Mr. Chen's Heritage Wenshan Bao Zhong Spring Tea, Lot 1024

We all know tea is more than a bush, a leaf in a bag, and a beverage. It’s also a craft through which the maker’s story is infused. Sometimes, the story that’s being told in your cup is one that goes beyond the realm of the present moment. In very rare circumstances, it can reach out through time and gives us a sense of the history behind a type of tea, a terroir, and, if you’re lucky, a country’s heritage. This is when it becomes a true multi-dimensional experience and this is certainly the feeling we got from our first encounter with Mr. Chen’s Heritage Bao Zhong. Mr. Chen is 94 years old. He was born under the Japanese occupation and was 18 when they left the island in 1945. At about the same, time he started working in tea in the hills not far from Pinglin next to the family’s ancestral stone house where he still resides and continues, to this day, to practice his craft with the help of his son and daughter-in-law (not the other way around!). Apart from the few mobile phones laid on the furniture, stepping into his house is like visiting a living museum of rural life in Wenshan. Tasting his Bao Zhong tea offers the same experience which can also be reproduced in your own home! His Bao Zhong tea is slightly more oxidized, like it used to be, before today’s trend to greener teas. This imparts another layer of mineral complexity to the tea and a rounder texture. Still, the aroma of buttered green beans with distinctive floral overtones is definitely there. Nothing aggresses the senses. Just like everywhere else in Taiwan, Mr. Chen’s small garden was affected by the drought and only half the usual yield was produced this spring. What we also learned when visiting him in April is that he hasn’t used any pesticides in his garden for the last 2 years. For the love of Bao Zhong tea but also for the love of Taiwan, and Mr. Chen, you must experience this tea.