'The Other' Baozhong regions.

[tenuki]

I received a gift of competition baozhong last week that I immediately assumed was wenshan pinglin, but upon closer inspection there was some doubt. This led me to find information on the original growing region of baozhong 'Nangang' which I thought was interesting enough to share, as well as some other regions.

http://www.ed.taipei.gov.tw/cgi-bin/SM_ ... e=46a031bd
http://mag.udn.com/mag/newsstand/storyp ... _ID=194578


btw: the tea was excellent!


ps: From my research it looks like Xindian (新店), Pinglin (坪林), Shenkeng (深坑), Shiding (石碇), Pingxi (平溪) and Xizhi (汐止) are the main baozhong growing regions, in case you need a guide to the characters.

[Victoria]

Thanks for the links. When might we find this other baozhong available?

[tenuki]

Thanks for the links. When might we find this other baozhong available?

No idea, I don't recall ever seeing any of those regions available online or in the US. But that is probably due to my general ignorance. It may be similar to a while back when all tea exported was marked as coming from Nangang regardless of origin that all baozhong exports today are listed as wenshan? I'll ask my tea buyer friends.

The particular container I have is clearly marked Wenshan baozhong (文山包種) in large letters. But elsewhere it has the growing location listed as Shiding (石碇), so it would be really easy to miss this I think. The reason I picked up on it was that it was competition tea and the tags were not Pinglin competition tags, which I'm familiar with...

Another interesting discovery was that in the competition tag the year was listed as 97, however a chinese friend pointed out it was the years since 1911, or 2008. Apparently this is commonly practiced in Taiwan (reference).

[Intuit]

Second article specifically says, 2 harvests, winter and spring for the Nangang baozhong, not much different than Wenshan, as they're part of Taipai county...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taipei_County

except for that little mention of 'rock mineral' as a special characteristic of Nangang baozhong. Two characteristics mentioned, resistance to overbrewing and stability/storability.

Now that might give us a clue on why some baozhongs can be successfully aged. Soil and underlying rock mineral chemistry must play a role in the longterm stability of the tea cultivar used in Nangang baozhong.

Cool articles!

"About 150 years ago there was a man named Xi Cheng Wang from the Fukien Province of Mainland China. He use to produce Baochon Tea into Anxi Tea by following the method of the Wuyiyan Tea. After it was produced all the tea leaves were folded into a rectangular shape and was pcked in the bamboo writing paper of Fukien in the same rectangular shape. The name of the tea and the store was marked with a seal in the outer part of the package. That's how the name ' Baochon' came into being ('bao' means 'wrapping' or 'packing' and 'chon' means 'type' or 'seal')."
http://travel.mapsofworld.com/taiwan/to ... -park.html

[tenuki]

except for that little mention of 'rock mineral' as a special characteristic of Nangang baozhong. Two characteristics mentioned, resistance to overbrewing and stability/storability.

I tasted my gift tea with Shuiwen, owner of Floating Leaves Tea prior to doing this research. She's the one who verified to me that it wasn't from pinling, pointed out the probable set of characters that signified it's location and gave me the info on the 97 date.

We both observed that it seemed to have a bit more 'tea power' than a lot of baozhongs, stronger flavors and thicker feel. I would hesitate to call it 'better' in general, but for me it has characteristics I like most in baozhongs. Also Shiuwen thought (and I did too) that it would be a great tea for aging, as a 2008 it was still fresh, no signs of being stale. We did identify that mineral note as well so I can state that without even looking for it or knowing it is there it pops out. Interesting stuff.

This gift as been a great learning catalyst.

[Intuit]

I though the description of the leaves (knotted ropes) was intriguing. Can you take a look at the two baozhongs, yours and FTL Pinglin village cultivars, and see if the wet and dry leaf looks significantly different?

According to various blogs/webpages that parrot the same information, there are three 'main varieties' of baozhong: Wenshan, Nangang and Lanyang, with Wenshan being the largest production area.

Reading about the history of the tea and the way it was produced was neat.

Also the article points about using porcelain and how the locals brew it was helpful.

Heh. Now that you've whetted our appetites for this tea, where do we find it??

[tenuki]

Thanks for the links. When might we find this other baozhong available?

Update: Shiuwen at FLT had some from Nangang (? i think ?) right after her trip - you might see if she still has any. It's not on her website, but if you call you can ask. It has the same extra 'umph'™ and mineral note that the tea I was gifted had so it would give you an idea of that original growing region's special flavor. I liked it.

[Victoria]

Yep, having some this morning.
It's great!

[tenuki]

Yep, having some this morning.
It's great!

Yummy eh? I was in to FLT tuesday and Shiuwen said she was sold out of the nangang baozhong. I think she's planning on adding it to her regular tea buying though, we'll see.

[Victoria]

Ack! I just wrote to her. Ok, thanks!