Impromptu Wildcrafting

During my Sunday afternoon run at the Albany Bulb, I happily noticed that the wild blackberries along the path were ready for someone to come along and enjoy their short-lived glory.  I wasn't quite prepared and so had to collect my bounty in the only thing I had on hand - two coconut water aluminum cans.   The Bulb used to be a landfill for construction debris decades ago but now it's a natural habitat shared by shore birds,  graffiti artists,  and homeless people alike.  The Bulb also has the craziest blackberry patches I have seen in my life.   Every summer brings about a mega-blackberry bonanza as far as the eye can see, but sadly a great part of the yearly harvest simply rots on the bush.

I prefer the extremely over-ripe berries that have started fermenting-  it's the subtle sweet sour flavor I relish.  Vendors normally don't sell them so ripe so wildcrafting is an ideal option.   I went deep into the bramble to find what I like and predictably, I got my shanks all scratched up.  As somebody from Oregon told me, you have no right eating blackberries if you mind getting scratched.

This morning I had 4 different shous. I was going to write a Lao Cha Tou Death Match post but I'll save it for later to properly extract this golden source material for some real humor.  Two of the Lao Cha Tous were so unexpectedly disgusting, I spat them out.  I had gotten used to drinking pretty good shous and hence forgot that I need to sip cautiously when in doubt.  The Lao Cha Tou brick which I enjoyed most had a thick black lady's hair in it. Are hairnets only ever employed at squeaky clean Haiwan? But really, you have no right drinking shu if you mind finding such bits in your brick.

While I was walking back to my car, I saw an elderly gentlemen bend over to collect a few berries at shin level near the park entrance.  I almost stopped and gave him Berry Picking 101 lecture.  Sir- aim high. This is a dog park after all!

(I see Pulling Radishes has a lovely Blackberry Shou Jelly recipe which appears to be a love of labor.)

2006 Wild Elephant Valley with 2003 Hoffman Snow Mountain Yinhao

I'll admit I shamelessly bought this cake for the lovely wrapper and nefei.  But who doesn't want to drink tea so richly nourished by wild elephant dung of  Wild Elephant Valley 野象谷 (Ye Xiang Gu) in southern Xishuangbanna. Ye Xiang Gu is the very last refuge in China where wild elephants do roam freely.   In 2008, an irate pachyderm flung an American tourist breaking a great many ribs; such run-ins are not uncommon there. 

An elephant emits ~200 pounds of black gold a day and with the Ye Xiang Gu herd being estimated to be over 30,  my math indicates the valley should be exceedingly fertile.   The herd in the photo I took not in China but in a nature preserve in South Africa.  My astonished eyes set on a hundred elephants roaming wild and I can vouch first hand for the impressive dung production that would make any organic gardener weep.

Who knows to what proximity the source tea trees for this beeng are to such elephant action?  Would there be any indication in the flavor even if the tea trees were knee deep in it?  I'm pretty sure I have encountered such direct flavors in a shu. Normally I dismiss them under the umbrella of barnyard flavors but now a closer retrospection convinces me I should revise and branch out the manure tastes more- cow patty vs. wild elephant dung.

This beeng is chock full of yinhao- pleasing furry white tips that gives any pu-erh an instant good-to-drink now sweetness.  This plantation tea was an extremely fragrant and grassy tea back in 2007 when I got it from tuochatea.com for a "rather likable sum" of $16.90.  For that, I won't hold them too closely to their overreaching promise:

 "this special cake makes an aromatic treat today, or may be put away to produce what is sure to be a rare and valuable treasure in the future."

I personally have many such rare and valuable treasures lining my tea closet.  The producer- Qingyun Tea Factory is probably no longer.  Seven years have passed so let us see if the beauty of the wrapper extends further and what's become of this pretty thing.  


I brought it out for evening relaxation for my husband yesterday. The non-yinhao leaves dominate in the first few brews with a leathery bitterness even though the tea feels overall 
quite smooth with the trademark yinhao taste.  If I were a manga character with deep passionate feelings and if this tea were a bit more flavorful, I would be instantly transported to a fantastical tea reverie.  I would be riding a wild tusked elephant- that was drawn more like a wooly mammoth -   wandering deep in the Xishuangbanna forests.  But instead I just nod my head a few times and wonder what source of humor I can exploit for this blog entry. 
Only in the fourth brew does the bitterness ease up and a sugary sweetness emerges.  Still an enjoyable brew for about $0.20 worth of tea despite it being somewhat forgettable. 

I still want some better yinhao tonight for comparison so I crack open one of the silver buds that Emmett (of Cha & Kungfu blog) has generously sent me.  I try to split my 2003 Hoffman Silverbud Da Xue Shan sample carefully into two portions.  I don't want to blow my wad tonight as I want to save some for a morning brew. (My husband firmly informs me that the "wad" in blowing one's wad does not stem from a "wad of cash" reference.  I have been using this term freely all my life always imagining a crumpled wad of five dollar bills only to be so handily corrected tonight. Why didn't my husband say something to me decades ago!  Should I expunge such a phrase from my vocabulary...) 

I am surprised how well preserved this 11 year old loose white tea has remained - almost like Sophia Loren back in the nineties.  I always assumed white tips tend to fade albeit gracefully after a while and tips were generally considered poor aging material.  But I am surprised by teageek post on an 80's yinhao where he manages 15 interesting brews. But he drunk a yinhao tuo which does not imply pure bud. I've seen many a yinhao tuo with just a smattering of buds on top. Yinhao is also a brand name. This needs further investigation.


Hoffman’s specimen has a surprising long-lasting creamy almost oolong mouthfeel.  I am totally riding a milky white pegasus amongst the clouds to Big Snow Mountain. (Giggle, giggle. Those of you who have read Drops of God,  you know there is a manga post coming! )

Ira's Update on the 2008 Nayun Gushu GMS Conference Beeng

One of the readers Ira has kindly provided some insight into my co-worker's friend's beeng.

Your 2008 gushu beeng is made with Na Yun's ancient tea trees - got the following brief description from puershop.com - sorry but this is the only website google provided that has na yun tea related info... "2011 Nayun Ancient Tree Green Pu-erh Cake (那允古树茶) The tea was harvested from ancient tea trees (over 300 year old) at Anlang Mountain (2000-2500m above the sea level) that closes to Jingmai Mountain.A Nayun tea is less known to most people, and its tea is truly grown wild in the most natural environment." Na Yun is a hill/mountain about 7 km away from Meng Lian (wikipedia: Menglian Dai, Lahu and Va Autonomous County (孟连傣族拉祜族佤族自治县; pinyin: Mènglián dǎizú lāhùzú wǎzú Zìzhìxiàn) is an autonomous county under the jurisdiction of Pu'er Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China.)  ..... Meng Lian used to be a very important puerh tea city on the cha ma gu dao/ancient tea horse road, and it is supposedly around a few km from Burma. the maocha they produced supposedly of very high quality. (I got this info from a book - Pu-Erh Tea Talk by Wu De-Lian) Also, on the bottom the producer's name is Puerh Tian Fu (http://www.pettf.com/) seems like they are not related to Ten Fu (Ten Ren) China even though the name is similar. Happy drinking! best regards, Ira.

Thank you Ira as pettf.com is a source of some very interesting research.

I do most of my chinese web surfing on Google Chrome (Canary) and so I was able to read that Tian Fu is trying to improve on the floor/shovel method of shu fermentation. A translation of the process:

"In my tea factory workshop, a long conveyor belt runs through the entire plant. The process in general is as follows: Pu'er tea after entering the shop, using negative pressure cyclone separation principle, raw materials are winnowed automatically to avoid resulting tea fragmentation. Teas are filtered out with a belt conveyor to automatic mixers, avoid artificial mixing by the sprinkler stir (uneven) and then by conveyor belt to the top of the fermentation greenhouse, wood laying. After one cycle, according to the degree of fermentation, so that automated tiered tea transported to the next level, and so on, each pass breathable, aerobic, temperature, humidity, thickness uniformity, avoid piling up too thick, or the temperature becoming to too high.  Water does not become too heavy to cause heartburn, mildew and other undesirable consequences. Upon completion of the fermentation, tea is conveyed to the drying room. After drying, tea automatically goes through a second winnowing. Tea is last finished last by applying ultraviolet disinfection, sterilization, packaging, you can sell."

I would imagine Lao Cha Tous are rare with such a system.  The company has their fingers in all sorts of research- providing pu-erh to AIDS patients as well as growing purple "winsomely" tea using modern greenhouse techniques.

I'm definitely curious to try more of their products esp. their shu produced in this new fangled way. They sell a loose shu translated as "ups and downs of life (沉浮人生)" which most likely is such an example. (I'll go to lunch tomorrow with my Kunming colleague.)

2008 Gushu GMS Economic Corridors Forum Cake

I finally took a quiet Sunday to break out this tea pressed by a childhood friend of my co-worker.   This cake was not preceded by any hype or gushing blog post. It didn't have a romantic title like Secret Fragrance or Secret Lives to sway me.  There wasn't even an over-promissory vendor description to decipher.   I didn't know what to expect but I made this cake the first official recipient of my Biggest Twig Embedded in A Sheng award.

The compression is loose enough that I can carefully separate out the leaves in layers and I think I barely have enough for 3 sessions.  The brews were extremely pale straw colored- so pale that I worried I was too stingy with the leaves.  But after only the second sip, my tongue is instantly covered in a sugarcane sweetness.  This tea had probably one of the fastest acting huigan I've encountered.  Fourth sip and the back of the tongue is covered with sweetness.   I'm already plotting devious ways to get the rest of my co-worker's cake.

After my fourth brew, I jump up. I realize I have to be somewhere. I have to meet a friend visiting from Hong Kong in SF and I contemplate the discourtesy of showing up late. But they are not tea drinkers and would not understand such an explanation involving huigan.  I have to rush to get ready but as I shower and wash my hair, the sugar on my tongue is overwhelming, and clusters of sweetness keep exploding on my tongue. Even after an hour after I've stopped sipping, I am still surprised with the last latent bursts of sweetness on my tongue while I sit in a noisy BART train tapping out this entry.

Is such huigan evidence of being from a real gushu?  I've gotten decent huigan off Nannuo plantation before and I'm even suspecting this cake is a Nannuo but I hadn't drunk any in 6 years.  Now I am curious about the other old tree beengs I have whose huigan is nearly not as long lasting.  I will need to dust off some cakes this weekend for comparison.

The flavors for this tea weren't particularly complex- light and smooth with an underlying bitterness which went away after a few brews.  It's fun having so much sparkling exploding sugar action in one's mouth.   I feel like an old man who by fortune is seated next to a cute and sassy school girl on a long long transatlantic flight. (Once on a flight to Seoul, I saw an elderly gentleman sitting next to a most adorable school girl.  That guy was smiling the entire flight even when sleeping.)

Who knew a cake commemorating the GMS Economic Corridors Forum could be such a gem? I will try to find out a little bit more about this tea and get more.  After this round, I feel I should do more blind tastings as they tend to force you to stick strictly to the cup.

Cremains Box Update

Last month, I sent away for basswood boxes to hold my overflow collection.  The biggest cheapest boxes I found for under twenty dollars were the  9x8x8 unassembled "cremains box" kit.  I could have asked my handyman master carpenter husband to build me something custom, but then I would be totally indebted. Ahem.  As I bought the cheaper unassembled kit, my husband still helped me put them together with brass screws. He was wholly unsatisfied with the wonky rough fit of these boxes but it's hard to expect high craftsmanship at twenty dollars with U.S. labor.

BoxesNSuch sells this kit for hobbyists to carve the wood for a more decorative effect. I cannot imagine using these boxes for their intended purpose. Apparently cremated remains of an adult human takes 110 to 180 cubic inches where as a beloved pet horse can take much much more.  (This is an aside but if I do get cremated, I'd like a super fragrant young beeng to be burnt with me.) But for my particular purpose- these boxes snugly fit 8 beengs each.

Basswood has no odor and is often the wood of choice for gourmet food containers.  I've received chocolate covered figs and fleur de sel caramels which were presented in short basswood canisters.  My husband couldn't smell anything on these new boxes but I could still detect an acidic wood smell so I let them air out in the sun for a few days.  One of them holds shu and really it didn't take long for the overwhelming wodui scent to take over. The other holds wet stored sheng.  While these cremains boxes are not that great, I find that they are definitely more acceptable aesthetically as well as socially.  The clutter of cardboard boxes piling on top my desk could be construed by guests as a prelude to "Hoarding-Buried Alive".

I also have flat basswood boxes on top of each cremains box that my friend S gave me as a great birthday present- tea is a tricky gift for friends to give me but I will happily receive a basswood box in any shape.  One of them holds samples Emmett generously sent me last week including a nineties sheng from Hoffman 's Phoenix Collection. It's like looking into the future for my collection as Hoffman's stuff is seriously dry aged.  I'll save the Hoffman brew report for another post.  Good night.