Blog
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An emotional tea along Xiangling Highway. Mr Quen Cun An and his early 2000’s Manzhuan pu’er
Along the Xianglun Highway, the entrances to the forest alternate with those of the taidicha, a single main road connects the village of Manzhuang to that of Manlin. The primeval essence of the tropical forest can be seen from the few patches of bare earth left; the age, mineralogy and extensive leaching of acrisol, which…
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As long as the root is still there, everything is still there. A few words about Manzhuan
“只要根还在，一切都还在”Before the advent of a group of Taiwanese tea explorers in 1994, Manzhuan was a heavily rural area, dominated by vegetation surrounding classical Han architecture. Residents of Manzhuang, Manlin and Manqian were still recovering from the war that decimated many families, the losses due to the famine and class sacrifices of the Maoist era, especially…
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A tea that is a symbol of redemption, of radical change and self-determination. Viet Sun Lùng Vài pressed white tea 2022
A long time has passed, from Chinese cultural domination, from French colonization, from the 30 years of struggle for independence, the time necessary for the rain to give respite to the memory from the pain of the loss. But tea in Vietnam resisted everything as an observer of events, as a symbol of the zeitgeist,…
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The Shangkang festival, the reconciliation of civilization, a nostalgic tea. Thoughts through a 2021 Wengji sheng pu from Moychay
People gathered at the Shankang festival, their predecessors were honored, the offerings placed at the foot of a distant past in which every year the memory revived. It was an occasion to dance, to be involved in a moment when time seemed to stop, saturated with a sense that was difficult to translate into words,…
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The primordial essence of Da Xue Shan in YongDe County
he subtropical scenery of the Nanting River, from the foot of the mountain to the northern view of the main peak, seems to capture all the splendor of the world. Daxue rises to over 3,400 meters, opposite the other peak of the Nu mountain range, Xiaoxueshan. Karst severity alternates with the chromatism of the tropical…
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When Mahei was called Lù biān. Journey through the history of the village in the company of a 2020 Mahei dashu sheng pu
Travel 25 kilometers west of Guafengzhai, you will arrive in Mahei. This was the first stage of the ancient tea road on the journey from Laos to China. It is said that one of the original names of Mahei 麻 黑 was “路 边” Lù biān, “Roadside”, because Maheizhai is near the road leading to…
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Mahei, one of the best pu’er in Yiwu. But has it always been like this?
The rains of mid-April break the drought of Mahei, but the race to the true maocha every year does not stop, as well as the rise in prices has not seen truce since 2007 to date. Maheizhai is a village of Yiwu, in Mengla county, almost 3 square kilometers of woods and trees between 1200…
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Reaching the highest peak, where the air is more rarefied, where the silence of the place becomes a virtue. Tribute to Huazhuliangzi.
To the northeast of Menghaizhen we follow the dirt roads that lead to the highest point, the peak of Banna, between the fog that seems palpable and the city behind us at every point the eyes find rest wherever you look. The old trees covered in moss and xylophagous saprophytes draw attention, among the rocky…
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Epitome of Fuzhuan fermentation: Eurotium cristatum, the hero of Anhua
Despite my passion for history, anthropology and philosophy, my training background in daily life has always concerned scientific world; in particular agronomic and food technology studies have led me to be fascinated by microbiology of tea, which in the western world, however, is a subject with which we find ourselves dealing too little often. I…
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Drunk soliloquies about Nannuo in the shadow of a gushu
On a day when the cold morning breach seemed to have taken away even the most weak semblance of chromatism, and with this the already remote desire to conclude something at the end of a dull sunrise, I decided to make a tea session with this 2016 Sheng Pu from Nannuo in the hope of…
Wild Harvested 