Tea farm.

[TeamanRS125]

Has anyone ever been to china or other places to an actual tea farm? I think its on my bucket list to visit china to see the whole process of tea making.

[wyardley]

I think the thing you will find is that during actual tea making, most tea farmers are too busy actually making tea to show people around.

Taiwan does have some agritourism type places that have actual working farms but also do show you the process of tea making.

You might consider the Floating Leaves tea tour, especially if you or someone you're traveling with doesn't have pretty good Mandarin speaking skills. I have not gone myself, but a friend of mine went at my suggestion, and had a good experience.

[Evan Draper]

Has anyone ever been to china or other places to an actual tea farm? I think its on my bucket list to visit china to see the whole process of tea making.

I was very excited to go to the Charleston Tea Plantation in South Carolina many years ago and I had a great time. There are also many great videos (and photos and books) out there of tea making in China and other places. [The book "Puer Tea" by Jinghong Zhang is a great place to start, and those by Jason Chen.] I think those things sated my early desire to visit a Chinese tea farm a good deal. I would still like to experience Chinese tea manufacture up close, but I am glad I have gained some circumspection about the whole thing before spending the thousands of dollars required. Like W says, tea farmers are farmers, and they are burdened with practical considerations that are very different from the mystical enthusiasm we tea drinkers bring to the process. Sometimes it's useful to be shown that we're just talking about the dried leaves of a bush that grows in the ground.

[Risdt]

I worked on a teafarm for a couple of days in Migjiang, Taiwan. I barely speak any Mandarin and he barely any English but we got along really well. We got introduced through a common friend on couchsurfing. What I did realise is that teamaking is hard work and the romance/mystical aspect of tea completely disappeared. They are farmers and act like farmers, they don't care about your fancy '60ies hongni teapot because most of the drinking they do is just competition tasting style. What surprised me the most was their incredible tasting abilities where they could refer to the proces where it went wrong or what could be improved. It is a experience I highly recommend.

[wyardley]

What I did realise is that teamaking is hard work and the romance/mystical aspect of tea completely disappeared. They are farmers and act like farmers, they don't care about your fancy '60ies hongni teapot

Or, as a winemaker friend of mine says, "it takes a lot of beer to make good wine".

[Da Hong Pao]

I'm sure there are many readers on her who have been at least one tea farm/plantation. I went to China in 2012, saw plantation puer bushes, (as well as a some old trees) bushes used for Hong Cha too. I saw a Yellow Tea garden in Sichuan as well as a few green tea gardens in the Eastern part of the country.

If you are a casual tourist it might be more difficult to find a connection. However, If you have money and want to see something then I'm sure you will find it easy. Knowing at least a little bit of the language can save you from spending too much money for poor information and sights.

Your interest in tea alone should bridge the gap between culture/language barriers.

[kyarazen]

checkout wang jian rong of hang zhou
http://english.teamuseum.cn/
http://english.teamuseum.cn/ViewContent ... tentId=844

when he was here he presented some slides on their activities pertaining to the 中国国际茶文化研究会 (china international tea culture research association), where there are organized activities to plantations, making tea etc.

i never did follow up though.