"Paper Talk on Tea" No. 18: Lao Zou's "Sun-dried Green Tea"

Lao Zou, male, 23 years old, just graduated from university with a major in tea science. Because he looks older than his age, his friends call him Lao Zou.

Lao Zou plans to open his own tea shop, but after studying tea for several years, he lacks practical experience. One morning in July, Lao Zou came to a friend's primary processing facility in Menghai, intending to thoroughly understand tea making. Lao Zou's friend's facility mainly produces sun-dried green mao cha. The owner, who is also the tea maker, is in his forties and surnamed Li. Because he looks young, everyone calls him Xiao Li.

Xiao Li first took Lao Zou on a tour of the facility, chatting as they walked. Lao Zou gained a general understanding of Xiao Li's facility. The facility has a total of 7 people: Xiao Li plus 6 workers, 4 withering troughs, 4 kill-green woks, and 2 roller kill-green machines. The workshop is not large, about 200 square meters, but the drying yard is very large, with a transparent-roofed drying shed covering over a thousand square meters. Outside the shed, a large flat area is filled with dozens of large bamboo mats covered with tea. The entire facility processes about 1 ton of fresh leaves per day, with manual kill-green accounting for about 30%.

At noon, Xiao Li accompanied Lao Zou for a drink, with a large plate of fatty and lean local pork, making the wine especially fragrant. After lunch, Lao Zou took a nap and woke up around 4 PM. People began to deliver fresh leaves one after another. Two people weighed the leaves, while the remaining four spread them on the withering troughs. Xiao Li was responsible for recording and paying. In between, Xiao Li arranged for the workers to move the leaves from the withering troughs onto bamboo mats in the drying shed, spreading them flat. Above the mats, at a height of over 2 meters, a large sunshade cloth was stretched to block sunlight from reaching the leaves. Lao Zou thought, "This looks like they're making black tea." Before coming, Lao Zou had deliberately reviewed his books again. The steps for making sun-dried green tea are: fresh leaf spreading and cooling, kill-green, rolling, and sun-drying. There was no such step of treating fresh leaves. Lao Zou had always believed that the process of sun-dried mao cha is entirely the same as green tea, and that sun-dried mao cha is not Pu'er raw tea but sun-dried green tea.

When Xiao Li was free, Lao Zou approached him, pointed at the fresh leaves in the drying shed, and asked what tea they were making. Xiao Li casually replied, "Raw tea." Lao Zou was puzzled but didn't want to ask further. Seeing more fresh leaves arriving, he quickly went to help.

That day, there was an excess of fresh leaves, over 1.3 tons, filling the withering troughs and the drying shed. After dinner, it was past 9 PM. Xiao Li arranged for the workers to turn the leaves once, then rest early, as the next day's kill-green would be tiring. After assigning tasks, Xiao Li invited Lao Zou to the tea table for tea. After a few cups, Lao Zou finally couldn't help but ask Xiao Li, "These fresh leaves won't be killed until tomorrow? Isn't spreading and cooling only a few hours before kill-green?" Xiao Li grinned and scolded, "You bookworm, this is withering, not just spreading and cooling. Our raw tea must be fully withered before kill-green." Lao Zou muttered "Oh, oh" and brushed it off. Then the two chatted about the tea they were drinking, the tea market, market conditions, and various tea processing methods. Since Lao Zou wanted to open his own shop and was a tea major, he spoke eloquently, and Xiao Li's envious gaze followed Lao Zou's waving hands as he talked.

A quiet night passed.

The next morning, Xiao Li called Lao Zou to get up for breakfast. Lao Zou checked his phone: it was almost 9 AM. He washed up hastily and finished breakfast. The workers had already lit the stove and cleaned the woks, and the kill-green machine was running. Xiao Li directed two people to first transport the fresh leaves from the drying shed. Everyone was busy. Lao Zou's hands itched; after watching a worker fry a batch of tea, he eagerly told Xiao Li he wanted to try kill-green. Xiao Li smiled and arranged for a worker to stand beside Lao Zou to assist and guide him. Lao Zou caught on quickly, with accurate movements and good control of wok temperature, tossing and turning the leaves promptly and precisely. Xiao Li praised Lao Zou, saying he was indeed a top student, and his kill-green was excellent.

They killed green and rolled the leaves simultaneously. After rolling, they spread the leaves flat on bamboo racks in the drying shed under the sunshade cloth. The eight of them were busy and happy. It was already past 2 PM when they finished kill-green, and only then did they have lunch.

During lunch, Lao Zou kept thinking about the tea, wondering why they hadn't spread it out to dry. After the meal, the workers went for a nap. Lao Zou couldn't help but ask Xiao Li why they didn't spread the tea out to dry. Xiao Li said, "Pile it for a day; we'll dry it tomorrow." Then he pointed to the tea that was spread out and said, "These are from the day before yesterday's fresh leaves, killed yesterday, and piled until today before drying." Lao Zou thought to himself, "This is nonsense. Piling, even low piles, is only used for fermenting dark tea or ripe tea. What kind of process is this?" With a mind full of doubts, Lao Zou went to rest.

Around 4 PM, a friend of Xiao Li came to drink tea, and Xiao Li called Lao Zou to join. Xiao Li brewed the tea that had just been sun-dried, which was from the day before yesterday's fresh leaves, killed yesterday, and dried today. Xiao Li's friend praised it, saying it had almost no bitterness or astringency, a good mouthfeel, and a pleasant aroma. He marveled that such raw tea didn't need aging and could be drunk immediately.

Xiao Li interjected, "There are over thirty tea processing methods. For fresh leaves, there are spreading and cooling, sun-drying, making green, shaking green, tumbling green, and withering, which is commonly used in Yunnan. Who stipulated which method makes green tea or black tea? To make tea that sells better and achieves your goals, you can choose whichever methods. Saying this is black tea process, that is green tea process—isn't that putting the cart before the horse? Tea has at least two thousand years of history. The six major tea categories were proposed by Professor Chen Chuan in 1984. If you say raw tea is sun-dried green tea, and others say it's sun-dried oolong, how can you argue clearly? The national standard for Pu'er tea states clearly: 'The processing technology of Pu'er tea is a unique post-fermentation process, including natural post-fermentation and artificial pile fermentation.' Raw tea is Pu'er tea. How can you absurdly claim that raw tea is not Pu'er tea but sun-dried green tea? Isn't that privately altering national standards and disregarding the industry's future? Such harmful people should be condemned. Tea has no fixed form; people are flexible. Only by moving forward and making tea that is pleasant to drink and healthy is the right way. As for conceptual disputes, they are merely troubles of the mediocre."

Lao Zou just listened, didn't speak, and kept drinking the tea. He also found it very good, but felt something was off, though he couldn't articulate it. It didn't taste like green tea or raw tea; he vaguely sensed a hint of black tea flavor in the liquor.

After thinking for a long time, Lao Zou slapped his thigh and thought to himself, "Right, this is the taste of black tea. This tea is ruined; the process is not orthodox, giving it a black tea feel." Xiao Li and his friend glanced at Lao Zou, who had slapped his thigh, then continued discussing the order.

While Lao Zou was muttering to himself about the wrong process and wasted fresh leaves, Xiao Li's friend placed an order for 5 tons of sun-dried mao cha and paid a deposit. Lao Zou was astonished. He had made ruined tea, and yet the friend wanted 5 tons...

A few months later, in his rented tea shop in Kunming, Lao Zou sent the article he had just finished, titled "Clarifying the Source: Pu'er Raw Tea is Sun-dried Green Tea," via email to Association X and Magazine Y. He excitedly stood up from the rosewood chair and called Xiao Li to ask how things were. Xiao Li's voice was full of joy, telling Lao Zou that this year's tea had sold extremely well, with many tea merchants coming to order, and he was too busy to cope.

After hanging up, Lao Zou cursed, "These people really don't understand anything," and slowly sat back in the large rosewood executive chair imported from Myanmar.

The article and images are original. Author: Lü Jianfeng, WeChat: ynwuse, works at 51 Pu'er Net, initiator of Houyue Crowdfunding Tea, convener of Yunnan Houyue Black Tea Co., Ltd.