Tea: The Story of a Leaf - Episode 1 - The Spirit of Tea

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] what is tea well it's a drink take this tea tea a Guanyin from Fujian province an expensive but a lovely tea I remember having a pot of that 11 o'clock in the evening in Hangzhou next to Westlake I didn't sleep until 3 o'clock in the morning tea is also a plant camellia sinensis the culture of the tea leaf and its preparation became an indivisible part of the character of China from the earliest chapters of Chinese history join us as we follow a tea trial across China from the tribal belong and ethnically diverse yunnan province to a quest by an italian lady for her perfect cup of Long Jing tea amid the plantations on the other side of China in Hangzhou once championed by the Qianlong Emperor himself launching to the name means dragon well tea in English it's one of China's most celebrated infusions grown near the namesake village of Long Jing in the hills outside the capital of Jiujiang province an unoxidized tea when infused in hot water the leaves impart a delightful yellow-green color to the brew sweet in flavor and packed with health enhancing properties and cancer-preventing secrets until only a few years ago longing tea was entirely handmade we're also wished away to the monastic magic of munging mountain and the time-honored techniques that gently but insistently bring out the full flavor of tea and on to explore lapsang souchong from tamil in the mystery of we mountains of Fujian this black tea the first black tea in history called Li Shan see Aldrin in mandarin it's pine wood fired which imparts a special smokiness to the tea in a technique discovered fortuitously hundreds of years ago this is a golden full-color tea with all the delicate fragrance of pine wood smoke then we leave the mountains of Southeast China for high-altitude Tibet where fermented tea is sipped by monks on the roof of the world before bringing you to a 300 year old tea tree on the slopes of timer mountain where man and tree have lived in a state of mutual respect imbalance for centuries and by how Yin gen white hair Silver Needle tea from fooding and Fujian province the most desirable white tea drunk for its anti-inflammatory and antibacterial effects as well as for its flavor of course the leaves remain upright when water is added hence the name tea production well it's both the science and an art and indeed you could say it's a work of alchemy the transmutation of soil air light and heat into a rarified fragrance brought to the surface by galaxies of ancient skills still working in parallel with a modern array of techniques the aroma captured in a single drop of tea concludes a long and painstaking journey of hard work and determination but it's also a journey of gentle respect and patient empathy for the tea leaf and its vulnerabilities so again what is tea join us on this mesmerizing journey across China and find out [Music] II a tea leaf falls into water and changes the taste of it and forth tea was born [Music] t was born from the encounter between water and fire life and death [Music] the fate of tea is the fate of our people [Music] me every year in March Sugo went and his family harvest the spring tea leaves anjing my mountain in yunnan the tea leaves come from the ancient tea forests of jing my mountain these are the best tea leaves to make you non-party suka when is the son of the last chief of the blond people his people believe that they descended from the spirit of tea although most of the tea leaves from Jing my mountain are pressed into tea bricks belong people mostly drink tea made from loose leaves that have been stored for a year or more when it comes to making tea in our culture we usually make couch ah from fresh tea leaves the tools used to brew couch ah were all made from the earth the tea leaves are shaken and mixed with charcoal this is done to get rid of the impurities that are inherent in the tea leaves and to draw out the fragrance of the leaves when people here would go to work on the field but if they forgot they need to get rid of their fatigue ha that's why tea is such an inseparable part of Leung people's lives [Music] tea brewed from these ancient trees is strong in flavor it is extremely bitter at first taste but as the flavor rolls around the tongue it quickly fills the palate with a sweet aftertaste Sugo wen and his tribe have lived in this virgin forest for generations during the Ice Age the cold waves stopped at the Tibetan Plateau preserving the ancient trees that existed at that time the earliest tea trees were found in this virgin forest [Music] the fateful encounter between humans and the wild tea trees has become a myth in the oral tradition of the people here a story passed down through generations and now woven into the memory fabric of the nation [Music] in mid-april that's the spring harvest on June my mountain draws to a close the plum people celebrate the biggest festival of the year the T ancestor festival every year we celebrate the T ancestor festival for the smaller most festivities happen on the 16th the big rich most festivities will happen on the 17th every body will go to the top of the mountain and sacrifice and homes to our ancestors sue Colin's father died in 1988 before he died he told sue goin to do three things build a school in the blog mountain write a history of the blong people and build a temple for the spirit of t sue go in has accomplished these three things only by knowing how what was told you and the rain will he be able to repay his debt to his ancestors and family only by doing so well he find his medium in life have we [Music] Kishu the 76 year old sugah when believes that the spirits of his ancestors are still present in this forest [Music] every time we start a new tea plantation we'll name the oldest tree in the garden there's a spirit tree we place spirit staffs next to these trees which we consider the garden trees of the garden the festival of the tea spirit is held every four years during this festival the blonde people of jing-mei Mountain will congregate in the PI lung temple there that villagers use spring water soaked in tea to wash the statues in the temple then they offer their best new leaves to their ancestral prints the ancestral prints of the blong people is paw I'll um according to legend he discovered the medicinal properties of tea leaves eighteen hundred years ago when his people were struck with an epidemic because of these leaves he managed to save his entire people [Music] [Music] we're going to the Tanya mountain to summon the teaspoons we believe that in every reason we land where there is a tea tree there's also a tea spirit we want to summon all the tea spirits to celebrate this day with us when they gave us wealth every generation of the pong people whole needs to remember that I must not forget this [Music] we hope they will come back and protect us knowing that all the ancient tea trees that grow around here the ancient tea trees that stretch from the southwest to the southeast of China have been cultivated over the years - the shrub form that we know today the cultivation of these tea shrubs has made it easier to harvest the tea leaves the many varieties of tea leaves from these shrubs are what has made Chinese tea famous the world over I guess here 25 years ago during the winter it was really cool when she I arrived on the 22nd of January in 1987 Mooji meaning here since then carbon Ella Bonello was originally from Italy she now uses a Chinese name Tong Eun I'm Italian of course I love coffee thing but since I came to China I started drinking tea we Ignatia her child Long Jing is her favorite variety of Chinese tea Long Jing is her favorite variety of Chinese tea unlike other foreigners the longing tea in the Beijing tea houses cannot satisfy her in April of 2013 Tania and goes to Hangzhou she's here to spend the tea season with a family of tea growers [Music] during the spring harvest every year some to growers will receive tea lovers as guests these tea lovers come in search of the best team they want to experience what it takes to make a good cup of tea they live and work with the tea growers during this time in the areas south of the Yangtze River they are known as tea Kindred's tongan is the tea kindred of this long jing grower uncle Chen we don't keep old leaves 2015 is the first stage it will be the highest quality leaves they will taste better we need to paint the leaves in the middle of Julie it doesn't matter how big my fingers have turned black yes tea picking is really tiring he wakes with 6:00 in the morning to go to the plantation then we come back for lunch after lunch from you return to the plantation and until it gets later to your Beach you though it's a really tiring job [Music] lounging refers to the tea the place the village and its spring the ancient Chinese believed that a dragon resided in this well and that is why it is known as Long Jing the dragon well the tea growers of Long Jing village are very knowledgeable about the tea in their free time they love chatting with teen lovers who come from afar this place is heavens gift to us Long Jing tea growers when Emperor Qianlong came here a few years ago he stopped a bulging village after he tried the tea here but you know he didn't say anything he but got three years later he can be further and faster downtown even rose about dragons well tea that was a piece of history she left here nice [Music] susannah tea leaves are mostly produced with machines today but just 15 years ago lounging tea was entirely handmade there was electricity how did you fire the leaves back then used firewood when we first started there were only 16 we didn't know how to fire the tea leaves so they put us to work making the fire vaunting tea is a type of unoxidized green tea green tea is one of the most popular types of tea in China people love green tea for its lightness and color it has also become increasingly popular for its health enhancing properties especially for its ability to prevent cancer bonjah ng T is yellow green in color the lightness of its color reminds one of Chinese ink paintings launching tea has a gentle sweet taste the tea growers put it in more rustic terms it has the fragrance of lightly fried fava beans it is a pleasure for the senses Chinese people's drink tea all the time your facial aging tea all day I should make some calm and balanced I think they used each even out their emotions to create another level of consciousness see that's what I like about it too decision [Music] there is a long history of drinking tea in China in Szechuan a contract dating from the Han Dynasty was discovered recently which detailed the duties of servants at the time going to the market to buy tea making tea for their masters and cleaning the tools to make tea the tea houses in Sichuan are always crowded the workers try not to bother the customers by getting too close to them because of that somebody came up with an ingenious invention the long pot pouring tea from the long pot has evolved into a beautiful art form of its own featuring a series of 18 moves my name is Yong Eason I'm a fourth year student at the University I've been learning the long journey three years now I first started learning about tea pot from my parents my parents really love drinking tea the city chengdu is one big tea house every tea house there is a microcosm of Chengdu the first time I saw the ceremony I would look so cool doing it you need to practice a lot harder to master passage be careful just keep practicing sure me need to try harder alright alright try again why wouldn't you teach me that move can't do it anyway why do it you just can't not as fast as everyone else I'll practice hard even if you practice hard you're not strong enough Shu the teacher tells Dungey Shin that to master the ceremony one must first learn more about tea 100 kilometers away in yaaaaa there is a mountain called mung ding Mountain according to legend a man named allegiant planted these 70 trees 2,000 years ago during the Western Han Dynasty his descendants built a tea garden around these seven trees and called it the Imperial tea garden it has been known since then that good tea is made from the water of the Yangtze River and the leaves from mung ding Mountain Sun Yi Shin is looking for a person who lives on monk ding mountain to give you two answers all you need to quiet in your mind if the tea news here every day [Music] this man is chunky Anton he is old enough to be Chong Easons grandfather more than 10 years ago he created his own version of the long pot ceremony and passed it down to his son Cheng Bo but what chung chien Qin is really good at is producing tea sonny shin has come at the busiest time of the year here at the mountain this is the season when Cheng needs to produce a special type of tea leaf that hardly anyone produces anymore it involves a difficult method of production and meticulous picking the TV's we're picking today will be used to make Wan Jia tea and the leaves need to be between 1.5 to 2 millimeters in length make sure you flush them don't squeeze them these leaves are usually used to make high-grade green tea but Jiang Shi Anton is going to make a sombre yellow tea out of these leaves instead this is going to take much more work and time the initial fire has to be over 160 degrees your hand should be a foot above the basin you need to feel the heat the leaves need to be fired by hand in a pan for 4 to 5 minutes this dries the leaves and stops the oxidization process doing this how's the Ming Dynasty the initial firing is to get rid of the smell of chlorophyll it's fragrance will bloom after it is fired to oxidize our tea leaves we heat them together so that it won't oxidize more than 15% every time we fire a batch of leaves we need to wrap them up with straw paper the paper is porous so the leaves were oxidized too much if you use some other cloth to wrap it you might ruin the leaves this is an ancient tradition nobody knows why it works but we know that they look and taste better when you do this yellow tea is a very delicate type of tea it has the fragrance of green tea but with an added suppleness the temperatures at which it is processed need to be controlled precisely this is hard to do even for experienced tea producers you know that it needs 36 hours to transform [Music] geunji and hit didn't actually grow up on this mountain but he in the mountain are old friends and he knows it like the back of his hand after all he's been here for 50 years this temple was built as the Three Kingdoms over 1000 years ago the and it was actually really tool a planet of all back ok but in 1963 about 100 of us came here over chengdu how to start a tea plantation so you weren't born at the time our legacy identity or father is even born of the tiny Betty we missed in this temple for 10 years there were 200 to 300 of us living Elizabeth we were the ones who started the plantation is around this place in the past 30 trays all around satanical now the monks would charm to make tea at the same time DBH was ha [Music] historically most of the tree gardens here belong to the temples the monks believe that planting tea making tea and drinking tea were all part of the Buddhist way of life [Music] after the tea leaves have been oxidized for 36 hours they are fired once again the tea leaves that come out are yellow when steeped they make a yellow tea compared to green tea yellow tea is more oxidized and has a warmer and milder taste it is the perfect tea for people who have a sensitive stomach yellow tea is complex to produce one slight mistake and the tea is ruined today yellow tea is produced in Sichuan Yunnan and onwe province it is a subtle reticent tea when we brew a cup of tea he pees he leaves always float on toxin first or slowly sinking down sneak on with those that induce people are just like leaves are still green and immature with floating near the sea but after we gain more experience and knowledge as it would slowly sink down to the bottom [Music] [Applause] during the springtime in tongue move village in lui Mountain the smell of pine wood smoke lingers in the air to most tea manufacturers this smell completely destroys the flavour of tea but to the tea producers in tongue move this smoky smell is the best smell in the world it is the secret in fact to the first black tea in history lapsang souchong [Music] don't shut every morning the end of the lapsang souchong technique jung-hyun should samples t ruled from leaves that were processed a night before to determine their grade the tea leaves are judged by the smokiness of the tea and the strength of their lungs on taste okay [Music] two A's one good more than 300 years ago the first black tea in history was invented in this remote village the story of its invention has been passed down for generations I mean at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the chain on his - he's an army was passing through a tornado the people living around as they'd never seen soldiers before are you so they completely forgot all about their dear lives Yukon the second day the villagers looked at their tea leaves and realize that they were completely changing this oxidizing the amazing rush to find them so and then roll and roast them what he feeds off after they were roasting the color of the leaves turned at laddies about why the tea that they smooth was red it didn't look like green tea at all anymore they thought that they had ruined the tea but they'd already was so hard for the scallion see here so they just sent it to season season had a lot of hulking merchants at the time so they just gave the tea to these merchants and asked them to try to sell it so the fuzzum here the whole kids merchants came back to my family and told them we managed to sell your tea from last year we even got double that usual price for it which he even sold it other than green tea what the Europeans especially like your tea to see today black tea makes up 80% of the tea produced in the world when it spread to the West the English called it black tea in Chinese black tea refers to another type of tea fermented tea [Music] in Tibetan literature fermented tea is described as a sea of deal in the mountains of the Tibetan Plateau the air is thin and fruits are scarce the Tibetans drink tea to get rid of grease and to maintain their fiber intake for the nomadic tribes of Tibet Chin's young and inner mongolia fermented tea is an essential part of their lives Suitland ancient fermented tea production methods have existed for thousands of years in such one Yunnan Hunan whoo Bay and Guang XI during the spring two weeks after harvesting the first shoots of the season the tea growers in Ya'an Sichuan begin harvesting leaves to make fermented tea the big tea leaves are usually discarded and other types of tea but these leaves are the main ingredient for fermented tea because it is hard to pick these leaves by hand tea Pickers use a special knife this tea also became known as knife tea black tea has the longest production process out of all the types of tea to bring out its distinctive flavor and to shape the leaves properly the older leaves have to be rolled repeatedly this was done with manual labor and it took a great amount of effort before modern machinery was invented today only the old tea masters in Yuans Changsha village still used the traditional manual rolling methods the leaves are steamed to soften them they are then put into sacks so that they don't cut the tea producers the traditional rolling technique requires a wooden plank this technique needs to be repeated three times the teammate from this technique is completa lucha has been designated as an intangible cultural heritage today modern assembly line production has come to replace the traditional methods of producing fermented tea fermented tea is unique and that the leaves are heaped together for fermentation the moisture from the tea leaves the pressure from heaping and the activity of microbes transform the chemistry of the leaves when the temperature of the heat reaches 70 degrees Celsius the leaves are tossed repeatedly to ensure their temperature is even after a week the leaves turn brown black this fermentation process is what gives the tea its health benefits G the tea is not just drunk by nomadic people's anymore it is also drunk in the cities the leaves are finely shaped pressed into bricks and then sent off on a long journey to various faraway places Oh since the second half of the 20th century the ancient art of producing tea has become modern and industrialized these days tea producers use cutting-edge technology to process tea leaves for mass production and wide consumption but the ancient techniques are still invaluable sources of cultural significance the simple act of processing T by hand keeps the strong Chinese tradition alive in the modern world seated the further tea travels the less wild that becomes humanity has always been obsessed with scents in terms of smell alone tea is the most fragrant tea of all we Rock T is a type of semi oxidized along T the top grade we rock T is known as da Hong Pao this name originated from the six ancient tea trees that grow on the cliffs behind the tension jungler tempo baby and at the beginning of the tea season a team of tea pickers journey over two hours on foot to get to the tea plantation the best T of the mountains grow as a shadow Eclipse cool organism the leaves that grow here are of the highest a jobs agenda because they do get Marcus all the leaves a mile thick and healthy maybe a truffle the T cells through from the Louis's stronger clear these labels are some illegally cut off from the world of us drinking it makes you feel like a Zen monk in the mountainous ascetic and solitary [Music] Huell after a hard day's work the tea pickers carry their harvest of about 400 to 600 kilograms of tea leaves they walk for over two hours to the tea factory [Music] the tea master indention village Hong Chung way insists on making his dog howl by hand telemovie mountains ability is all about having the right people be in the right time at the right place only then can one make the best quality tini a chocolate citrus it's just like our environments at elephant you need the best tea producers and the best environment to process that issue and it's adventure the tossing process is very important and there's life moisture level gouge the edges of the tea leaves will turn red from oxidation that is the right level of oxidation such a fire the leaves and walls of up to 200 we believe we need to be extra careful not to burn our fingers then we roll the teams in assists with rough edges heist you the whale show them is like doing Taichi our hands needs to be flexible here and we need to rock back see for you to make the leaves roll up and around we need to use our internal strength then we fire the leaves again overage edit files we file them for over 20 hours over a charcoal fire messages the most exquisite da Hong Pao is fired nine times over this makes the tea leaves smooth and shiny like a loach that is why it is also known as loach fire when we treated to you for some lobsters we have Levin is a complement to that using something like this that we told this action sake with the tail and it's a good coach it allows your entire palate to taste the tissues you can taste all the peculiarities of the tea like playas it means that you know teachers every year Wang Chung way goes to the temple and gives the monk some of his tea we used to live in the knowledge that a place called water to in cave we live close to the biggest temple off of the river the Tian Shan younger temple the monks here let me stay there for six years we need to be grateful for the people or drink our tea because without them it couldn't exist just this completely changed the way I view team when I returned back you free life I decided to dedicate my entire life to us recently it's hard here [Music] huge dedicated Buddhists usually love this tea as well on the coast of these China Sea mount tai moon is the place where ancient monks used to reside every few days Chong Jing will leave the Bayou in Temple to go visit an ancient tea tree on the side of the mountain ancient trees to grow on a mountainside you really have lichens on them these little bugs and small animals will respond to these lichens this ancient white tea tree is commonly known as the very first of fooding large white tea tree tea trees with small leaves don't usually live long it is quite rare to see a tree like this live to a hundred years old but this particular tree is already 300 years old the bugs and their nests gentle-like in the--wait Han over time they will devour the entire truly deal if there are many lichens on this room and ëthey the tea will be destroyed due to better port when he was 17 and still a novice monk tonton came down the mountain with his master to clear the lichens on this tree he has been doing this for 18 years right the method of making white tea is a very ancient process the leaves are either Sun door dried then lightly processed this preserves most of the leaves nutritional and medicinal value the locals here drink white tea as an anti-inflammatory antibacterial medicine Fujian in the baillio village and fooding the middle of March is uncle mais busiest time of the year we can't Sun it too early in the morning there is too much fog there and it affects the quality of the leaves we need to take it in at night is too strong and it damages the leaves all this sounds really easy to do but it's actually really difficult you're in what we need to observe the color of the leaves whether they're white or black we need not constantly feel the need to see how dry they are to drive by now use ng in the Sun we need to be very delicate and carefully when the smoke is dissipated we put the leaves in we are we cannot make them too hot but we will ruin believes this expensive white tea is made from exquisite leaves picked right before the Ching Ming festival the leaves remain upright when water is added bad as white is called by halle in djenne or white hair Silver Needle amici the changming festival is the busiest time of the year for Baha'i engine producers the people in bailu village have to postpone their chingling rituals to the end of April May is a common surname on this day everybody in the village who has made as his surname gathers in the May family hall to worship their ancestors the tea brewed from white tea leaves is one of the most important offerings to them white tea is a very popular tea today it was transplanted here from the time ooh mountain more than a century ago the by un temple hadn't undergone repairs for a while however in the spring of 2012 repair work was begun the temple line is austere and monastic when charging first came he was the only monkey alone with his master his master taught him how to make tea and would always keep a flask of white tea with him whenever he encountered a villager who didn't feel his master would offer him a drink from his flask of tea since his master died Jean King continued the temple's tradition of making white tea [Music] leaves in the Sun I have to be very careful that's how you once I lay them out I don't touch them with my hands anymore if there's good will truth if the wind comes in from the West I like rodents out to dry this isn't easy on timer Mountain where the Sun hardly ever comes out it's really cold you're clear about the Qingming festival so it is a that's why this is not a bit of a precious commodity you need to have an honest heart I would drink the tea just like when you're meditating know where T is just like life is just like Zak he has arrived in just like people sign master always I did white tea to heal people he would put it in a pot too steep and add some salt repairs on the temple will take one year the workers can't get used to the cold and damp this on the mountain so chunjang makes a pot of old white tea for them every day the tea is black brown in color drink it it helps with colds and hives it gets rid of the heat in your body how the chicken over time I realized that everything comes down to inner peace life is much better when it's simple we wear pants just like that when you're drinking tea tires I used to explore the different types of teams fragrances flavonoids color all I need is a cup of white tea and that'll do for me today tea is planted all over the world and drunk by almost everyone thousands of years of knowledge and wisdom compressed into each cup tea is part of Chinese heritage but also part of world heritage it's a continuous succession of knowledge and an enjoyment of nature's products the next episode we'll explore this further in the great mix of cultures that inhabit China and makes tea drinking one of the fixed points in a fast changing world [Music]

Channel: China Hour

Views: 68,446

Keywords: Tea, Chinese, China Hour, Sky TV, Story of a leaf, water, fire, fate, yunnan, Damian Harper

Id: cZGTuAhykFk

Length: 46min 52sec (2812 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 08 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/chikalin]

Is there one with just subs? Double audio is kinda distracting.

[u/Col_Buttcorn_III]

Well I know what I am watching tonight!

[u/rainyrie]

Wow, some gorgeous tea-making shots here. Props to the videographer. I just skimmed the video in the middle of a writing break but will definitely watch it in full this weekend. Thanks for sharing!

[u/Nadia_Chernyshevski]

Why do I have to write this damn paper instead of watching this.... ? Tomorrow can't come soon enough.

[u/savafy]

Looks awesome, thanks!

[u/StarlightWriter]

Did I see correctly, 4 episodes?

[u/Nycunzdard]

Thanks!

[u/Heringsalat100]

After watching the first episode I have it to say that it is a very relaxing but also informative documentary.

Am I the only one being calmed down extremely by seeing tea leaves, trees, cups and fermentation processes in a video while drinking tea?

[u/bigredmachinist]

Actually there are six! Happy viewing