"Tea Talk on Paper" No. 29: Biographies of Tea Masters ③

This is the twenty-ninth article in my "Tea Talk on Paper" series, and the third in the Biographies of Tea Masters series. The biographies are short profiles; I've completed the twenty-six letters, and future installments will be numbered. Stay tuned. Here are the previous two articles:

"Tea Talk on Paper" No. 22: Biographies of Tea Masters ①

"Tea Talk on Paper" No. 26: Biographies of Tea Masters ②

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Biography S

S has been making tea for over ten years, has some reputation, and is very arrogant, often thinking his tea is good and others' tea is garbage.

One day, S visited his distributor Xiao Huang. Xiao Huang was someone S valued and planned to cultivate, intending to have Xiao Huang stop selling other people's tea.

S didn't make an appointment. There were no other customers in the shop. Xiao Huang happened to be brewing tea and didn't change the leaves, casually pouring a cup for S. S took a sip and immediately looked for a trash can to spit it out, cursing, "What garbage tea, awful, it's killing me." Xiao Huang was embarrassed but had to respond, whispering, "Teacher, this is your tea." S replied without changing expression, "Is that so? Let me see."

S took the main brewing seat, asked Xiao Huang for the tea cake, and re-pried, brewed, rinsed, and poured the tea himself. He took a small sip, closed his eyes and savored it for a long time, then exhaled and said to Xiao Huang, "Good tea! Comfortable! Xiao Huang, your brewing skills need more practice with me. I ruined such good tea by letting you brew it." Then S began to talk at length about how good his tea was, persuading Xiao Huang to sell only his tea.

Biography T

T is considered an old hand in the tea world. He ran a tea website and a tea newspaper. Over the years, he didn't become hugely wealthy but supported a group of people, with his wife and daughter around him, living a decent life.

In 2013, T started taking large bank loans. The first time, he used his company's cash flow to borrow five million yuan. The intermediary first helped T buy a house and a car. After the loan was approved, after deducting the car and house payments and fees, he still had over three million. T expanded his staff and upgraded his website. For a time, T's people were everywhere in the tea market. The most impressive was his partnership in a small loan company, which was making money hand over fist. During that period, T seemed to walk with the wind, ambitious and with the air of a successful man.

Later, I heard T had borrowed several more million from other banks and started cooperating with tea enterprises to make his own brand of tea. He recruited people and was bustling with activity. He also borrowed money from various sources and cooperated with other small loan companies, earning tens of thousands in interest daily. T bought a second car and planned to move to a bigger house and make higher-end tea.

In 2016, T started borrowing money everywhere. According to rumors, not a cent from the small loan company could be recovered.

Later, I heard T's car and house were seized and auctioned. That year, I saw T from a distance once; he was incredibly thin.

Biography U

In the spring of 2012, in Mahé Village, Yiwu, Mr. Li from Kunming stopped by the home of tea farmer U. U was very enthusiastic, quickly brewed tea, and instructed his wife to kill a chicken and cook a meal.

U had just finished sun-drying his ancient tree tea. Li tasted it and was fairly satisfied. The price was not high either. Li ordered 5 pieces of tea, 50 kilograms, without paying a deposit. Li wrote his phone number in U's notebook and said he would visit other places in Yiwu and would return in 2-3 days to pick up the tea before leaving. After the meal, Li left with a large bag of tea samples U had given him.

Li was delayed by other matters and didn't go to pick up the tea until over a week later. U said, "You've come! I called many times but couldn't get through. Someone wanted to buy the tea in the meantime, but since I had promised you, I was embarrassed to sell it. I was getting anxious..." Li muttered, "That's impossible, my phone has been on," while flipping through U's notebook, and found that the phone number was indeed off by one digit.

From then on, Li went to U's home every year, often with a group of tea-making friends. Li and his friends ate many of U's chickens and bought a lot of U's tea.

Biography V: Beautiful Tea Artist

Why is your face so red? Qiang Ge asked me after we came out.

Today, Qiang Ge took me to a tea house. The decoration was antique, with sandalwood incense curling, small bridges and flowing water, and the sound of guqin. It was a very professional old tea house, making me, someone who has been in tea for over ten years, feel ashamed.

The hostess was a beautiful woman in flowing Tang-style clothing, a professional tea person, said to have studied tea in Japan. She led us to sit at a tea table made entirely of Hainan huanghuali wood. She first took water from a blue-and-white porcelain jar, poured it into a precious old iron kettle, and placed it on a charcoal stove to boil. Then she climbed up to take down an old sandalwood box, took out an aged tea cake, gently pried the tea with delicate hands, and weighed it on a small scale.

When the water boiled, she took out a blue-and-white covered bowl from the Ming Dynasty, poured water to rinse the tea, and placed Ming blue-and-white tasting cups in front of us. While busy, she introduced that this was a decades-old tea that was extremely rare on the market, and that she had only taken it down from the high shelf because Qiang Ge had come. Her movements were gentle, her speech soft. What a lovely tea server.

After rinsing the tea, she first served us a cup of plain water, and then waited about ten minutes before brewing the tea. From the time we entered to the time we drank tea, it must have been about half an hour, making me quite thirsty.

The beauty poured the tea and handed it to me. I couldn't wait to raise the cup and took a sip. A strong taste of BHC powder hit me. I couldn't spit it out, so I held it in, my face turning red. I had to swallow it, and my throat itched unbearably, causing me to cough dryly for a while. After that, I made an excuse that my body wasn't suitable for tea today.

I replied to Qiang Ge, "The weather is too stuffy today."

W is from the north and has been making tea for many years.

One spring tea season, W came to a village in a tea area in Yunnan. After inspecting, he was very pleased.

W said to the tea farmer, "Don't use pesticides or chemical fertilizers in the tea garden. We tea makers like the original ecology. Go organize these ecological teas for me. I don't want any with pesticides or fertilizers." W paid a deposit and ordered a batch of ecological good tea.

A few days later, W came to collect the goods. He sprayed at the tea farmer, "Why is this so ugly? The leaves are yellow, skinny, and have insect holes... That one next to it looks good, green and lush, thick with big buds. How much is this?"

W loaded a whole truck of the good-looking tea from the village, at a price more than half cheaper than expected. W was satisfied, burping with a belly full of local chicken and wine, saying he would come again next year.

After seeing W off, the tea farmer said to his wife, "We need to buy more pesticides and fertilizers, and use them on those neglected tea gardens too."

Biography X

X is from the south and came to Yunnan, which is further south and west, to make tea.

X previously had a small tea shop in his hometown, but it wasn't doing well. He realized that for Pu'er tea, Yunnan had more opportunities, so he closed the shop and came to Yunnan. He didn't open a shop but hung around Kunming and Xishuangbanna, occasionally selling some tea on the side.

After spending time drinking tea in Kunming, he met Mr. Li, who had been making tea in the Xishuangbanna tea area for many years and had a shop in Kunming. X found that his knowledge of tea was far behind Mr. Li's, and his business was nowhere near as good. X envied the group of seasoned tea enthusiasts around Mr. Li.

Through a series of maneuvers and coincidences, X seized an opportunity to formally become Mr. Li's apprentice. Thus, Mr. Li became Teacher Li.

Teacher Li was open and shared everything, taking X across the six ancient tea mountains, introducing him to all his contacts, including tea farmers in the mountains. He didn't hide anything from X when guests came. Of course, X was also very dedicated. Whatever concerned Teacher Li was his own business. He would drive, clean, brew tea, and carry tea, never sparing effort. For a time, X and Teacher Li were a model master-apprentice pair, admired by all.

But no flower blooms for a hundred days.

Teacher Li suddenly noticed that X rarely came to the tea shop. When he called, X often declined, and even when he came, he would stay briefly and leave in a hurry. Some regular customers also stopped coming to the shop. The shop assistant said she heard X had opened his own shop, and his tea was better and cheaper.

Teacher Li became Mr. Li again. When Mr. Li could see X, it was usually at the homes of tea farmers that Mr. Li had introduced to X. Later, some tea farmers tactfully told Mr. Li that they had no tea left because X had bought it all.

Later, Mr. Li heard from someone that there was a master named X who had been making tea for over ten years, self-taught, and had been living in the Xishuangbanna tea area for a long time, traveling through the ancient six mountains, deeply involved for years. He was a very powerful master. Crucially, he was very popular, with a large group of wealthy fan customers.

Later, people would ask Mr. Li if he had studied tea with X, since they had similar knowledge and views, similar products, and even many of the same customers. Mr. Li would usually sit upright and reply, "I don't know him."

Biography Y

Y is a well-known tea expert in Yunnan. He can often be seen at many tea-related events, always seated in important positions, often in the center of the stage.

In 2013, at a tea gathering, I happened to sit next to Y. That was my first time meeting him. I had heard of Y before, a well-known old expert in the tea industry. That time, I said some flattering words and we exchanged phone numbers.

At the end of 2013, Y called me and talked for a long time. I mostly just responded with "mm-hmm." The gist of Y's call was that before Bingdao tea became famous, he had collected a lot of it, several tons in total. As a university professor, he was still young (this was strange, because Y was already very old at that time, and I was only in my thirties, so how could he be young?), and it was inconvenient for him to sell tea personally. He wanted me to help sell it. These teas were good stuff, and many people were after them. He had been researching tea for decades, had students everywhere, and could help drive traffic to my 51 Pu'er website... Then he went on and on about how great he was and how much influence he had. Cooperating with him was a big opportunity for me. If I was interested, we could discuss the details...

I have always disliked people who brag right off the bat, and I still do. But that time, I hung up politely, and Y never heard from me again.

The next time I saw Y was in 2015 at a brand tea's recommendation event. Y was still seated at the main table, and I was in the audience. The event invited a bunch of people, including a relatively professional host. First, the new tea was introduced, then it was brewed. The tea artist first emptied the cups of the people at the main table, including Y's, then brewed the new tea and served everyone. During the tea artist's pouring, the host invited Y to say a few words. A magical scene occurred: Y raised his empty cup (the tea artist hadn't served him yet) and said in a loud voice, "I am very honored to attend this tea gathering... This tea has a charming and elegant aroma, a bright yellow liquor, and a sweet taste..." Instantly, my ears turned red...

After that, I almost never attended such tea gatherings again, and I never saw Y again.

Biography Z

I've known Z for a long time, but we've basically had no business dealings. Z's usual work is hanging around Menghai, buying and selling raw materials, often selling one family's materials to another. I started building a factory in Menghai in 2017, and had more contact with Z. Z would often come by to chat, tell me some news from Menghai, and incidentally promote some tea.

Once, Z called me and said he wanted to bring a ripe tea for me to taste. It was fermented very well, with good raw materials, and he said I would definitely like it. I knew Z was always going around, so maybe he had found something good. I looked forward to waiting for Z at my shop in Menghai.

When Z arrived, I started brewing the ripe tea he brought. The more I brewed it, the more familiar it became. It was very much like my first batch of ripe tea. That batch was experimental, with a strong mushroom aroma, soft and fine soup, slightly cloudy, with very distinct characteristics. After 7-8 infusions, I was almost certain, so I asked Z if he had gotten the sample from Mr. L. Z was surprised and asked, "How did you know?"

I replied, "This is my tea. Because it had just come out of the pile, I only gave a sample to Mr. L."

View more articles in the Biographies of Tea Masters series: Biographies of Tea Masters Table of Contents