GLOBAL EA HUT Tea & Tao Magazine 國際茶亭 March 2019 皇 太 子 的 森 林 Lao Banzhang GLOBAL EA HUT ContentsIssue 86 / March 2019 Tea & Tao Magazine Forest森林王子 Prince Lao Banzhang is the most famous, pricey and controversial region in Yunnan, and a must-see stop on the journey of any puerh lover. We are Love is very excited to dive deeper into this important re- gion, all the while sipping from strong cups of one changing the world of the best, most valuable puerh teas that we have ever shared! bowl by bowl Features特稿文章 17 Lao Banzhang: The Prince of Yunnan By Luo Ying Yin (羅英銀) 25 25 Xin “New” Banzhang By Luo Ying Yin (羅英銀) 33 The Changing Market of Lao Banzhang By Lin En Zhao (林恩照) 51 The “Origins” of Tea 17 By Sam Gibb 33 Traditions 古茶 03 Tea of the Month Forest Prince, 2018 Sheng Puerh, Lao Banzhang, Yunnan, China 27 Gongfu Teapot 51 The Shape of the Teapot * ancient tea roots found By Shen Su (聖素) at the Tian Luo Shan site 39 Cha Dao The Elixir of Life 無的 森 By Wu De ( ) © 2019 by Global Tea Hut 林 All rights reserved. 61 TeaWayfarer Frederik Wallin, Sweden 王 recycled & recyclable No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval sys- 子 tem or transmitted in any form or by any means: electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other- wise, without prior written permis- Soy ink sion from the copyright owner. n March, theFrom weather in Taiwan starts to warmthe up, of you feel like youeditor need to reach some level of expertise to and though it does rain a lot in the end of the month, share your experience, but nothing could be further from the temperature is wonderful. The world comes alive the truth—we are all students here, and all beginners. And at this time, and everything blooms and blossoms as such, we can all stand to benefit from the beginner’s per- Iisland-wide. Taiwan is very vibrant in this month. We really spective. You may not be able to write a scholarly article feel the shift from the cool, dark Yin of winter to the Yang about some very specific aspect of tea knowledge, science of spring starting after the Lunar New Year in February. or history, but you can share your experience and wisdom Of course, those who live in areas with four seasons feel this serving tea, learning about tea, fostering community, the shift much more pronouncedly, but this is really the only effects of tea on your self-cultivation, on your career or ro- seasonal transition we have in Taiwan: from warm to the mantic life and so on. You do have a voice, and you do have cool of winter and then back in the spring. This means we experience, strength, wisdom and hope to share! And we do start drinking young sheng from last year, tasting the age. want to read it! It would mean a lot to me if more of you We also like white and green teas now and again, as well as submitted articles this year. lots of oolong. This month, we are going to dive into a very import- This year’s Annual Global Tea Hut trip is right around ant topic for anyone who loves puerh tea: Lao Banzhang, the corner, from April 14th to the 24th. We are all super ex- a mountain/region in Yunnan where very fine tea comes cited to gather with tea lovers from around the world and from. As a result of the unique character of the tea from travel through the history of tea, walking in the footsteps of Banzhang—which is very strong, vibrant and full of ener- the “Tea Saint,” Lu Yu. We will be traveling from Shanghai gy—the area has achieved great fame. The tea is superb to to Zhejiang, and to Yixing as well. As usual, we will do our drink and wonderful to age, leading to a great demand for best to take all of you along with us for the ride, capturing Banzhang tea that far exceeds what the small area can pro- video and photographs, writing articles about the trip and duce. As a result, prices have skyrocketed. And with that thinking of all of you who wanted to join us, but couldn’t, fame have come all kinds of challenges, including fake tea, by saying prayers and raising bowls of tea for you as we go. environmental issues, decreases in quality due to the fast I wanted to use this forum to make a plea to all of you growth and tremendous influx of money and many more for the coming year(s) of our shared Global Tea Hut ex- issues. Though there still are stunning tea trees at the center perience: please participate more! Of course, this means of the whirlwind that is now “Lao Banzhang,” it is easy to sharing tea and sharing the word about this magazine. (Do get lost in all the hoopla. We hope that this issue will help you know that if everyone in Global Tea Hut got just one you to begin exploring this magical region of Yunnan and friend to join, and we therefore doubled in size, we could also be a warning about some of the problems that great de- start building Light Meets Life right away?) Many of you mand can cause to natural resources. And (we can’t believe are already doing this, and we are so incredibly grateful. it), we will be drinking a Lao Banzhang tea throughout our Let us know if there is any way we can help you spread the journey! word, like using our photography, writing, extra magazine copies and sometimes we can even send extra tins of tea you can use. Let’s all work together to grow the membership of Global Tea Hut this year like never before! Help us with our social media campaign and with word of mouth so that Wu De we can continue improving the magazine with more travel, better teas and more translations. Also, our ultimate goal is, obviously, to build your Tea Center, Light Meets Life: a place where you can come and study tea. It will be a flag for all Chajin around the world and for future generations of tea lovers to use as well. –Further Reading– Beyond just spreading the word about Global Tea Hut, one of the ways that you can participate is by writing for the magazine. We really, truly and absolutely do want to This month, we highly recommend re-reading the hear from you. Throughout the years, at least half of my special Extended Edition from September 2014 personal top ten articles for this magazine are from what we (the first-ever Extended Edition), which is jam- call “Voices from the Hut,” which means articles submit- packed with information on puerh tea. You can ted by the readership on all kinds of topics. I genuinely am find past issues archived on the website with an inspired by them and learn a lot. I think that maybe some easy-to-use search function! 2 of the ver the course of this month, we will be exploring has been swallowed). As a result, it has become famous the Lao Banzhang region of Yunnan, which means throughout the world. To tea lovers, Banzhang Village has the “Old” Banzhang Village (there is a “New” one become one of the holy places of puerh tea. as well). Lao Banzhang produces excellent old-growth mao- For a long time, we have wanted to translate some ar- cha every year and has for centuries. In modern times, it ticles about Lao Banzhang, but we were unsure of how we has become incredibly famous and extremely valuable (the could ever share some tea with you since the prices are so most expensive puerh each year), which has caused a lot astronomical. We let all of our friends and tea family know of challenges for local tea producers, as producers all over that we were interested in anything remotely affordable even Yunnan fake Lao Banzhang tea. They say that Lao Banzhang years ago, knowing that there was a growing body of great can only produce roughly seven tons of tea annually, but articles written by puerh experts that we could translate at more than 3,000 tons of tea labeled as “Lao Banzhang” are any time. Eventually the wait paid off: Forest Prince. sold every year in the largest puerh market in Guangzhou, Forest Prince is certified organic tea from Lao Banzhang, called “Fangcun Market (芳村市場).” The village has had to grown in an eco-garden, which means rich biodiversity. It is erect a wall and build guarded gates to prevent people from much more affordable than the best Lao Banzhang tea, how- bringing in tea from other regions to sell as “Banzhang” ever, as it is produced from young trees—averaging thirty tea, and has taken other steps to prevent forgery. In all of to forty years old. But even with the great discount, it is still this noise, some of the quality of the tea has sadly been dis- expensive relative to other young sheng puerhs, which are rupted, as have the lives of the villagers. all expensive nowadays. This is one of the most valuable Despite all the chaos and market demand (which far ex- teas we have ever shared in Global Tea Hut, and it would ceeds production) there is real quality behind Lao Banzhang not have been possible without the kind generosity of a dear tea.