Worth its weight in gold…

This tea is made from the unopened and pre-blossomed buds of the tea leaves.   They get their description from the silky white hairs above their bodies.  These white hairs signify young leaves.  In order to retrieve such ‘budlings’ there is only a two day window in which they can be picked.

These leaves look like they belong in the green tea family; however, they are not processed the same way.  White teas are air dried unlike green teas are picked, rolled, withered and then fired before further oxidation happens.  The white teas are processed less in order to preserve the purity of the leaf.  It takes approximately 3000 buds and hours of hand labor to make a pound of White Tea.  Thus it is worth its weight in gold.

Worth its weight in gold!

This rare tea was only given to royalty and was revered for its purity.  The popularity of this white tea reached its peak during the era of the Chinese Emperor Hui Tsung (1101-1125 A. D.).  Legend has it this Emperor loved this rare tea.  In the pursuit of searching for the perfect cup, the perfect brew, the obsessed Emperor lost his empire to the invading Mongols.

Imagine that, dear readers, losing your empire over a cup of good tea.  Though based on the aforementioned attempt of maintaining the purity of the leaf, it must be worth it.  What do you think?

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So good, it’ll make you spit fire!!

Spitting Fire!

According to some legends, if you find good Ti Kuan Yin then you will gain the power to spit fire!

One day, a young man was sent by his mother to find some Ti Kuan Yin.  He had left his home just as the sun rose so when he arrived at the first tea shop he had to knock for several minutes before anyone answered.  The recently awoken tea shop owner gave our hero a cup of good Ti Kuan Yin.  However, our hero found himself unable to spit fire.  Instead, he was just hungry.

He returned home to find that his mother had come by and made him breakfast.  After eating and a little rest, our hero continued on his quest for Ti Kuan Yin.  He went to another tea shop.  However, after consuming several cups of Ti Kuan Yin, he was still unable to spit fire.  He found himself hungry again.

Disheartened, our hero returned home to tell his mother of his plight.  Her response was to make him lunch and to take him back to the first tea shop owner.  Once there, he had a cup of Ti Kuan Yin.  After one sip, our hero started to burp.

“Ah,” our hero said with a sigh of relief.  “I found my good Ti Kuan Yin.  Now I can spit fire.”

I found this story to be quite entertaining.  Not what I expected when I heard the words ‘spit’ and ‘fire,’ but still awesome nonetheless.  Still…I can’t help but want to consume a whole pot of Ti Kuan Yin.  Ya know? Discover my inner superhero.  Maybe by consuming enough Ti Kuan Yin, I’ll more than just spit fire….maybe I’ll be the real Human Torch!

The Human Torch

Figure 1 – *insert evil laugh*

What do you all think, dear readers?  What do you think of the interpretation of spitting fire?

Posted in Chinese Tea, Mythology, Oolong Tea, Stories, Tea, Wu Long Tea | No Comments »

I had never heard of the tea called Iron Goddess of Mercy (or Guanyin/Kuanyin) until I was doing research on Chinese Tea Mythology.  Just like Monkey Picked, there is a magical story tied to this tea.

In Fujian’s Shaxian province of China, there was once an old run down stone temple that was in ruins.  Inside the temple was a beautiful iron statue of Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy.

Once there was a simple farmer who went to the temple to pray.  He had gone many times to try and gain the Goddess’ favor for the area was riddled in poverty and drought.  The farmer wanted his home and community to be prosperous.  The farmer would come to temple every day to clean the temple and rid the area of twigs, wayward leaves and dust.  He would light incense that he thought that maybe the Goddess would enjoy.  He did this in hopes that the Goddess would take pity on his village and help regain their prosperity.

One day, when the farmer came into the pray, he found that the statue had come alive.  The farmer fell to his knees to pray.

Iron Goddess of Mercy

“The key for your future is just outside this temple. Nourish it with tenderness; it will support you and yours for generations to come,” the Goddess whispered, her voice full of kindness.

Then as quickly as she came alive, the statue grew still again.

It took the farmer several minutes to recover from the shock.  Did the Goddess really speak to him?  He decided to take a chance on what the Goddess said to him.  He walked outside and found a dried and withered little bush.

“You are a gift from Guanyin, I shall treasure you,” said the farmer as he cleaned the area around the bush.

The farmer continued his daily pilgrimage.  He cleaned the temple, lit incense and watered the bush.  He continued this ritual until the leaves were healthy and thick.  He discovered that the leaves mixed with hot water made a delicious tea.   He let the bush grow more before he cut branches to give others in the community and soon the whole village had their own piece of the magical bush and thus grew prosperous.

One day, while experimenting with the tea, the farmer dried the leaves until they turned a charcoal black.  The farmer found this reminiscent of his iron Goddess.  The experiment paid off because it created an even finer tea than he had ever tasted.  He called this concoction Ti Kuan Yin, the tea of Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy.

I found this to be a beautiful story of faith and man’s capacity to help his community.  What do you all think of this story?

Posted in Chinese Tea, Mythology, Oolong Tea, Stories, Tea, Wu Long Tea | 1 Comment »

What’s in a name?

Monkey Picked Oolong

Upon further investigating, I found that there are other legends about the origin of the name “Monkey Picked.”

According to some, the name originated in 1793 when an Englishman by the name of Aeneaus Anderson came to China.   The Englishman was told by the Chinese that the tea was picked by monkeys in order to keep the Englishman in the dark about information that they did not want to divulge.  Aeneaus believed the story without question and continued the legend as he wrote about his voyage.

Others believe that this tea was handpicked for the Chinese Emperors of the Song, Ming and Ching dynasties.  When the tea was distributed to the public it kept the name that may have signified that the tea was once ‘out of reach’ to the average joe.

Either way – it appears that the name was a marketing ploy.

When I first came a crossed Monkey Picked, it was (by far) the most expensive tea.  I lamented not being able to purchase such a wonderful tea at the time.  But at a whopping $25 for a mere 2 oz was just not in my budget at the time.

It makes you wonder – why is this tea so expensive?  Is it because it is picked by monkeys? Er…well….supposedly picked by monkeys?

There is a well known story concerning a salesman profiting from the legend.  One day a customer walked into a tea store, looking for something to buy. “What do you have that’s good?” He asked. The salesman, deducing this customer had more in his wallet than most offered the Monkey Picked tea. As he explained to the customer, the monkeys could reach the highest leaves on the tree, enabling the collection of the sweetest, most vibrant teas you could buy. Great for health and stamina he told the customer. So the customer happily forked over his money for the Monkey Picked tea. Little did the customer know he was buying tea he could get almost anywhere for a fraction of the cost. The salesman had found a way to make extra profit from someone who knew very little about what they were buying.

I find that very interesting and quite believable.

What I find even more interesting are the irate rants of people concerning the perpetuation of this legend:

Not A Monkey

Yes, there are people that are genuinely upset that the tea pickers are referred to as monkeys for the sake of calling it ‘monkey picked.’  This is ignoring that fact that we have yet to prove whether or not the tea has been picked by monkeys.  That I will leave for you to decide, dear reader.  As for me, I put my money on the Macaque.

What do you think? Do you think it’s right to continue this possible farce?

If you liked this story on Monkey Picked Tea, check out the original.

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Jane Goodall Would Be Proud…

I first came a crossed the Monkey Picked Tea while in search for good cream tea.  I had never heard of it before but the name intrigued me as did the description of its fruity flavor.  It is an oolong tea known for its orchid aroma.  I was given a pot of this intriguing tea along with my scone, clotted cream and jam.  I was immediately hooked but I had one nagging question: why was it called Monkey Picked Tea?

Read the rest of this entry »

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