Taiwan Tea Guy

I had a real treat at A-Liang’s shop the other day. A friend had introduced him to a Mainland Chinese tea master who was visiting Taiwan, and he received a parting gift of some Original Da Hung Pao tea. I’m not too familiar with this particular tea, but I felt the story was interesting enough to justify a post, and the creation of a new category as well. You be the judge.

During the Ch’ing Dynasty,  the mother of one of the emperors fell ill. She couldn’t eat, had no energy, and seemed to be slowly dying. The court physicians tried everything they could, but to no avail. The Emperor searched everywhere for a curative, but  people were afraid they would be punished if a suggested remedy failed and so remained silent.

Finally, in desperation, the Emperor disguised himself and went out among the people. While traveling through the Wu Yi mountains of Fujian province, he met a local farmer revered for his knowledge of plants. He explained his need (without revealing who he was, of course) and the farmer took him to a place with three trees growing together on a hillside. They picked the leaves of the trees and made a tea from them. The farmer told the Emperor to have his mother drink the tea several times a day and she would get well.

Of course, the Emperor was very excited, and immediately returned home with the tea. His mother drank it and (naturally) quickly regained her appetite and made a full recovery. In gratitude to the farmer, the Emperor sent his imperial robe to Fujian, instructing his emmisary to tie it around the three trees as a symbol of their honor and the Emperor’s protection. From that time forward, “Da Hung Pao” (translates as ‘Big Red Cloak/Robe’) was the special tea drink of the royal court.

In more modern times, cuttings were taken from the trees and transplanted, thus increasing production so that more people could enjoy this unique tea. The samples given to A-Liang were said to be “Di Yi Dai”, meaning, “from the original trees” - not from the newer generations.  I have a review coming up soon in Tea Reports, with more photos and analysis. And of course, A-Liang being A-Liang, I ended up with my own sample box to take home, which I think I’ll save for the next time I get really sick!!

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 31st, 2008 at 3:12 am and is filed under Interesting Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.