Baking Beidou Rock Tea, part 1

Autumn weather has come early this year. August is cool and dry under blue skies. In this dry period our friends in Fujian are also baking their rock teas for the second or even third time. Humidity is the enemy of wuyi rock tea, creating an astringent, fuzzy taste in the otherwise clear dark oolong. Baking is done to dry the tea, and for lesser teas to also flavor or color them darkly. It should be done in dry weather. This year we have managed to track down a very special rock tea grove, which we tweeted happily about earlier in the summer. Trying to get the best price while ensuring quality we bought this just after it was picked, still unsorted, but great tasting already. The grove was planted by the almost legendary Yao Yue Ming in the 1980's after his other groves were destroyed in the cultural revolution. Known as the father of dahongpao, he was the first to systematically understand that beidou tea leaves gave dahongpao its defining physiological characteristic. Known as Beidou first generation, these were planted probably by grafting from the first descendants of the original six dahongpao trees. They may have come from the original six, themselves. Today we close the windows and doors. Turning on the air-conditioning we lower the humidity from 37% to 34%, then open the bag and remove handfuls of the lightly spiced leaves and branches. To increase its flavor oolong rock tea is picked and rolled and baked (the first time) while the leaves are still attached to the stems. This makes for more tasty tea because the leaves continue to draw in nutrients from the stems, but it also requires more delicate fingers to separate each leaf. Separated leaves can be categorized into three quality categories: yellow/green and flat, green/brown/black and rolled, consistent black/brown and tightly rolled. The most important distinction is between the leaves that have been correctly and tightly rolled and those that have remained flat. This will affect how the tea ages. Here are example of the three types of leaves still attached to their stems.

Here are more clues as to the importance of color, fundamental when understanding and categorizing tea, its flavors and quality. Left over twigs smell lovely, and we will use them to make summer pillows. It is slow going but we separate our precious leaves into three qualities. At one point the farmer calls and jokes that he stopped doing this himself long ago. We can hire people very cheaply. It is true that only with aching backs and color-strained eyes we finally separate four distinct piles: clockwise from the top left are twigs, yellow flat leaves, greener rolled leaves, and the darkest, most consistent, rolled leaves.

Our next step will be baking them for the last time this year to drive out some of the water still present.