This year we found some white teas with sparkling notes of flavor. Many roads have been made in the last few years, slicing through the hills of the hinterlands of the largely undeveloped north-east Fujian.
Weaving along the roads recently sheared through the mountains we pass dirt that is grey, brown, red, purple, and of course the quintessential orange. When there are tea bushes and farmers picking tea atop the brighter colored soil we stop to buy samples.
Northern Fujian's back roads more often than not end at Buddhist retreats, slipping through time. Nuns here also pick tea which they often cook into red teas.
Sometimes there is just tea out drying by the side of the road, and if the air is clear we stop here too to talk and perhaps visit the trees this tea was picked from.
