Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Sun Moon's Black Tea

Long years have passed; yours in the Way, mine in worldly life.
I am fortunate to speak with you this autumn.
Drinking fragrant tea until late,
Painful though parting be, I bow to you as I see
you off to distant clouds.

- Emperor Saga 嵯峨天皇
(February 8, 785 – August 24, 842) 52nd emperor of Japan
 
  
 
 

Black tea was introduced in Taiwan during the Japanese period in the 1920's when assamica variety, mostly from Burma, was introduced. After much research Sun Moon Lake area was chosen to be the area for black tea cultivation because of its climatic conditions.

Long years have passed and black tea has come on its own in Taiwan. Some of those plants were crossed with the local Taiwanese wild varieties Camellia sinensis forma formosensis. A prime example of this being Hong Yue 红玉, a hybrid of a Burmese and a local Taiwanese cultivar. This is a fragrant tea with an amazing flavour profile is now one of the most well known teas of Taiwan: a true, living national treasure if there ever was one.


I was fortunate to "have a conversation" with Liao Mayor Black Tea Storyland at Sun Moon Lake in the spring of 2014. It was a fascinating place where the story of black tea in Taiwan is told in a simple but very effective way. Here one can try various types of black tea at the tea bar and even eat tea flavoured ice cream or buy tea and tea ware. In another but contiguous section, a museum of old tea machines and history of black tea are displayed.

How I wished that we could have something similar in Nepal.
........... Painful though parting be, I bow to you as I see you off to distant clouds.


Images:
An aesthetically done shrine to black tea at Liao Mayor Black Tea Storyland at Sun Moon Lake, Taiwan. (March 2014)


1 comment:

  1. Yes, you may have something similar in Nepal becuase you are making the tea story ...

    ReplyDelete