Belgium Chinese Tea Centre – Page 30 – Only Pure & Authentic Quality Tea

Nanjing Yu Hua Tai

On 30/09/2016

Among the top 10 famous green tea in China, Nanjing Yu Hua Tau is an unique choice. It is unique not just because of its fine green tea flavour and taste, but also because it represents the magnificent glory past of Southern Capital city in Chinese histor and ugly yet horrible war crime, Nanjing Rap, conducted by Japanese militants during their invasion in China.

Thanks to Yemin who brought three different quality of Nanjing Yu Hua Tau green tea from her recent family visiting trip to Nanjing.

We started from the lowest price (Size “L”):

Leaves are rather long with fishy note. Small young buds are covered with white hair

Flavour is mild with astringent taste in the 1st infusion, but bitter in the 2nd infusion.

From the Size “L”, we dumped to the size “S”, the youngest and tiny buds. Normally is the best quality from the quality filtering process:

All young and tiny buds, the water content % is higher than the size L

Lovely impression with young buds standing in the cup.

Due to the high water content percentage, therefore it is better to brew this young buds quality with lower water temperature, otherwise the taste can be bitter easily.

Now we moved to the last one, the size “M” which are young leaves that are like shy girls who open their windows slightly for their love one.

The color is more greener

The flavour and taste are more balance comparing with size L and size S

Conclusion:

With such quality green tea, it is better to brew with lower water temperature, i.e. 70-75°C, and shorten the infusion time.

blog-1

Tea in ecological life style

By Mei Lan Hsiao

On 30/09/2016

In Others

Do you know the remaining tea leaves after you enjoy the fine flavor and taste can also use to satisfy your economical demands for more ecological life style? Here some useful tips:

Tea is a perfect fat remover, it is a perfect and natural detergent to clean:
1. the kitchen, i.e. the cooking place, exhaust hood, working table
2. the floor
3. cabinets
4. furnitures
5. windows
Clean the wooden- or bamboo furniture with remaining tea
Tea is a perfect bad odor absorber, so can use it
1. Remove the bad odor by cleaning the refrigerator
2. Place the redried leaves in the refrigerator to absorb the bad odor
3. Place the redried leaves in sport shoes to absorb the bad odor
4. Make shoe insoles with redried tea leaves to remove wet sweat smell
5. Place the redried leaves in an unused sock and hang it in the area where you would like to reduce the bad odor
6. Rings your mouth after brushing teeth (suitable temperature +/- 80°C
7. Chows the tea leaves after eating garlics
8. If pot has bad or fishy smell, can cook tea leaves with that pot to remove the bad odor
Tea helps water circulation and ease the irritation because of bacterial , i.e.
1. Helps to remove eye bag
2. Helps to ease the irritation in eyes

(Using a glass of warm tea to steam the puffy eyes

Can wash face with tea to ease the irritation of acnes and fat
Give your feet a tea bath after a long working day when your feet are swelling
When feet feel itching , give your feet a bath with tea leaves, ginger and vinegar, then rub your feet with ginger that cover with tea leaves (use green tea but not black tea

After tea leaves soaking in water for few days, then water your plants with tea water
Can use the remaining tea leaves as natural fertilizer for plants in the garden, but avoid to use for the indoor plants
Redried tea leaves, burn it as incense in toilet or ditch can get rid of mosquitoes or flies
Place the redried tea leaves in the area where you would like to remove the moisture
Natural conditioner for your hair, rings hair after shampoo, not only can remove fat but also soften your hair and restore the brilliant color
Effectively remove black eyes: placed the air-dried tea bags in refrigerator and place tea bags on your eyes to remove black eye (make sure tea bags are well dried)
Redried tea leaves to make a pillow (+/- 5 kgs)

blog-1

“Thank you, Mother” Tea Ceremony

By Mei Lan Hsiao

On 30/09/2016

In Events

Wind passes without leaving a trace and time won’t stop.

The parents are growing older every minute with your growing;

don’t wait too long to show your gratitude to your loving parents. because time won’t wait.

15 August is the “Mother Day” in Antwerp.

Sharing a moment and serving a cup of tea to your mother is the most inexpensive and priceless gift to show your forever gratitude.

As a migrant to Belgium because of marriage, Mei Lan left her most dearest parent behind. She chooses to show her gratitude and love to her mother and father by honoring the fundamental Chinese traditional moral teaching – 孝 (Xiao) filial – that she learnt from her parent in the childhood upbringing by sharing the wisdom from the Chinese traditional tea ceremony with Belgian and/or international children (young and/or old) with their parents.

Children at different age learn how to show their gratitude and love to their mother (or father) with a cup of tea. Feel the flow of love without speaking a word.

“Thank you, mother” Chinese tea ceremony 2016

Date: 14/8/2016 (Sunday)

Time: 14:00 – 16:00

Location: @ The Park, Unitaslaan 84, 2100 Deurn

Price: 8EUR /pp

RSVP : Tel: 03 336 43 49 Email: info@the-park.be

Oolong Tea

By Mei Lan Hsiao

On 30/09/2016

In Oolong

Oolong tea is the most sophisticated tea among the six tea types because it is made through very complex manufacturing processes. Not all semi-fermented teas can be named as Oolong tea, because Oolong has specific quality criteria to evaluate its flavor and taste.

The leaves can be picked and processed in four seasons, and each season has its unique charms and energy:

Spring Oolong – young an fresh with charming flora aroma like refreshing young girl
Summer Oolong – Hot and spicy like a sexy woman with easy changing temperament
Autumn Oolong – After through the warm summer, the complexity of flora and fruity notes are emerging. As an assertive mature woman.
Winter Oolong – After being through many changes from the bitter and sweet seasons, like a mature lady who absorbs the glory of flora, fruity and nuts flavor from her rich living experience. She is wise and gentle.

Treat her like treating a lady and then enjoy her sexy complexity in your imagination, feel the extraordinary flavor and taste on your tongue.

blog-2

Ecological Oolong Tea

By Mei Lan Hsiao

On 30/09/2016

In Oolong

“How organic is true ecological?” Well, I think this photo is more convincing than thousand words or a piece of organic certificate. This is the photo of tea picking from the ecological tea farm in Fujian. Not only it’s in the middle of wildness, far away from human populltion; but also the owner insist

Only use the natural fertilizer, free from pesticide; but still we submitted samples for pesticide analysis in Belgium accordign to the EU Pesticide standards
Respect and maintain the harmony balance with Nature. Do not use any chemical products to remove grass or stimulate the growth
Allow tea trees search for the growing strength in natural manner, so do not trim the tea trees since the farmer took over the long-time abandoned tea farm.
Implement collective stateownership with the community who live in the mountain; the daily income of tea pickers is ensured regardless the quantity they pick, because we believe the picking quality is more important than the quantity
Only pick ONCE a year without considering the high cost, the risk and ROI. So only limited quantity available
Respect the old Chinese traditions; semi-manual processes and afterwards fine re-processed through the wood fire roasting process

“How to know the quality of tea is good? “ , this is a pretty common question people ask. Unfortunately price is indeed a critical milestone to help you to evaluate the quality of tea. We are not encouraging the practice “show off the wealth’ , but we do think tea lovers should learn the priceless hardworking and human values behind each leaf. Besides it takes only 3g max. 5g it takes for you to enjoy +/- 1.5L tea in a day, so what is the cost per cup in a day? From this ecological tea farm, we provide three different tea selections:

Tie Guan Yin Oolong
JinXuan Oolong
MeiZhan Oolong

More information for each ecological Oolong Tea is to follow later.

blog-1

Huang Guan Yin Honey Yellow Tea

By Mei Lan Hsiao

On 30/09/2016

In Yellow Tea

We proudly announce the launching of new type of Yellow Tea in EU – Huang Guan Yin Honey Yellow

Tea Research Institutes in China and Taiwan are constantly trying to create new and better tea tree cultivars, and launching a new tea tree cultivar takes many years of research and experiments. Fujian Agricultural Sciences Tea Research Institute launched the new development by crossbreeding from Tie Guan Yin (F) and Huang Yen (M) in 1977 to 1997. It registered as a tea tree cultivar, Huang Guan Yin (Camellia sinensis cv. Huangguanyin) in Fujian in 1998 and won the 2^nd award prize from the science and technology assessment. It was official introduced in 2002, so we can consider as a pretty new member to the Camellia sinensis va sinensis family. The plantation areas of Huang Guan Yin has expanded from Fujian Province to other provinces in China.

Huang Guan Yin is a small size bush-type tea tree of mid-size leaves, the color young buds is in yellowish green color. The youngest buds available for picking at end of March to early April for quality picking of 1 bud with 2 leaves. Based on the quality of 1 bud with 2 leaves, it contains 31.9% Polyphenols, 3.5% Amino acids, 3.5% Caffeine, 42.8% dissolvable water extracts; It combines the unique flavor and taste from both Tie Guan Yin and Huang Yen, suitable to produce excellent quality green tea, Tie Guan Yin oolong to black tea.

Huang Guan Yin Honey Yellow

Huang Guan Yin Honey Yellow is an unique higher fermented yellow tea made from Huang Guan Yin tea tree cultivated in Hunan. Using the premium quality of 1 bud with two young leaves and was processed through an unique innovative process that combines the unique shake green process in Oolong Tea, the fermentation process in Black Tea with the traditional piling fermentation process in Yellow Tea and then going through the rolling process.

Criteria	Dried Leaf	Tea Liquor
Color	Dark, almost like black tea with a mixture of golden tips	Due to the increase of fermentation , so the color of tea liquor is in mild yellowish brown color
Shape	Half ball shape as oolong	1 golden tip bud with 2 leaves
Flavour	Refreshing with flora and caramel aroma	With delightful caramel sweetness, almost like honey, with the blending of flora aroma
Taste	Mild and gentle
Final sensation	The mouth is full with gentle flavor and taste, the taste of astringent comes in very gentle slow path that stimulates the fluid from both sides in the mouth

Astonishing mild amber color

Even though it is classified as Yellow Tea, but the heavy fermentation process allows its to flourish with high temperature of water. We recommend to brew it according to the Oolong brewing.

Leaves vs. water	3g : 150ml (1g : 50ml)
Water temperature	95°C
Brewing	1^st infusion: 30-45 seconds, 2^nd/3^rd: 20-30 seconds, afterwards can increase the infusion time to your taste.
Suggested tea ware	Porcelain gaiwan or small teapot

Learning from a flavoured Dong Ding Oolong

By Mei Lan Hsiao

On 30/09/2016

In Oolong

This is a rice-aroma flavoured Ding Ding Oolong that my student bought from Holland to the lesson last night, the shop has mistaken the height of mountain to 1200mt, actually the the correct information of Dong Ding Mountain should be 743mt.

I did not say too much when I first smelled a very strong rice-aroma from the dried leaves, I chose to give the tea a chance to speak to me when I tasted it later.

I woke up the tea with warm water without drinking as I normally do. The rice-aroma was weakened but still there some notions of it and the note further dropped in the 2nd infusion. The rice-aroma was vanished in the 3rd infusion and we could then evaluate the true flavour and taste afterwards
The rice aroma does not match with the natural aroma and flavour from Dong Ding Oolong.
the first impression about the taste is ‘not bad’ because of the gentle sweet taste, but the taste was pretty flat that we missed the complexity from the after taste

So what do we learn from this tasting last night?

Today Wikipedia and internet actually offer many information
Natural traditional semi-fermented with roasted Dong Ding Oolong

that allow us to double check the information. If the shopper could double check the information about Dong Ding Mountain, then s/he could avoid the mistake on the label about the height of mountain. When we write story for tea, we should at least get some facts correct.
Dong Ding Oolong is one famous traditional seimi-to-heavy fermented and being roasted Oolong tea from Taiwan, using 1 heart (young bud) with 2 or 3 young leaves hand-picked quality. It first started from ZhangYa, FengHuang and YongLong villages and now is spread species in LuGu area.
Repeatedly roasted by charcoal made from Long Yen wood gave it a special roasting flavour and taste. But these days there are light fermented with light roasting with electrical oven, and aged roasted Dong Ding Oolong, so there are many choices under one name. No matter what it should be made from Qing Xing tea tree cultivar from LuGu, Nantou, Taiwan.
Dong Ding Oolong has very powerful natural ripped fruits and/or flora notes (Lizhe) with mild caramel flavour and taste. The complex flavour notes and taste can be intensified if we kept the same infusion as in the first infusion, therefore we normally reduce the infusion time slightly (+/- 45 seconds); afterwards we back to the 1 minute infusion. The flavour and taste are synchronized and continued for several infusions.
Only weakened strength tea base can be easily reprocessed by additional flavour additives. The basic cost structure of good quality nature tea is much higher than the tea base used for the flavoured tea.
Traditional Dong Ding has powerful natural flavour and taste with good strength, no additional flavoured additives are needed

Even though flavoured teas do not meet with my personal preference, but I do recognize for people who do not have too much knowledge about tea, not to mention about Oolong tea from Taiwan, can be easily attracted to this rice-aroma flavoured Oolong. I do, however, think shopper/s should be honest to label information for each tea with correct information.

Origin: Nantou, Taiwan / Type: Qing Xin / 100% pure & nature quality / 2.5g:150ml / 95-99°C / multiple infusions >6-8

blog-2

2001 Liu Bao Cha

By Mei Lan Hsiao

On 30/09/2016

In Hei (Dark）Tea

Image result for 六堡茶

Liu Bao Cha, also known as LiuPao Cha, is another unique Dark tea (Hei Cha in Chinese means Black Tea), a speciality from Liu Bao, Chang Wu Xian in the autonomous region by the minority Zhuang tribe, it is another drinkable antique same as Puerh tea from Yunnan. Liu Bao Cha is made from fresh leaves from the mid-sized leaves of Camelliasinensis (L.)O.Kuntze, it is picked either 1 bud with 1 leaf or 1 bud with 3-4 leaves, the picking time is in March to November.

Reddish color, betel nuts flavour, smooth with strength taste

It has long history that can trace way back to 1500 to 2000 years in Chinese history. It is known by its unique betel nuts flavour and the noticeable special characters of rich red color, with earthy flavour, with mellow but strengthened astringent after taste; regardless is Sheng (Raw) or Shou (Ripped), the color of leaves after being brewed is all in shinning reddish or dark brown.

The content of Polyphenols in Liu Bao Cha is almost as rich as found in the big-leaves Puerh from MongKu, Yunnan:

AnHua Hei Cha : 22.6%
MongKu Puerh : 33.8%
Liu Bao Hei Cha: 32.4%

It has the highest content of Amino acides:

AnHua Hei Cha: 2.9%
MongKu Puerh: 1.7%
Liu Bao Hei Cha: 3.0%

The content of caffeine is also relatively high, therefore the brewing of Liu Bao Cha requires some special attention:

AnHua Hei Cha : 4.1%
MongKu Puerh: 4.1%
Liu Bao Hei Cha: 4.4%

Even though the caffeine in dark tea is higher than found in green, white or black tea, but the good news with the aging transformation in the post-fermentation process, the content of caffeine is weakened.

Liu Bao Cha has benefits to those who have problem with hypertension, hyperlipidemia (high blood viscosity, high cholesterol and high triglycerides), high blood sugar (diaetes), high uric acid that cause gout psychosis crowd. It has effects to ease heat and dampness, laxative flooding dysentery, cellulite blood pressure, and has hypoglycemi sedative effects.

Liu Bao Cha has been appreciated by many Chinese and Chinese migrants live in South East Asia through the Ocean Silkroad in the last Qing Dynasty.

Here are some useful tips about brewing:

Using very warm water, the higher temperature the better.
Wash the tea leaves twice, as quick as you can.
Keep the infusion time short and sexy (5-10 seconds or 10-20 seconds subject to the water temperature)
Don’t hurry to drink when it’s still very warm, drink it at the suitable temperature, +/- 40 degree

blog-1

Puerh is Red Tea? Hei Cha!

By Mei Lan Hsiao

On 30/09/2016

In Pu-Erh

All those years, I’ve tried not too ‘critical’ to other tea ‘sommeliers’ or ‘traders’, but I was once again shocked by the information about Puerh tea from a Dutch web shop that my student Jess relayed to me by email which kept me awoke that I think it is necessary to point out some fundamental mistakes:

First of all, since the name of Black Tea was used for Chinese Red Tea (紅茶), so now we can call Chinese Hei Cha (黑茶, literally mean Black Tea in Chinese) to Dark Tea. Puerh is in the category of Hei Cha (Dark Tea) but not Red Tea (Black Tea).
But there is something unique about Hei Cha, because there are Sheng (生 means raw, green, not-full fermented) and Shou (熟 means ripped, full fermented), but one thing in common is these considered as ‘living and drinkable antique’, the flavor and taste are transformed according to the difference in post-fermentation process and the later storage.
The brewing of Puerh is similar but again different from the brewing of other sort of tea
The flavor and taste of Puerh from lower altitude vs. high altitude, bush-type vs. tree-type and the age of tea tree, from loose leaves to tea cake, etc. create a lot of diverse flavour and taste in Puerh
Indeed the taste of Puerh is very smooth and gentle, especially those aged Puerh; but it shouldn’t be flat and boring, on the contrary it should be the first taste of smoothness, then with gentle after-taste that give your mouth a full body of faste afterwards with the closure of kind of sweetness on your tongue. Different post fermentation process and the period of time can influence the flavor of Puerh, some will develop a kind of earlthy woody note, but good quality Puerh, even Shou Puerh, won’t give a rotten rot flavor and struggling with the swallowing.

Out of curiosity, so I decided to pay a visit to that web shop as well and surprisingly have found more chaotic and unthinkable mistakes, here I just simply point out two Taiwan Oolong as example:

Formosa Fine Oolong :

in the description, they introduced it as Black tea, then further it wrote, it’s semi-fermented tea. So is it a Oolong or black tea? Oolong is Oolong but not black tea. There are heavy fermented Oolong, but it is still Oolong but not black tea because the flavor and taste are not on the same parameters; certainly there are some strict and important evaluation parameters to define ‘fine’ Oolong tea.

Formosa Oolong Thing Dong (Jade Oolong):

Jade Oolong is also known as Cui Yu in Chinese Pinyin, so what does it mean “Thing Dong”?? again is it a black or oolong? Indeed high mountain Oolong often is very light fermented, but how can black tea be non-fermented? Withering and fermentation processes are necessary for Oolong, so how can it be non-fermented?

I don’t question they treasure tea or not, but based on how they classify the tea category on their web site, I wonder how much they really know about tea. Frankly speaking, I have no idea where they learnt about tea but I would be very shamed if I were their teacher. There are simply TOO MUCH unthinkable mistakes that I really do not know how to correct them. The discovery from this web shop who mistook the Puerh as ‘red tea’ gave me a speechless evening.

One can’t distinguish the quality and the value of tea until s/he is willing to give her/himself a chance to taste the tea with an open mind for a life-time learning with tea. The learning starts from getting the fundamental information right as much as possible.

Natural Organic Herbal Tea – Mulberry Tea

By Mei Lan Hsiao

On 30/09/2016

In Herbal Tea

In the “Compendium of Materia Medica” written by Li ShiZhen, the most famous doctor specialized in Chinese Traditional Medcine, in 1578 and published in 1596, in the book Mulberry Tea was noted for its effects of rejuvenation, it’s also known as “Immortal Grass” (桑箕星之精神也，蟬食之稱文章，人食之老翁為小童，桑叶又名：“神仙草”). It is a medicinal and edible in one plant, it contains 17 kinds of amino acids, crude protein, crude fat and is known as “longevity tea’ in Japan.

Mulberry trees can only grown in a pesticide-free environment, so it’s a natural organic healthy green plant. Mulberry tea was processed through special techniques that diminishes the bitter taste and elevate the sweet flavour and taste. Those researches in the East and West confirmed various benefits of Mulberry tea to those who have problem either with lower blood sugar, blood pressure or blood fat and is appreciated for its effects in anti-aging because of amino acid, fiber, vitamines, minerals and various physiologically active substances. There are many different kind of mulberry trees in the world, but not all leaves are suitable to produce good quality Mulberry tea, for example the Mulberry leaves for silkworm are not suitable for direct consumption. In order to maintain the Polysaccharides, flavonoids and alkaloids DNJ components so leaves much be processed carefully through hand-picked, wash & dry, cutting, fixing, rolling, deblocking, roasting and fermentation.

According to various researches, we know Mulberry tea is suitable for those who have health problems with impaired glucose tolerance, light diabetic population, type 2 diabetes and high risk of diabetes and complications of cardiovascular disease, and of course, it is also suitable for normal populations as daily health drink. It is free from caffeine, people who suffer from stomach pain and insomnia are also safe to drink Mulberry tea.

Like all healthy plants or fruits in the world, even though Mulberry tea has many healthy benefits, but there is always a catch that we should be aware of. We should avoid with exaggerate consumption even though it tastes good and healthy. In the Compendium of Materia Medica has also indicated certain contraindications, because excessive consumption can result the too much Yin energy in body that stimulates the cold in spleen and stomach that will cause some health problems. It is not suitable to drink Mulberry tea during the menstruation period, because of Yin and its role in hemostasis.

Brewing Mulberry tea is easy:

water temperature: 95-99°C
Multiple infusions, i.e. 1 minute – 45 seconds – 1 minute

Mulberry leaves can also blended with other herbal ingredients:

Mulberry leaves with Goji
Mulberry leaves with Chrysanthemum

Despite Mulberry tea provides many health benefits, but still it is suggested to avoid over exaggerate consumption. Knowing and listening to your own body is essential step to maintain a balance health.

blog-1