Blog
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Xigui, the other side of Bangdong
After talking about Mangfei, Yongde county, we travel along the G323 in a 2-hour journey through the pre-Western architecture of Heping village, passing Bangdong gardens, leaving Mangmai until we enter the wild forest to reach Xigui, the last village of the west bank of Lancangjiang. The roads are unpaved and where it meets the asphalt…
-
Where does a real Lao Tie come from?
Anxi is where time dwells, where the artistic breath of Chinese classicism reverberates among the residues of the cultural revolution along the road that leads to Ganze, with the purplish sunset that adorns the skyscrapers of Quanzhou behind it. The landscape alternates the expressive intensity of nature with the works of human activity; where the…
-
Geography of Mengku, a bit of history of the Shuangjiang factory and an excellent pu’er
Yunnan’s soil is complex, as is the climate in its multidimensionality. In a single region we find a tropical climate or a mountain one, in the chromatism that envelops the observer, the eyes find both rest and the neurasthenia of the course of nature in a landscape that seems to be the meeting place between…
-
Bingdao, its aura, its mysticism. Maybe it’s all undeserved?
The price that Bingdao tea has reached has attracted much attention from Western countries, covering it with that mysticism reserved for the great names in Bordeaux or Burgundy winemaking, an aura that cannot guarantee that the taster’s opinion do not deform in front of it. But what makes Bingdao teas so? Where does the search…
-
All the fragrance of Naka
Naka is one of those places whose tea manages to make the contemplative intent coexist with the liberation that accompanies a state of inebriation, of marked well-being. The teas from this mountain are often not famous for their complexity but rather enliven the experience with their persistent sweetness, an immediate sugary sensation that is almost…
-
Perhaps it’s time to ask what can be called Dancong
Dancong tea is much more than an aromatic concentrate, it is not just a floral punch straight in the mouth capable of anesthetizing the taste buds with its fragrances.Fenghuang tea is often able to escape the intellect, but the leaves of those trees are able to bring the unintelligible into sensible form. Make a Dancong…
-
Another soliloquy about Laobanzhang with a 2018 sheng pu from Tianhong tea factory
Laobanzhang has long been an example of ambivalence. Its bitterness contrasts with the sweetness that pervades you a moment later, the exaltation of its essence opposed to the condemnation of the upheaval caused by its own greatness. Its leaves can be as bitter and severe in youth as they are sweet and complex as they…
Wild Harvested 