What makes good tea? You hear this a lot: “real tea comes from one plant, camellia sinensis”. At the core of my passion for tea is a drive to delve deeper into this statement–to understand how two thousand years of Chinese tea tradition fostered the means and knowledge to produce the six distinctive categories of tea we see today: green, yellow, white, wulong, red, and black. Starting from this single plant, tea making is at its foundation a manipulation of nature’s natural processes. After the tea is picked, the enzyme activities within the leaf immediately begin to metabolize and it is in the careful control of the fermentation level, moisture level, shaping methods, and cooking technique that an incredible variety of sensory experiences–aroma, texture, flavor–are revealed. The best tea in the world remains true to two intertwined ideals: historical terroir and traditional crafting. Tea brewed in a gaiwan, slurped through the lips, coating the tongue and leaving its lingering, weighty, presence expanding in the mouth and throat begins with good terroir. In the two thousand year history of Chinese tea, the most complex flavors, body and tea representative of its category’s specific characteristics,have originated from limited locations, providing a clear history of the most desirable sites for tea production. These specific few square mile large growing regions hold a combination of factors which create a microclimate that causes the tea plant to struggle, producing a more nuanced, balanced tea, that holds up to more brews. From the Zhengyan (True Cliff) region on Wuyi Mountain to Wudong on Phoenix Mountain to Shifeng (Lion’s Peak) by Hangzhou’s West Lake, amongst dozens of historical tea mountains, the best tea producing locations hold overarching similarities of terroir. The best Yancha, Fenghuang Wulong, and Long Jing from these areas are grown in stony or sandy soil on the steep slopes of mountains to prevent water from collecting at the base of the plants. Ideally, the tea has direct sunlight, dispersed by surrounding foliage or a thick fog. Altitude, a major factor of desirability in Taiwanese teas, is balanced in Chinese teas by latitude. The further north the location of the tea, such as Suzhou Bi Luo Chun, Huangshan Mao Feng, and Hangzhou Long Jing, the lower its altitude; conversely, the further south the location, such as the Pu Er tea mountains of Yunnan, the higher its altitude. Once this top tea is picked, major machine-aided processing steps are forgone in favor of traditional handcrafting. 100% handmade tea grants more control over the wilting, fermentation, drying, cooking, shaping, and roasting steps, allowing a maximization of the end flavors of the tea, by working with the now uncontrollable factors of temperature, picking, and weather. To find out the difference traditional crafting imparts, I conducted a comparison tasting of a handmade vs. non-100% handmade Huo Shan Huang Ya yellow tea. The handmade tea was much more savory, a desired trait in yellow teas, with its sweet aroma and aftertaste emerging immediately in the first steep. It also had a more complex flavor that stayed on the tongue whereas the flavor of the non-100% handmade spread out more to the sides of the mouth whilst being less savory, comparatively bland, and overpowered by a vegetal, brussel sprout aroma. Traditional handcrafting should be sought after whenever possible, not only for a superior tasting tea, but to encourage a market for the consumption of these long handed down traditions. For example, when it becomes no longer crucial to consumers for Tie Guan Yins to be traditionally shaped by foot rolling, as is the case recently, the function and art of this step will be lost forever. Historical terroir and traditional handcrafting intersect to make the best tea in China, but where can we find it?When purchasing tea, it is crucial to seek good tea, to push the market to strive for better tea. We must respect and appreciate Chinese tea, and support those who make it their mission to uphold the highest standards of tea to maintain the tradition of tea processing. When shopping, we can be discerning by being conscious of the picking dates within each tea’s 10-15 day harvest season (barring a few exceptions, the earliest picked leaves and buds produce the smoothest body and most refined flavors), the specific location of the tea, the processing method of the tea, and the physical look of the tea (there are general visual benchmarks marking a good picking and good processing for each subcategory). Armed with a foundation of sound tea knowledge, the continuation of your exploration is left up to your curiosity and your taste buds.This article was written by Marjorie Wang. Please send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: Marjorie Wang