1980s Dongding

Another cold snap, some snowfall, and suddenly England has come to halt. The slightest deviation from mildness in either hot or cold direction typically results in extreme effects on society. With the snow, all manner of halted trains, closed schools, and so on. You wouldn't believe our ancestors were Angles and Jutes.

With the cold weather, some aptly-named Dongding [frozen summit]. This type of tea just happens to be the first "real" Chinese tea that I ever had.

Visiting China on a conference some years ago, Lei and I sat at a tea-merchant's table, trying a Dongding. It was unlike anything else I'd ever tried, being raised on Darjeelings, Assam, Nilgiri, and Ceylon, like most other English. I'd had Twinings "Oolong" and "Gunpowder" before, but those flavourless green husks bore little resemblance to the delights that the tea vendor served up. Dongding was my first step, and I clearly remember the fragrance and flavour of that tea session, many years later, as if it were just last week.

This particular Dongding was picked over 20 years prior to that first encounter with Dongding, and is more traditional, being more significant in roast. It was bought in Taiwan, but I know not where nor at what price.

Aged wulong is a pleasant thing, and feels entirely neutral on the stomach. My diet in tea usually consists of two parts hongcha (which is quite warm on the stomach) to one part shengpu (old and new, being warm and cold, respectively) to one part shupu (very warm on the stomach).

This old fellow was dominated by its roast, and it must have been through a lot of them. It held nicely in the throat, with a solid, sweet presence that Lei and I both enjoyed.

It needed a lot of leaves, and long infusions, to get solid character and chaqi out of the leaves, and we were soon brewing for many minutes. What chaqi exists was soothing, friendly, quite charming, and not one to over-analyse.

That old Dongding butteriness took me back to that first encounter in China once more, and all was well in the world.

That strikes me as a good tea session.