Tuesday, September 1, 2009

recent trip to S. Yunnan, wild vrs cultivated leaves

I found the tea trade remarkably undeveloped. I met a few family based traders, and while I enjoyed talking with them, I did not find gems of tea emerging from their larders. That said the land changed making a loop south from Kunming, to Simao-Puer, then west to Meng-hai, then Northwest up through Lancang to Lincang and east back. Lancang had the most striking landscape, and bordering as it does, I imagine the wild trees here to be of interest, their fruity, sour taste intriguing, as well as the difference in the leaves - the darker, wild leaves are not serrated and are thinner than the "cultivated" kind. This distinction offered by a Lancang native is problematic, as she claimed some cultivated trees were planted in the three kingdoms era, which would date them nearly a thousand years back. She dated them at 300 years back.