how to care for the plants, pluck tea, all about the different tea cultivars and propagation. We then head inside where there are 60 pans for pan firing - the room is full of students carefully concentrating on their individual parts of the tea making process.
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The students practice at almost 160 C temperature - 'it is always hotter when humans are involved rather than if it is a fully mechanised process' we are told 'and high mountain leaf needs a higher temperature as it has more water'. Mr Chen ; himself a graduate of the college 12 years ago ; first demonstrates pan firing (which we all found out takes nimble hands) and then rolling. Note the special grooves on the mat - the tea maker chooses the one most appropriate to the tea they are making.
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The college is also a centre for tea culture & we were invited to enjoy two 1st year presentations - the first showing the special ceremony for Wuyuan tea and the second grinding lei cha from Chaozhou. What an honor to visit such a place. So uplifting to see so many young people engaged in tea - if we could we would all be signing ourselves up. We left with our hearts full and feeling optimistic for the future of tea hoping to return one day soon.
The college is also a centre for tea culture & we were invited to enjoy two 1st year presentations - the first showing the special ceremony for Wuyuan tea and the second grinding lei cha from Chaozhou. What an honor to visit such a place. So uplifting to see so many young people engaged in tea - if we could we would all be signing ourselves up. We left with our hearts full and feeling optimistic for the future of tea hoping to return one day soon.
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After we leave we are invited to a local tea house to enjoy some beautiful teas and traditional tea snacks. We are greeted by Ms Teng and her son. Ms Teng recently retired from her job and fulfilled her life dream to open this tea house - 'the tea house is true wealth' - she shares with us - something that echoes our own experiences closer to home at our own tea house. Her son is himself a graduate of the tea school where he learned a lot of the technical aspects of tea. Now under the watchful eye of his mother he is learning tea performance. 'There are different ways of preparing tea and these affect and influence the flavour' he shares before demonstrating three ways of making the wild black tea 1. With the water going around in a circle 2. Pouring the water straight into the gaiwan 3. With the water not touching the leaves - poured against the edge of the gaiwan. 'This third method keeps the fragrance better' they share
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Hearts full our day ended with some beautiful local delicacies and our gratitude for being invited to glimpse this incredible tea school and beautiful tea house. Perhaps it will inspire you to start your own journey into the world of tea.
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