A Brief Introduction to Tea
Tea: According to wikipedia, the website I likely spend the most time on, tea is “an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of Camellia Sinensis. As a historical linguist, I am required to tell you that all of the main forms for the word for “tea” fall into three categories, all derived from the Chinese. There are three main forms for my favorite beverage, “te” “cha” and”chai” - our English “tea” of course comes from the first - derived from the Min Chinese “tê”. The other two forms both derive from the northern Chinese pronunciation, “cha” which is still used in Chinese today. “Chai” then comes from this word with a little added Persian flair.
Puer: Puer is my most favorite type of tea, which helps me remember the Latin for “boy” - except this name comes from the town in which it was first produced. This is a type of fermented tea - fermented microbially using the molds and bacteria found in the plant by “wet-piling’ the leaves. This process is just the way it sounds- the unfinished leaves are piled up and then dampened with water and kept in a humid environment to promote the fermentation process. This process makes puer a unique tea with a very ‘earthy’ flavor -to me it tastes like wet earth in a very very good way.
Tea in Taiwan: Unfortunately for me, puer is not produced in Taiwan, as the conditions for each tea are very specific
and require very different environments. Instead, Taiwan specializes in four main types of tea - oolong, black, white, and green. Of these, oolong is the speciality- with the tiny isalnd of Taiwan accounting for 20% of oolong production. So called ‘high-mountain’ oolongs are extremely popular, and as you may have guessed- specially grown in high altitudes- 3.3k ft above sea level. This special environment gives the tea a gentle sweet flavor. A very famous Taiwanese tea is ‘oriental beauty’ - which is another type of oolong, but this one is bitten by the tea jassid - a bug whose consumption of the leaves aids in their production of a certain chemical that makes the leaves taste even sweeter! To me this is magic and I find this tea so wonderful.
Gongfu Tea: ‘gongfu” tea is a method of preparing tea - and the one that I prefer to use daily. This method originates from Fujian. Some people will take this method very seriously and treat it as an art to be mastered - but to me I think it is just the most effective way for enjoying tea. The essence of a gongfu session is to simply make good tea and enjoy it. Of course there are ways to optimize this experience but as long as the tea tastes good to me - I don’t see the need to be overly precise about temperatures and amounts. The main componets of this type of tea brewing include a much smaller tea pot - typically a clay yixing tea pot - or a gaiwan. I use a gaiwan because I find them to be more beautiful and I like to be able to see the leaves. There should also be some sort of tea table or even a pot to the side to dispose of extra water - as the first brew should be disposed of - and spills are quite common. In this respect, I find gongfu sessions to be very different from the overly precise Japanese style tea ceremonies- they are much more relaxed and about having a nice time drinking tea.
Last Updated 25.4.26