In addition to this blog post we have a Wiki on Hei Cha that works as a companion to this post, and contains some more detailed information.

If you are completely new to post fermented, or dark teas from China, the quick explanation is that they are basically an unprocessed green tea that is allowed to ferment either over time, or through a ‘wet piling” process that is similar to composting. They are “earthy” in character and contain probiotic bacteria that are thought to contain significant health benefits. Orthodox teas do not contain these probiotics, although they are high in antioxidants which post fermented teas are not. In other words, Hei Cha is a very unique category of tea.

Hei Cha was accidentally developed as tea was transported along ancient trading routes from China into Tibet and Mongolia. Bricks of un-oxidized green tea (maocha) would take on moisture either through the humidity in the air, or simply getting rained on, and they would begin to ferment, making them dark and robust. It was eventually discovered that this dark tea was healthful and delicious. See Tea Horse Road.

Today Hei Cha is processed using a method developed in the 1970’s by the Menghai Tea Factory that is commonly referred to as “cooking”. this method involves piling the maocha and adding moisture as well as (sometimes) specific fungi or bacteria, and lightly composting the tea over anywhere from three months to a year. This method is a refinement of the “Wo Dui” or “wet piling” process developed in the fifties, and this is where a lot of the confusion begins. It is unclear if there existed a method for actively fermenting the tea (rather than relying on time and humidity) prior to the development of Wo Dui. It is likely that the bricks of maocha were splashed or sprinkled with water to promote the growth of bacteria, but information on this is hard to come by. Hei Cha is better understood in Western China and apparently much of the information about it has not yet reached western tea drinkers, but it is possible that the category of Hei Cha is so broad and reaches over such a vast geographical expanse, and reaches so far back in history that nothing specific concerning it’s processing exists.

Tea-in all it’s forms and incarnations, is so varied in terms of method and character that it would be surprising if a variety as old as Hei Cha was anything but enigmatic. Still, like enthusiasts of any common interest, tea geeks are compelled to categorize and fret over the minutia permeating their passion. One of the more interesting, and obscure arguments involves Hei Cha, and when, specifically, does it become dark tea.

Most Hei Cha today is of the cooked or “shou” type, although there also exists a raw or “sheng” variety. Sheng means that rather than having been wet piled, the maocha was simply steamed, compressed into a brick and stored until ambient moisture in the air created the fermented qualities that lead to a dark earthy brew. This process can take up to fifty years before the tea has fully matured, which means that there are quite a few years where the tea is close to an unprocessed green tea. Considering that the immature state of sheng Hei Cha is vastly different from mature Hei Cha, when does it become dark tea, or Hei Cha? It is a nit-picky question to be sure, and likely not one that was asked much back in the days of the Tea Horse Road. Tea was probably tea, and spending time worrying about when exactly sheng became shou must have been a waste of time. But! Since we now have the luxury of pondering these obscure culinary questions we might as well go a little deeper into this discussion; Sheng Pu-Erh is the only sheng Hei Cha that is easily obtainable today in the west. Pu-Erh is the most common form of Hei Cha available to western tea drinkers, and is easily found in a shou, as well sheng style. Although Liu An and Liu Bao are also common varieties of Hei Cha, sheng varieties of these teas are much harder to find. In fact Liu Bao was probably the tea that resulted from the invention of Wo Dui. Keeping in mind that until the fifties, it is unlikely that there were any decent methods for “cooking” the maocha into a mature dark tea, nearly all of it must have been sheng.

So if it is arguable that sheng is even a Hei Cha at all, and the vast majority of Hei Cha today is shou, then what is, was, or ever has been Hei Cha? Was it all Sheng? Has this tea simply made some kind of evolutionary leap? Depending on who you ask, and how serious they are about their Hei Cha, you may find find out that Hei Cha can only come from Anhua (a town in Hunan China), and that Pu-Erh, and all the “border teas” that get lumped into the Hei Cha category are imposters. Hei Cha from Anhua must be dried using an open flame from pine fuel (Pu-Erh is sun dried), and that wet piling is part of the process. Unfortunately this still leaves open the question about when exactly did wet piling become a defining characteristic of Hei Cha.

As far as the question about when a dark tea can be considered a dark tea is concerned; One person might have a standard for the color of the liquor produced from the steeped tea, and another might feel that as soon as the tea is dampened to be compressed into bricks it becomes dark tea because it has now begun to host bacteria and fungi. Unfortunately for this argument, some dark teas aren’t compressed into bricks, so where are we now? Should we defer to the academics who would narrow down our definitions and descriptions, or should we adhere to popular categorizations?

Hei Cha might have fallen into the same branding problem as Xerox did in the early 1960’s. Photocopying became synonymous with the brand name Xerox, and now if you say you are going to “xerox” a document, it is understood that you are photocopying it. Many teas that resembled Hei Cha, might now be considered Hei Cha simply because Hei Cha is the most recognizable term. The funny thing about that, is that the word “hei”, meaning “dark”, sort of means “bad” as well, and might not even be used by most Chinese. “Black” tea is more appropriate, but then you have to describe the differences between Chinese, and western tea categorization (what westerner’s call black tea, Chinese call red tea [see Tea Categories]). So, unless you are speaking to a serious tea academic, if you hear Hei Cha mentioned today, you can be confident that the broad scope of post fermented Chinese dark teas is what is being referred to. They are healthy and delicious to the point that some tea enthusiast hardly drink any other kind of tea. Pu-Erh is a great place to start if you are new to these teas, but the possibilities are almost endless. For more information please see our Wiki page on Hei Cha, and if you have any additional information yourself, feel free to comment, or sign up and edit the Wiki.

As you can imagine this can cause a lot of problems to businesses in the area. it looks like there might be some problems that coincide with the First Flush this year.

Darjeeling Times

The tea crop is basically the life blood of the region economically. The Gorkha’s use this as leverage in their quest to gain independence by threatening to disrupt local commerce. Most of the labor force lives hand to mouth and these disruptions create significant financial issues.

There has been a recent wage increase, but with the the coldest winter temperatures in the last fifty years, the harvest will be delayed, and possibly disrupted by the political problems.

Some spectacular teas will certainly be produced this spring, and we’re looking forward to trying them. The Darjeeling locals will get everything sorted out to some extent, although it can be a bit difficult for outsiders to understand the social and political balance in the area.

Look for First Flush teas to be available around the beginning of March, possibly later due to the cold.

There are coffee shops like the Stumptown in Brooklyn’s Redhook neighborhood, or the Blue Bottle in Williamsburg where you can get truly superior coffee. If you live in a city, I recommend you visit a place like this where they really care about brewing culinary coffee. You might start drinking coffee black because it’s so good. If you drink foo foo latte’s from Starbucks I absolutely mean to be judgmental when I say “Stahp!!!! That’s so gross!”.

A good online resource is coffeegeek.com.

Being a coffee novice I did quite a bit of research into how to make coffee as well as what I had had in a few of those shops. I tried a few different methods and discovered that using an Aeropress consistently made the best brew, and was by far the most forgiving. You can make a sort of espresso with it, as well as a great cup of regular coffee. The next best method for me was using a ceramic drip cone. I purchased this one (Bon Mac Ceramic Dripper) from Blue Bottle, and after trying plain old, cheap white, bleached filters, and unbleached filters I came to the sad conclusion that the bleached filters actually made better coffee.

It turns out that the grinder is important, and you want to make sure you are using a burr grinder, rather than one of those blade grinders. Apparently, the way the burr grinder does it’s thing creates a more consistent grind and therefore a better cup of coffee. I wish I could explain it better but I’m no expert. Almost all of the reading I did on coffee stressed the importance of the grinder over almost everything else. I have been using this inexpensive hand grinder (Hario Skerton Hand Mill) and getting good results.

Figuring out the right coffee beans was a bit of a task. I brewed every bean that I tried with the Aeropress and in the ceramic dripper. What I was looking for was flavor, consistency, and forgiveness. What I mean by forgiveness is that I needed the coffee to come out good in spite of my marginal technique. The ceramic dripper requires technique that I had to practice, but the Aeropress pretty much worked for me immediately. I tried some local roasters and then went with some single origin beans (all Ethiopian) from both Intelligentsia out of Chicago, and Blue Bottle from San Francisco. Although I would say that Intelligentsia barely edged out the Blue Bottle in all three of my categories, they both beat the pants off all of the local roasters.

Two of the factors that I had to play with were water temperature and grind size. I found that a medium grind size and water around 180°F (higher temps lead to more bitterness) worked best to create a smooth, flavorful coffee, free of that harsh bitterness that I dislike so much.

There is a lot of easy to find information on just how to use the Aeropress, and the ceramic drip filter all over the internet so I won’t get into that here. The coffeegeeks.com forum is a great place to ask questions.

One little point about single origin coffee’s and blends: Although I found that I prefer single origin coffee over blends, there might be a health benefit to it as well. This site (bulletproofexec.com) asserts that blends tend to harbor molds due to the mixing of beans from all over the place where-as single origin beans have a significantly lower incidence. If you have ever felt sluggish after drinking coffee, this mold thing is probably why.

So get onto Yelp.com and find out who makes the absolute best coffee in your area, ask for a cup of single origin and drink it black. It should be complex, flavorful and smooth. Then go try to recreate that it home. It will take a few tries, but good coffee can be nice break from tea every once in a while. And seriously, put that pink, bedazzled iPhone back in your pocket, and drink your coffee black.

Flavor Wheels are used by wine connoisseurs, cheese lovers, chocolate aficionados, and all kinds of other gourmets to aid them in describing the gastronomic delights in which they partake. Beginning from the middle of the flavor wheel and moving out, you may find that the tea you are tasting has an “earthy” quality, which leads you to some additional descriptives like “mushroom”, or “soaked earth”. You might also detect “mineral” flavors, and the Tea Flavor Wheel moves you on to “flint”, or “wet stones”. Consult the Mouthfeel area and you can say that this tea possesses a “round” feeling on the tongue with “earthy/mushroomy” characteristics, as well as hints of “wet stones”. Sounds like a Pu-erh.

This downloadable PDF is a high enough quality image to be printed out clearly at 13″

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Did you know that there are only two tea plantations in mainland North America? I’m not sure if it is more surprising that there are only two, or if I should be surprised that the two even exist. One is the Charleston Tea Plantation in South Carolina owned by Bigelow Teas. This is a 127 acre operation that contributes to the tea bags you find in your hotel room, and enjoys a climate that is naturally suitable to growing tea. The other is Sakuma Bros. Farms in Skagit Valley WA where the winter climate is dismal at best, and the chill can seep into your bones during the winter. Most of the worlds tea is grown in warm, moist, equatorial regions, and the weather in Washington is what you might call “cold and soggy” for much of the year, closer in character to Great Britain than Sri Lanka. You would have to be a little crazy to open up the chilly, damp, Skagit Valley to tea cultivation-enter Richard Sakuma and John Vendeland, and the birth of Sakuma Brothers Tea.

The Sakuma family began farming berries on Bainbridge Island WA possibly as early as 1910. Amongst Japanese Americans on Bainbridge Island at the time this was a fairly typical endeavor. The Sakuma’s expanded into the Skagit Valley an hour north of Seattle, and were doing fine until the U.S. went to war with Japan. Hundreds of thousands of Japanese Americans were shipped off to internment camps. Fear that they were in league with the Japanese military led to the creation of ten different internment camps all over the western United States. On Bainbridge Island it was feared that the rows of strawberry fields were oriented to point Japanese bomber pilots to nearby Bangor Naval Base in Bremerton. The Sakuma’s on Bainbridge Island were sent to Manzanar in California, and the family members in Skagit Valley ended up in Heart Mountain Wyoming.

During the internment period there was no one to watch after the farms and with no legal protection Japanese farmers had to hope their neighbors would respect their ownership. The Sakuma’s lost the farm on Bainbridge, but kind neighbors around the Skagit valley farm acted as stewards, and although it took a while, during the 1950’s and 60’s Richard Sakuma’s father and his five brothers built the farm back into a profitable operation.

Eventually management of the farm fell to Richard and six of his cousins. About fifteen years ago John Vendeland (former director of diversified agriculture for the Lipton tea company in Hawaii) approached Richard with an idea about planting tea plants in the Skagit Valley. In 1988 John had endeavored to open up areas around Portland to tea farming, but sensing that the market for the tea might be centered around the somewhat less coffee crazy Vancouver B.C. he decided to look into Northwestern Washington, just south of the Canadian border. That’s where he found a willing, and possibly visionary partner in the Sakuma’s. If this worked they would be no less than pioneers in an industry that Asia completely dominates.

The agricultural difficulties present in such an undertaking can hardly be understated. Camellia Sinensis is a temperamental plant and no one had attempted to grow tea in the northwest. Questions about what varietal to use, and where to plant it were wide open. It took the British fifty years to get tea established in Darjeeling and there was really no reason to think that it would be any easier in the northwest. In ’97 Richard and John set aside three acres on the Sakuma family farm and got to work. They planted around two dozen varietals. Most of them are likely some version of camellia sinensis assamica, which makes sense in the low lying Skagit valley considering the Assam version is native to a flatter landscape.

Because of the general wetness of Washington the first five years were a struggle to get the plants established. In 2004 they began to have plants that were viable, but during the winters of 2007-2009 they lost half to two thirds of their plants because of below zero temperatures. This may have been a blessing because the remaining plants could be counted as hardy, and equal to the conditions, but it was a huge loss none-the-less.

All the while the plants were trying to find their way Richard was faced with learning the esoteric art of processing the tea that he was growing. The first step was harvesting, and where other established tea growing regions of the world have a skilled workforce who know how to pick, Richard had to train a crew of berry pickers. In the next few years they did a good job, but the many of the workers have come and gone, which presents the unneeded difficulty of training new workers. The withering process required some experimentation, as did fixation. Richard tried using a wok to pan fry, and even a microwave to steam the tea. For black tea Richard was using a meat grinder to distress the leaves.

Early on the decision was made to stick to white and green teas because the equipment to process black tea was just too large and expensive. Then in 2008 on advice from a researcher from the University of Hawaii at Hilo where they have a tea growing program, it was determined that purchasing some processing equipment from Taiwan would improve processing results. The equipment was built to produce only oolong teas which was somewhat limiting. Green and white teas don’t require that the leaves are rolled or distressed, so they could still be considered, but black teas were effectively out of the picture. In 2009 the equipment was assembled but no one knew how to use it. The instructions were in Chinese so Richard made a trip to Taiwan to learn what he should be doing. Difficulties continued to plague the Sakuma’s tea and a fortunate meeting with Thomas Shu of ABC Tea at the Las Vegas Tea Expo convinced him to take his son to Taiwan and learn more about the art of processing tea. Soon after there was a breakthrough as the tea’s character went from grassy to floral. This was a big day as it represented a turning point. Floral qualities are among the hallmarks of high grade tea, and this meant that great tea was attainable for them.

Two years ago some of the plants produced some seeds which Richard planted and has been protectively nurturing in the greenhouse. Next spring those plants will be put in the ground. These plants might be the Western Washington super plants that John and Richard have been waiting for. If they are, this could mean that Skagit Valley has promise as a real tea producing region, and Sakuma Bros. Farms risky move into tea production could turn out to have been a visionary maneuver. Right now Richard is producing 40-60 pounds of tea per harvest. If the plants that died a few years ago are replanted with viable plants, he could double that. Additional improvements need to be made, but the base conditions will be there to produce truly high quality tea.

The tea Sakuma Bros. is producing is good tea with some great qualities. After our interview and tour, Richard was kind enough to send my wife and I home with some samples of white, oolong, and black tea. The black tea is a work in progress, but it is being used in a blend by The Jasmine Pearl of Portland OR. It has a sweet, unique flavor that will certainly find it’s way into the realm of quality teas. The oolongs are very good considering these are among the most difficult teas to produce, and the white and green teas are great. These results are a little surprising from teas that look a little unkempt next to carefully shaped Asian varieties. When drinking these teas you can sense that they are on the edge of greatness, so you can understand why Richards new plants are very exciting. My wife and I just spent some time tasting the oolongs and we both agreed that although they have some room to improve, we liked them very much. I don’t think you can ask much more from a tea garden that is only fifteen years old and the manager is learning an abstruse process from scratch. Sakuma Brothers Tea is a pioneering effort that has required a great deal of faith, but it is paying off. We’re hoping to get some of their tea to sell on our own website but it’s selling fast and we might have to wait until the next harvest.

If you don’t see Sakuma Brothers Tea on this site go to www.sakumabros.com and order some to try out for yourself.

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While searching for some information on Pu-Erh teas I discovered a documentary about David Lee Hoffman called “All in This Tea”. Having heard of David through some podcasts and interviews I immediately checked to see if this film was available on Netflix Watch Instantly (it is available).

www.lesblank.com

If you are interested in tea you will enjoy this documentary. It stays engaging through out the entire film and there’s some great info, and stories. David is an eccentric character who is doing some great work getting high end, obscure Chinese teas directly from the farmer to the consumer.

Definitely worth the watch.

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[youtube TgPmaNMReKQ]

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Two years into our relationship we decided to make an extended trip to India. Part of that trip would include visiting tea growing areas. I took on a project doing a major remodel on a house in Washington state, and we used that money to fund our trip. The three months we spent in India were absolutely amazing. We spent a good deal of time in Darjeeling and in Munnar visiting tea manufacturing facilities, plantations, and talking to people in the industry.

Our plans upon returning to the U.S. were to move to San Francisco and try to open up a tea shop. We planned on taking advantage of the connections we made in India, and specializing in Darjeeling Teas.

Having pretty much run ourselves out of money on the trip we decided to go back to our jobs in New York for a while. During that time the excitement about San Francisco faded and we needed to decide where to go. Luckily my job with the Brooklyn Guild was offering me some great opportunities, and Lauren had found a great job at Mary’s Fish Camp in the West Village.

While in India I had left my car at my brothers house in Snohomish Washington and lauren and I flew there to pick it up and drive it back to New York. On the way back I got some sort of weird laryngitis that made me feel rather poorly and compelled me to stay in Bozeman Montana for two extra days. We were staying with some of my friends, and I used the time to show Lauren around town. To my surprise she loved it and we decided to move there.

It would still be another year before we would make the move and in that time we got married (twice-once on each coast), I made three business trips to Brazil, and two to Beijing where I picked a few more useful contacts for the tea shop.

Lauren was supposed to come to China with me where we would extend my trip to make some excursions into tea country but we got her pregnant and I had to go alone.

So, right after the first wedding I packed up all of our stuff and a pregnant wife and moved us to Bozeman. We dropped our stuff in storage, drove to WA for wedding number two and then back to Montana to find ourselves a place. I started up another window cleaning business, and Lauren gave birth to a beautiful baby girl a couple of months later.

The dream of the tea shop is still alive but considering everything we’ve been doing for the past year or so, it looks like getting this website going is a bit more practical. I have been working on it in the evenings and weekends and will hopefully have it up and running by this summer.

When it’s all done it will include a wiki about tea, a forum, a tea shirt shop and a place to buy high quality teas from all over the world. We also have plans to work with The Tibetan Refugee Self Help Center in Darjeeling. We don’t exactly know how that will work yet, but it might just include donating a portion of our profits to them. They make unbelievably beautiful rugs, and maybe we can work out something where we can help to sell their rugs.

So please check out the site. There is a section in the forums where you can let us know how we are doing. If there is a feature that you would like to see added to the site, or something that is difficult to deal with, we want to know. And please keep checking back, everyday I get more of this done. When it’s already to go I want you to be a part of our community.