Wan Jiang town aka Tea Nirvana (400+ shops)

Wan -万 Jiang 江, town, 20min from Dongguan city center.
“You can not miss the place, go over the bride, on the right side of the road. Big place, easy to find”.
So with these directions I head out to weave a path through, about 200 million folks .. you get the idea .. couple of phone calls .. one U turn and there IT IS.......
The central tea market .. too much sensory input.
A little over, Four Hundred, co-located tea stores. Main business is wholesale, with walk in customers accommodated.
I’m not going to try and edit this post .. so here are a bunch of pics .. With some comments ..
Looks like this guy found some Pu-erh to his taste. Load up the truck! Typical of the shops selling Pu-erh .. about 90% of tea for sale is Pu-erh!

A mixed bag of buildings .. again with retail on ground floors and family life above.

Street(s) coming alive, as the customers arrive.
This turned out to be a fascinating shop .. specialising in tea pots
http://www.hdhy.com.cn/ Check out their web site.

You need to have tea before you do any business.....
An interesting set-up, very well crafted .. I liked it except the tray .. 1,600 RMB

If you like this set: Pot, 4 cups .. asking 10,000 RMBFun place with lots to see ..... View as I sampled my tea .... Pictures of what I bought, later. (2 pots)And there are two shops specializing in tables and wood craft items ...

A delivery was in process of being unloaded. Packing material is interesting .. similar to wet-suit rubber

General views around the area ... all tea stores ...

New Tea shops –Da Lang town

Saturday, mid-morning, I'm on my way to Chang Ping town, about 30 min. drive. Traffic is lighter than expected so I stopped to check out these new shops. Four brand new shops within about 200 yds. of each other, just opened about two weeks. (pictures of three)
Typical street construction, all over greater Dongguan city district. Just getting to the shop can be an adventure. You fall in an open trench .. that's your bad luck .. its a kind of Darwin thing.
Retail on ground floor .. living space above.
Most tea shops have Green background on their signs or Green Characters
Of the four shops .. I liked this one .. not quite ready for customers
You see a lot of this type of tea cup display ..
The new shops tend to a; "modernistic look"
This one is managed by a young couple .. that morning they were still moving in household furniture - plants, etc.
Interesting that, two of four shops only carried Pu-erh, the other two about an 80/20 mix, Pu-erh to others.

What's in a name -- Act-II

Luciano Pavarotti, has passed on.
This anecdote comes to mind.
Willie Nelson, American country singer .. at the height of his popularity.
Pavarotti, was fast becoming a “popular” celebrity (outside opera)
Pavarotti, the: Hollywood Oscars’ “Music Award” presenter.
In heavly accented English .. he announced "The winner is:
Willie Wilson." with a straight face .. seems not everyone had heard of Mr. Nelson.

What's in a name

Every day I struggle with Chinese pronunciation, admitted, I'm off to a bad start as a native born Scot (strong Ayrshire brogue) who has trouble with "English" (or so they tell me).

Last week I was a little embarrassed when trying to translate my friends name, or at least his family name:
楊 Yang --Mandarin Pinyin: yang2 (Tree: willow, poplar, aspen)

揚 Yang -- Mandarin Pinyin: yang2 (to: scatter, spread, praise)
Take a close look at the Chinese characters .. not a lot of room for mistakes, especially when it was hand written. Naturally I got it wrong .. fortunately another friend corrected me.

Phonetically “Yang” can also be “Lamb” 羊羔 yánggāo
Just an example of the daily pitfalls .. I probably still got something wrong in my explanation.

Tea Shop in Singapore La ..

This just in from our man in Singapore: tea shop located in a major Mall.Service was very bad, as there was no one to serve you tea or trying to find out what you need.

The tea pots were from China and were SGD 350 per set.
Pu Er offered were the inexpensive ones ( SGD25 to SGD30 ) uncooked ones that is only 3 years old. Cooked ones are likewise non matured ones.

Very little to offer and do not know how they will survive.
Perhaps early next year when I visit it will not be there anymore.
By the way..The mall name is:“ Vivo City “ it is next to a Chinese restaurant called “Tian Siaw Er”

A bit of Fun .. Tea in the News(paper)

From The London Times
April 22, 2006
Cabinet chips in for a tea set
The Queen’s 80th birthday present from Tony Blair’s Cabinet was a china tea set made by Spode pottery in Staffordshire, and believed to cost about £1,000.
The 25 Cabinet members are thought to have chipped in a minimum of about £30 each for the set in the Stafford Flowers design — described as “one of the great Spode patterns” with 22-carat gilding. The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “It was indicated by Buckingham Palace that this was something she wanted and she would value.” Spode said: “The Queen has already got quite a lot from our Stafford Flowers range. The order is for some items she has not already got.”

From The London Times
September 27, 2000
Mowlam on the day I made tea for Clinton
By Melissa Kite
MO MOWLAM treated delegates to a plain-spoken view of the world yesterday.
Addressing a fringe meeting, the former Northern Ireland Secretary said it had been part of the peace process to treat terrorists as human beings. Whether you are republican or loyalist, she said, “you shit, you breathe, you are human — apart from your ideology and belief which causes you to kill people”.
The Cabinet Office Minister, who is leaving the Commons at the next election, said that it was an important part of negotiations to treat everybody as normal and find things in common.
Asked about the report in a biography that during the Northern Ireland talks she had told President Clinton she was just the tea lady, Dr Mowlam said: “I used to do weird things — I would wander around with chips and getting Chinese takeaways; making tea for Clinton was to take the piss out of him.” It had been claimed that she felt sidelined by Tony Blair.
Dr Mowlam said again that her decision to retire was one she had made alone, but admitted it was the hardest she had made.

From The London Times
January 9, 2007
Tea Bagged
Britain's favourite brew is a life-saver, milk or no milk
At last! An end to that age-old quandary: milk first or tea first? The answer could not be simpler: no milk at all! That is the conclusion of German research published in European Heart Journal. It suggests that adding milk to black tea (does anyone but a fool add milk to green tea?) blocks the beverage’s famed cardiovascular benefits by eroding the healthy effects of the flavonoids in tea. .....
But should these new findings dishearten the nearly 80 per cent of Britons who among them drink 165 million cups of tea each day?
Should they stain the reputation of an infusion that Sir Edmund Hillary hailed for providing constant “cheer and vigour” during his ascent of Everest?
Anyone who measures the value of tea primarily as a vehicle for delivering flavonoids and antioxidants is like the cynic who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Samuel Johnson would pour tea down his throat by the bucketful, praising its ability to “amuse the idle, and relax the studious”.
Gladstone was such a devotee that he would fill his hot water bottle with tea to sip in bed at night. In his essay, A Nice Cup of Tea, George Orwell purred about how tea made you feel “wiser, braver and more optimistic”.
The first response to any crisis, whether in Downing Street or The Royle Family, is to put the kettle on. Tony Blair is never without a mug (or indeed one full of tea) when striving to appear a man of the people before a TV camera. ....

Book(s) on Yi Xing Teapots

Just got asked:
silverneedles tea review said...
have you found any detailed books on yixings in English?
Short answer: No .. but still hopeful.
Page One book store, in Taipei 101 has a good selection of tea books with a fair selection in English. I was just there on Aug 13th. but no Yi Xing in English.
Just had a thought .. I'll check out Page One in Kowloon, forgot to look when I was there last week... my bad! Also, my Taiwanese friend, Shawn, is in town.. I'll "press gang" him into helping look ...

Many thx for the question .. you jump started a dormant set of "Gray Cells"

just for Ref:
Back in May, I picked up a great book on Yi Xing (in Chinese) at Shenzhen airport bookstore.
details in this post.
http://chawu.blogspot.com/2007/05/book-on-yixing-tea-pots.html
I've since tried to get a second copy, just to have .. but no luck.

Pinyin and English Misspelling.

Observations prompted by an effort (not by me) to compile a dictionary / translation of; “Chinese Tea Terms”
As China progresses, “English” language printing is omnipresent.
Not only on Tea packaging. (鐵觀音 Tie guan yin) I often see variations for this tea; Ti Guan Yin, Ti Kuan Yin,  Tie Guan Yin & Tieh Kwan Yin.  Couple examples from this afternoon:……  
Tikuanyin ..

Tiekuanyin..

These two examples came from the same retail shop, the carrier bag and tea caddy were printed by same company .. Separate out the fact at Taiwan has a different Pinyin spelling. (closer to English phonetics)
Separate out the misspelled and nonsensical English translations. We see the much publicized efforts to “improve” public signage in Beijing for the upcoming Olympics.
Focus on Chinese Pinyin.
With proliferation, the error rate and misspelling of Pinyin only adds confusion. Small errors greatly magnify the misunderstanding and mispronunciation for non Chinese speakers.
I get a sense that a deep rooted issue/problem is emerging. English as a language is being taught, but I see little evidence that Pinyin is being taught or assimilated by “Joe public” in China. My non scientific data gathering suggests that individuals with some understanding of English are setting up opportunistic businesses, providing services to those that want to augment; packaging / menus etc. to attract / make it easier to sell to foreigners.
Not that English is easy, my (to, too, two) cents.

China its all about the numbers

Da Lang Town, Dongguan City, Guangdong Province.
Chang Ping Town, Dongguan City, Guangdong Province.
Chang Ping and Da Lang are only two of the towns I frequent. By any measure calling them a town is a drastic understatement. Both are growing at a prodigious rate, invalidating any census demographics published.
So what does it all mean Basil?
More Tea Shops .. for the life of me I fail to comprehend the number of tea shops .. 2nd. only to mobile phone stores .. if you don’t count ladies clothing stores …
Typical construction here for retail is mix of retail and living space. Four / Five story building. With ground / 2nd floor as retail with family living space above.
A new expansion development is in process, approx 200 meter frontage, with no less than four (4) new tea shops. This is an area that houses; local factory workers, retail clerks and small family businesses. No draw on business men or resident foreigners. (except me)
My friend, Yong Le, whose family own 40 tea shops in Guangdong province, estimates there are about 200 such shops in Da Lang. Some close quickly, but there is a steady increase in those that make it. One weekend I set out to visit as many shops as possible. I had to stop after 27, these all within a 20/25 min walking radius.
I tried a similar venture in Chang Ping. On my 20min drive from hotel to factory I counted 17 shops. On a 20min walk from the hotel, Matt and I counted 11 more shops. I only had the fortitude to visit nine.
In the month of Aug., two more shops opened, next to each other, in a small street, where vendors mostly sell fruit, along with hawker food stalls.. Oh, and a newly opened Sauna, might be looking for impulse buys from the Sauna patrons.

One highly visible trend, Pu-erh is the predominate tea for sale. Three years ago it was Green / Oolongs with a smattering of Pu-erh. One wholesaler in Shenzhen is now at about 97% Pu-erh. Vs at my estimate, of two years ago it was 50-50.

Taste Bud Overload (Up-Date 9/4 with tasting notes)

These past few days have been a tea tasting cornucopia.
Details of the various Pu-erh teas, are in some inaccessible memory file, 12 in total at 3 shops, all with one thing in common .. none worth purchasing, that is until lucky number 13.
Today, with Shawn and Paulo, we visited my friend Mr. Yang Yong Le:
楊 (Yang- poplar tree -family name) 永 (Yong – Forever) 樂 (Le – happy/cheerful)
at the: Jin Yuan Chun Ming Cha shop in Da Lang town. (Golden Head Water Spring Tea.)
The plan; taste and record comments on 3 Shengpu samples for a Tea Tasting, set up by Half-Dipper and Dragon Tea House. (findings/results included at end of post)Yong Le and Shawn ....
We inspect and evaluate all three samples, dry leaves first.First infusion, first sample (the RED)

The Blue and Green samples wait in line:Despite cell phone picture .. not much colourWet leaves look good, fair size, good composition.
All three have been infused until exhausted.
That done we moved on to Tikuanyin (one of the many pinyin variants) 鐵觀音 Tie guan yin. When buying Oolongs, only buy by taste. These teas are bought for consumption, sooner the better. The variations, season to season, year to year, are such that you must taste, reputation, even “high grade leaves" are no guarantee of “good taste” That said I picked the stores #2 ranked tea (my #1 by taste) and had 500gms packaged into small individual serving sized bags.

Then it was back to Pu-erh.
We sampled a young Shenpu, age wise on a par with the 3 Dragon House teas, but much smoother with a deeper texture and taste.
Then a 5 year old CNNP, this was purchased from a Private collector and the storage condition were first rate. If any one can locate more of this .. contact me or Yong Le at +86 13794971833 .. reward offered.
This was lucky sample #13 . I purchased one cake to try .. if it still works after a couple of weeks .. I know where there a few more just like it.
Reward offered, only if tea is genuine...
Can you spot the wrapper printing/post printing difference?
Speaking of: 鐵觀音 Tie guan yin
Xie Xie ni (thank you) Da Xia.Early this month I visited: Shan Yuan Cha Ye ... Mountain Original Tea Leaf, tea shop in Wuxi.
My friend Da Xia’s dad had just returned with a very high quality Tieguanyin that he personally hand roasted at their Fujian tea plantation.
Again you must taste, before you buy. That day we sampled 4 different teas. I bought 4kg and made presentation packages for friends that I was on my way to meet. I also got a bunch of sample packets.
Back to the hand roasted I mentioned earlier … I just brewed what is simply the BEST TGY I have tasted. .. Not a one timer .. on 3 separate days this tea has come up Aces …. Time to call Da Xia, secure more of this batch, with some luck we can capture the “recipe” and replicate. It will be fun to see if the taste can be replicated with next seasons crop.

Tea Samples: Red, Green, Blue
Sunday, 9/2, myself and a couple of friends set out to review the Dragon tea House samples.
The three samples were dispatched into 3 matching trays for dry leaf inspection.
Red: overall most promising of the 3, pleasing mix of colours. Generally good size leaf. No foreign matter in the mix.
Blue: Compression appeared to be the densest of the 3. Colour is dull. A few stems/twigs in the mix along with a hair sample. (stuff happens) Leaf size is small with loose chop. No redeeming characteristics.
Green: About same colour as Blue but with cleaner tones. Leafs were a miss mach with a high twig count. Strangely I am most interesting to see how it will taste.

We set up for serial infusions, using three matching Gaiwan’s. Allowing the wet leaves to be viewed and compared, in situ so to speak.
Sample Red.
One infusion to clean .. 6 infusions .. 7th infusion exhausted the leaves
Soup; strong yellow/green, but, dull & lifeless colour.
Initial aroma was a citrus that gave way to a sour “cabbage” smell, unpleasant.
Taste: slightly bitter, too young to provide any meaningful indicators. An almost immediate drying of the mouth, with no taste on the tongue.
Wet Leaves: good size and composition well formed, nice green luster, no negative indicators.
Sample Blue.
One infusion to clean .. 5 infusions .. 6th infusion close to exhausting the leaves
Soup colour; slightly less saturated than RED, but showing signs of life.
No distinguishing aroma(s) had to work to pull anything worthy of note.
Taste: smooth and even. too young to provide any meaningful indicators.
Wet Leaves: mixed bag, no distinguishing leaf type. Nice overall colour, with a few dark/brown in the mix.
Sample Green.
One infusion to clean .. 7 infusions .. infusions 8 and 9 failed to yield a drinkable brew.
Soup colour; good, considering young age, with a pleasant translucence.
Pleasing initial aroma, but not lasting.
Taste: again young, but there was a distinctive earthy taste coming through. Strongest of the three, pleasant tongue taste, slight sweetness, with hint of liquorish.
Wet Leaves: some well formed full sized leaves, mostly partial/cut leaves.

Monday, 9/3, with enough tea to support a 2nd round of testing. I set up and ran the gambit of testing … solo in my hotel .. not as much fun as with friends, not to mention the restriction of hardware. All of what we discovered on Sunday, held up on round two.
My ranking:
#1Green, #2 Red, #3 Blue, this to buy for longer term storage.
Dry Leaf grading, #1Red, #2 Green, #3 Blue
Taste: #1 Green, #2 Red, #3 Blue
Wet leaf, #1 Red, #2 Green #3 Blue

As to matching samples with factory of origin .. I lack the comparative data to make a deductive assessment, so a SWAG: RED is Menghai, Blue-Mengyang, Green-Mengku

Robbie and Triton Trumpet

Robbie diving in Hawaii ...

Fabulous under-water footage of a Triton trumpet feeding on a; Crown of Thorns.

Mollusk, Charonia Tritonis: (outer shell)

Starfish, Crown of Thorns: Acanthaster planci
Lunch time in the Pacific ...