“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

It remains a tea that I don’t get enough of (which will hopefully be remedied in the coming two weeks). My fierce Lahu contact in Xishuangbanna assures me that this will be the case. Hu Kai’s roots, flavours, and understated home here: “Hu Kai – A Tea of the Soul” – sips to come. The Pulang and Lahu both have a tradition of boiling raw tea leaves...nothing is wasted #ancientteaforests #teasourcing #lahu #Ancientteatrees #teaforests #ChinaTea #Yunnantea #JeffFuchs #puer #yunna

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

Sour Tea: The Indigenous World’s Treat Within the muggy mists of eastern Burma, amidst the toughened and muscular indigenous minorities of southern Yunnan there can still be found tea traditions that transcend any tea trends, eras or pretentious terms. There are traditions in these slightly spooky mountains that can literally draw a line directly backwards in time to when tea was more than simply a handful desiccated leaves thrown into hot water. Tea hype doesn’t mean anythin

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 –