In this episode, Derek takes on the daunting task of giving a brief history of Tea in Chaozhou, Guangdong, as well as discussing the evolution of Chaozhou Gongfucha in the area and in China at large. After living in Chaozhou for all of 2021, Derek has a lot of deep insights on life and tea culture in this Mecca of Chinese tea. Derek also mentions his new project with his friend Dart, Tao Teaware, a curated teaware company that digs deep into Chinese history and cultural wares. Check out the offerings on taoteaware.com and follow the Tao Teaware YouTube channel for deep digs into the history behind the pieces! Take out a pen and paper for this episode because it’s a bit of a deep dive!

In this episode, Derek not only outlines the 9 main steps of making Dragonwell green tea, from raw leaf to dry tea, he also dives into a deeper understanding of Chinese names. He mentioned the history of the west lake, the myth of the Running Tiger Spring, almost loses his drone over the tea fields, and recalls ancient poems from 1300 years ago.

In this episode, Derek travels out to the West Lake area of Zhejiang Province’s major city Hangzhou. Here, for the past 1000 years, longjing, or Dragonwell Green Tea, has been being grown, processed, and drank. Meet four masters out here, Tang Xiaojun (唐小军) who makes immaculate Lion’s Peak Dragonwell, Tang Hejun (唐鹤君) who makes a very natural Baihefeng Dragonwell, Zhang Hailiang (张海良) who makes a Baihefeng Dragonwell in a wood-fired wok, and Xie Chunhua (谢春华) who has a large garden of the traditional Quntizhong Dragonwell varietal. We talk about the five main regions in the West Lake are, which are the Lion, the Dragon, The Cloud, the Tiger, and the Plum (狮，龙，云，虎，梅). And we compare the traditional Quntizhong (群体中) cultivar with the more modern Dragonwell #43. Check out the onerivertea.com website to sample the difference between core region, extra regional, handmade, machine made, Cultivar 43, and the Quntizhong cultivar dragonwell green teas!

In this episode we hike through the Dongting Mountain south east of Lake Tai right by the modern city of Suzhou. We are seeking the ancestral home of the Biluochun green tea, and find its heirloom bushes mixed in this slightly acidic soil with a plethora of fruit trees and other vegetation. We talk through the processing of this curled and fluffy tea, which is entirely made in a wok, which in the best instances is heated by a wood flame. Enjoy this deep dive into one of China’s most unique and iconic green teas!

In this episode, we talk about what it means to have a traditional tea master in modern China. We explain the differences between, a teacher and a master, as well as the relationship between an apprentice and the master. We mention more Chinese philosophies and reference a scene from the lovely little book The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff. While we have just finished the first week of a five week tea tour, we have a lot of tea sourcing content to dish out over the next few episodes, so be sure to subscribe if you haven’t already!

In this episode Derek discusses the origins of West Lake Dragonwell Green Tea, or Xihu Longjing. We go all the way back to the Jin Dynasty, the monk Xie Lingyun from the Tiantai mountains bringing the first seeds to the West Lake area. We talk about the 18 imperial tea trees. And we even cover the modern Republican Era of this region in the mid 1900s, wherein we hit an interesting tangent on the nature of Truth, Revolution, Nihilism, Marxism, Taoism, and a little bit Buddhism all in the West Lake Dragonwell production area.

In this episode we talk about how we sourced our traditional Biluochun from Xishan Island in lake tai outside of Suzhou. We hit some excellent tangents on the socio-economic environment of this Jiangsu region, we revisit our musing on the four kinds of luck, we finally bring up Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, and we sit you all down for a serious lesson on modern Chinese history. We are so excited to showcase one of our favorite tea producers Master Chen and his traditional handmade Biluochun, which is currently featured in our green tea pre-sale box on the onerivertea.com website.

For the sourcing video and live interview with Master Chen, check our our Youtube video, and be sure to subscribe to that there. One day I’ll re-upload these episodes with visual components, maps, graphs, photos, and videos of all the things I talk about here.

https://youtu.be/k4ox0eqFz54

In this episode, we talk about three different origin myths surrounding the creation of Biluochun, a tender curled green tea produces outside the city of Suzhou in Jiangsu province. We take a trip from Fujian up through Zhejiang and into Jiangsu, stopping by Shaoxing and Hangzhou. There is also a shout out to Dylan from the Sweetest Dew and Sohan from West China tea in here, so listen closely for those!

This is the first in a series of green tea episodes we will release in time with the green tea harvest here in China. All mingqian teas are currently available for presale on the One River Tea website!

In this episode, we break down the different kinds and picking grades of Fuding White Tea. We also cover the very important Chinese agricultural calendar, introduce all 24 two-week Solar Terms and talk about how they are used by farmers all over the land of Mountains and Rivers to know when to plant grain, harvest tea, and expect snow. We cover the four picking grades of silver needle, the three grades of baimudan, the two grades of shoumei, and the one and only notoriously vague gongmei.

Big Bud Silver Needle, King Peony, White Dew Shoumei, and even an autumn Gongmei are all available on the onerivertea.com website for those interested in sampling these teas!

What do you know about tea? What is there left for you to learn? In this episode we talk about how we can share information and learn from each other. The tea community in the western world is largely virtual for many reasons (tea lovers seem few and far between, Covid imposed isolation, etc), thus a lot of conversations happen virtually. We want to look at how we talk about tea online, how we address truth, untruth, misinformation, and outright lies in the tea world. We share a personal experience that has resulted in our growth, and encourage everyone to maintain a growth-oriented mindset.

In this episode, we talk about the Chinese idiom 盲人摸象，blind men feeling an elephant, and delve into the neuroscience of brainwaves and information processing. We mention the podcast Collective Insights (particularly the episode on Nerofeedback) and Ian McGilchrist (his book The Master and His Emissary).

Next week we will get back into white tea, so enjoy this impromptu in-betweenisode!