There is much made of a tea’s geographic designation, its altitude, its harvest season, and its growers…and there should be! The earth, the temperate surroundings and the handlers and coaxers of the leaves are to be thanked and acknowledged. Within the Bulang Mountain’s ancient tree forests in southwestern Yunnan. Every effort and breath within the mountains and forests, every little build up to harvest time matters. Harvesting for the purists is a time not simply when leaves

“Discussions about a specific tea should be left until during and after the sipping and too many words simply lead one to question the speaker”. – Ms. Lu, Tea Master – Kunming Pu erh in its ripe or ‘Shou’ version. Artificially aged with bacteria and humidity. Shaped teas were and still are common in the Pu erh world, though not all Pu erh is formed or moulded. There is always time for a little ‘destruction’ when too much mystification takes hold. This applies to everything fr

A still-active strand of the Tea Horse Road in northwestern Yunnan province where that relentless editor 'time' has changed very little...for now. Caravans still transport goods into remote portions of the mountains. Taken upon our journey along the route in 2006 Much of the Tea Horse Road’s great appeal is the sheer expanse of geography taken in – some estimate (as we did when our team traveled it) that five thousand grand kilometres taking in rafts of culture, language, die

It seems only fair that this first tea entry begins where the ‘green’ begins – tea’s humid and understated roots. Here, where tea has been nurtured virtually unchanged in all of the patient centuries and where still today the green leaf is treated with a reverence that speaks to a long and gentle union with both man and soil. Here it is a food, a friend and an essential. Asia’s great ‘commodity’ here, still retains its primary roles as unifier, cure-all, and simple beverage –