victoria3 wrote:
I have enjoyed reading your 3 part series on Wuyi Cliff Tea kyarazen. Lots of very interesting information, with depth and also a pleasant lightness to your narrative. While reading the first part, I managed to get a truly crappy Wuyi rock tea from a local shop in Annapolis, and later while reading part 2 I got another subpar rock tea. Both were like drinking burnt wood. Today most appropriately, Origin Tea, via Ferg, came to the rescue with an amazingly complex rich sweet broth (appropriate because it was Origin that got me hooked on oolongs in the first place).
Origin's 2004 Wuyi Hui Yuan Nei GuiDong (FengFeKeng) Tie LuoHan.
Since I can't ask Tony I revisited your text and have so far identified in the name that;
Wuyi Hui Yuan = the region
Tie Luohan ("Iron Warrior Monk") is the varietal & your #8 Naming by legend
I haven't come up with a translation of/meaning of Nei GuiDong (FengFeKeng) must be 2-7 on your list
Thanks Again for an interesting read that is acting as a gateway towards China.
hmm. possibly a tieluohan cultivar from Guidong that was planted in Hui Yuan in the region of (Feng Fe Keng?<--do you haz the chinese words for this? its not one of the major "kengs" in the region).
Guidong or Ghost Cave is a super cool place and the real tea from this exact location is quite untouchable, its not about money, the supply's too little! heard that wisteria's zhouyu was treated to a brew of ghost cave's tieluohan the last time he went up.
the ghost cave is actually not a ghost cave, it is just a narrow "valley" zone bordered by Dao Shui keng (reverse flow crevice) , Huo yan feng (fiery peak) , hui yuan keng, yin zui yan (eagle beak cliff). it can be divided into "inner and outer" zones, and the narrow valley appears to allow only for single direction wind flow, and the compression of the air through this valley leads to ghostly howling, so the name. Ghost Cave/Hole.
Ghost cave is the origin spot for the cultivar of tie luohan and baijiguan. subsequently these cultivars were transplanted all over different regions in the wuyi mountains.
thats pretty cool that you have a sample of yancha from 2004. the quality should be pretty good, and at the past 10 year mark, the "yun wei" 韵味 would be at its prime.
amongst the wuyi tea farmers/factory owners/tea pple, there's a perspective/opinion put forth that yanchas not like pu-erh, there's an optimal peak for yancha in the storage/aging phase, before the quality recedes rather steeply.