Category: Others Page 12 of 14

Loose leaf teas are getting popular, in many tea shops they like to advertise their teas as the finest quality; and the price for tea with the same name can be very varied, from low price to rocket high price.

Hand-picked young and tender leaves and process manually are the fundamental standards for good quality tea.

One kilo of good quality tea is made from 60,000 to 80 000 young buds or young tender fresh leaves.

Before judging the price for tea, perhaps you can first picture those hard working people in your mind.

Q: Can tea flowers and fruits appear on a tea plant because of stress?

Tea tree grows very slowly, the growing speed subjects to the average temperature and the microenvironment.

A: Yes, I have heard and read something similar on line before.  My answer to this question is another question “Do you mean, a natural cycle of life is the result from stress?”

Tea is a perennial crops that good quality tea are hand-picked of  young bud/leaves from tea trees.  In an ecological balanced natural environment or with the least human interference, flowering and seeding are natural psysiological habits of all plants, including tea plants.  In a normal tea farm, roots of tea trees are not growing very deep, because roots can easily absorb nutrition from regular fertilizations; leaves grow faster and tea farmers would like to benefits from more production outputs.  In case roots don’t get enough fertilizers from the surface, then roots will be forced to grow deeper to search. for the natural nutrition under; the life force of the plants is strengthened and it grasps the ground stronger. Is it the result of having stress? No,  it is nature.

Yes, indeed if it allows the tea tree to give flower buds, it will affect the distribution of photosynthetic that affects the productive growth; the vegetative growth is relatively reduced.  In other word, the natural cycle flowering and seeding process can affect the growth of tea tree which means reducing the tea production outputs. The small tea flower buds are gradually appeared starting from end September, normally from November to February of next year is the flowering period.   The tea plants and the growing status of branches are closely related to the process of flowering. When and how much are depending how the Nature Mother is being affected by the weather, certainly the rain capacity, of course the choice of cultivation, tea farm management and quality measurement would play an influential role to the flowering or not.

Tea oil pressed from tea seeds is more healthy than the olive oil. It smells and tastes better too

In order to expand the growing territory, tea plants need friends from the Nature. If there were no assistance from insects on the pollination process then tea flowers normally open only for 10-15 days. Tea plants that have been pollinated will result the slowly grow fruits (in Chinese we call it “Tea Seeds”) . 

Indeed the process of flowering and seeding will use up nutrients from tea tree; there are many tea farms do not allow the flowering seeding to happen, so they can arrange more pickings to increase the production outputs for their business.  So what do they do to reduce the natural flowering and seeding process through manipulation:  

1. Manually remove flowers and seeds once appear on tea plants
2. Trimming tea plants to break the natural growing cycle, meanwhile to increase the growth of young buds and leaves in the coming season
3. Apply more fertilizer to accelerate the growth of leaves that plants won’t have enough energy to grow flowers and seeds.
4. The worst manner is perhaps using pesticide, i.e. Abscisic acid, to regulate the natural hormone growth  

So, let’s go back to the question.  No, flowering and seeding are natural cycle of life for any plant, including tea plant, but it is not the result of having stress.

If we really want to save those ancient tea trees, then we should collectively support those tea farmers who respect the natural cycle of life and maintain a good microenvironment balance. Only healthy tea plants can ensure the continuation of producing good quality tea, it is not a simple quantity issue but a complex quality consideration.  Tea is not just about profit and Loss in the business or the price you pay, it’s about how do we value and respect the Mother Nature and discipline the application of pesticide and excessive picking because of human greediness.

There are four basic steps to identify the tea you bought is flavored or nature pure quality tea:

• The nature and pure quality tea does not have very strong aroma from dried leaf, the flavor will be transformed with the aging process.  On the contrary, the aroma from flavored tea will stay strong and unchanged.
• Is there powder if rubbing the dried leaves.  If yes, then definitely it has been blended with extra additives or coloring
• If the flavor is very strong and being quickly released with the water temperature higher than 80C, then the chance of being flavored tea is big.
• If the flavor and taste dropped very fast after the first infusion, otherwise the taste starting from the 2nd infusion is very different from the 1st infusion, then the chance that tea you bought is flavored tea definitely is very big.

Formosa Beauty, the plantation is using natural fertilizer and no pesticide. It has been confirmed by the pesticide analysis report based on EU standards in Europe.

Q: Please do not wonder, that organic teas are sometimes cheaper than non-organic ones.

Concerning the first question about organic or non-organic, as I have tried to explain in the lesson that there are different standards for organic. In Europe, normally organic means Zero pesticide tolerance from the laboratory’s analysis based on the EU pesticide standards.  But when you visit the growing sites in the world, sometimes you find they are  using organic fertilizer and government approved pesticide and claim it as “green” or ” organic” products.  Indeed there are different organizations issue organic certificate but are their standards same as the EU standards? Also the organic label costs a lot of money that is not all small growers can afford.  Another thing we should establish a clear understanding is once the soil has been contaminated by over fertilized or pesticide then it will takes years of control and transformation.  

In Europe we have very strict standards for organic definition, but we do have to understand and question why the pesticide list has grown from 500 to nearly 600 in the last two years and I will not surprise if the list continues to extend in the future. So, this is by laws, but what is the reality in the market? This is often very confusing even in the organic shops, not all products sold in the organic shop(s) are pesticide free organic. 

The hand-picked and being processed well tea are always more expensive than machine-picked or lower quality tea.  Why? It’s simple, because of limited of quantity. With this kind of quality tea we can’t evaluate it based on price but we need to learn to appreciate its value.

Q: Not for all teas organic is also a quality sign. Especially teas from China are reaching the best prices in conventional form.

Of course the lower grades of organic tea can be cheaper than hand-picked non-organic tea.  So it does not make sense to compare price unless one puts the same quality grade in the comparison scale.

Can’t give yes or no answer to the 2^nd question – not all organic tea is also a quality sign because the quality is more related to how the production processes are being managed; indeed organic tea has less sexy flavor from the dried leaf, but the taste will tell when one is able to listen

Q: Growers have the possibility to grow better and more special teas if they are not organic.

Indeed there are more teas are turning back to the traditional processes, flavor and taste.  Tie Guan Yin and Dong Ding for example.  Again as I have explained in the lesson that Chinese people before us must had tried various methods  that they eventually identified the right production processes for a reason. 

When they give up the old traditions and try to follow the ‘market fashion’, basically they respect more about $$$ but not on tea itself.  Sometime ‘work efficiency’ and ‘cost down’ or ‘diversity marketing’ does not always mean advancing improvement.

Even in China there  are  many young people are so much related to the old traditions and they need to learn more about tea.  The influence from the American fast food culture, media and fast changes are threatening the old traditions.  Luckily there are many people start to realize this and try to preserve and promote the old.

As to the 3^rd question, I would rather say growers have the possibility to grow better and produce more special tea if they learnt to respect and protect the natural balance and traditional wisdom and method in tea production

Q: For Darjeeling or herbs and fruit  you can say organic is better than non-organic.

For me, the answer for this question is easy – agricultural products  that grow in a natural harmony environment and not using pesticide are always better than pesticide. Not just for herbs or fruits but also tea, it does not matter where these are, Darjeeling or nont Darjeeling.

 

When the world is changing fast and more unconsolidated information available on line, International political leaders are fighting the movement of globalization or protectionism, it does not matter what the outcome will be, let’s face it no one can ever able to turn the wheel backwards. The gaps between rich and poor are enlarging, more medium class are falling down, the fear for future is mounting.

Who am I? What do I want? What can I do?…. our future actually is acting in front of us now. People have such little time not only with others but most importantly with the family/friends and, last but at least, her/him-self. Who can we talk to? Who are truly willing to listen and understand?…. It does not matter what kind of strong mask we put it on, we all have to deal with this emotional and psychological challenge when we look at the mirror in the evening

Weather we like it or not, we witness and even experience psychological bully here and there, even on media. The psychological tension is mounting in our society.

Honest and trust-worthy are such critical issues in either professional environment or personal life.

People easily stress-out or burn-out because having problem to find a good balance when they only have eyes to examine others but not able to reach the inner self.

Tea is more than just a cup of healthy beverage, but it is about meeting and embracing the reflecting of inner self with ease in a peaceful moment with pure and fine flavor and taste.
— Mei Lan Hsiao, Belgium Chinese Tea Arts Centre / Belgium Chinese Tea Culture Association, 29/11/2016

The water is fresh only when it is running,

The air is clean only with wind breeze

Wheels can only move forwards when moving together

Humabeing can only revolve and develop when able to live and work together to transform diversity to positive energy.

We have to question ourselves what have we done to ourselves and the future generations today, now.

When chaos in the world are rising, there is no better way but to promote the essence of Serenity, Purity, Collective, Harmony and Mutual Respect in each step that we practice in the authentic Chinese Cha Daou