Meeting the spiritual guardian of Lishan High Mountain Oolong Tea

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Fresco at the entrance of the Atayal Village of Cuiluan

Today we introduce a new category of postings called: Meet the tea makers. Most of our followers will have noticed that there is not so much space on our site devoted to long exposés on how such and such a tea tastes, or even worse, on how it should taste. We let our teas do the talking and convincing, or reviewers and bloggers give their unbiased opinions on the subject. Nor do we have, or will ever have, a section called “tea knowledge”. We believe tea is not something that can be taught. It needs to be experienced, and one must follow his own path at its own pace in his or her journey in discovering the pleasures of tea. There are different levels to this enjoyment, from casual to more ceremonial, and we don’t put any of these expressions above the other. Again, the concepts of right or wrong in the way one enjoys his tea has no bearing on the pleasure one experiences in drinking it. Enhancing this pleasure is, and will always remain, our fundamental guideline at Taiwan tea Crafts. We believe the best way we can do this is to be as transparent as possible by emphasizing accessibility to the best teas and proposing the most unbiased information about them. This is why we don’t splash our faces everywhere on the site, nor do we waste your time in imposing our wisdom on the subject. if this is you cup of tea,there are already many who do this if you like this kind of approach, and there is certainly no need for another one here. Our aim is to be the best conduit possible between you and the Taiwanese people, culture and land that bring you such exceptional teas. We will admit to one thing though: we are biased about Taiwan and we tend to use many superlatives when talking about anything from this island. Please see in this tendency nothing more than a mere expression of our enthusiasm and love for this country and its people, and a passion for our work here at Taiwan Tea Crafts.

This being said, giving space on our website to present some of the people responsible for the teas we propose and make available to you was the next natural step for us. And to launch this series, we chose the hardest person to present as he has become a good friend of ours, Mr. Gao, the maker behind our Lishan High Mountain Spirit Oolong Tea. If you wish to follow us, let’s travel together in words and pictures up to his village in the Lishan range, as we did last Fall to pick-up our Winter Lot from him.

Mr. Gao, you will see from his facial features, is not Chinese, he is an Atayal. And this is as much a defining aspect of the tea he makes as it is an undeniable feature of the man’s character and disposition. Of Austronesian descent, the Atayals were one of the original settlers of this island, about 8000 years before the first Han settlements of the 17th century! This may come as a surprise to some to hear about communities of different ethnical origin than the Han Chinese in Taiwan, but when you are here, this is something that is quite visible. In fact, many of these ethnic communities are taking concrete action in asserting their rightful place in Taiwanese society fuelled by a revival of ethnic pride. What must be said is that this has not always been the case. Like many ethnic minorities anywhere in the world, they have long been subjected to many forms of assimilation and acculturation by the ruling ethnic group, from the Hans, to the Europeans, to the Japanese, and finally to the reign of the KMT not so long ago. Our trip on the last weekend of October 2012 to visit Mr. Gao in Lishan was as much a visit into Atayal land in the central mountains of Hehuanshan as a visit to meet a member of that community as this is where they retreated to live their lives and build their communities, pushed back by centuries of repressive measures.

We left very early on a Saturday morning to beat the rush of Fall tourist buses that would be following our same route through Sun Moon Lake and then up along Highway 14 that follows the central spine of the island on a north south axis on the Hehuanshan range climbing to 3275 m (the highest designated highway in East-Asia), then up to the Dayuling crossroad with Highway 8 (buses are not allowed to go that far, thank God). We would then veer left to cross the tunnel to the other side of the range into Lishan, its cosy little village, it’s famous farm (Fushoushan) and follow a narrow road along the old mountain retreat of one of its most illustrious past resident: Chan Kai-shek, then, gradually making our way back on the other side of the mountain towards the south, we would, at one point, plunge 800 m below the main road into a gorge on a very narrow trail where each of the more than 30 hairpin turns required backing up the vehicle to execute. Our destination: the Atayal village of Cuiluan where we arrived at sun down.

What I just described in a few sentences clocked in at a bit more than 200 km and took seven hours to get there, at a leisurely pace mind you, but still. I have spared you a step by step commentary of what was seen along the road. I would rather invite you at this point to explore the several pictures below which I hope will convey a bit better the scenery and convince you to put a similar trip on your agenda if you ever come to Taiwan. Anyway, there are no words to describe the beauty and breathtaking scenery of the Taiwan Mountains (and dare I say, tea!). If you ever can come this way, the most popular trajectory though would be to veer right at Dayuling and make your way down through Taroko gorge: possibly to most well known geographical attraction of Taiwan, after Taipei 101 of course. Finally, If you are a bit disappointed not to find any tea gardens at the Dayuling crossroads, well, let’s say you’re not the first one. Stay tuned, a future posting will help elucidate this mystery.

This was not our first encounter with Mr. Gao and his beautiful family. We met them a few times during tea gatherings. We drank their tea beforehand and this has triggered a genuine interest in us to go to the source, intrigued as we were about the distinctive character of this Lishan tea. We showed no resistance towards their genuine friendliness and persistent invitations and made arrangements to come and see them during the Winter 2012 picking season. Our tight schedule pushed us back to the last weekend of October which coincided with the last days of picking at their garden before the close of Winter.

Arriving in the village of no more than a few hundred souls was like penatrating a gothic cathedral at sun down. Acting as stained glass, the warm October light was filtered by the mist of the clouds we were bathing in. The immensity of the gorge and verticality of it felt like walking down the nave leaving you with a feeling that something bigger than you was behind all this. Was this the spirit of the Atayal ancestors that inhabited these mountains for millenniums? I would tend to believe so. Anyway, we were clearly in another world than the one that is bathing in another kind of soup on the coastal plains a few mountains away. As we sat down for the welcoming tea, the conversation already expanded into the broad subject of Atayal history. We learnt that  his community lived on the top plateau before they were, yet again, pushed away by the establishment of the Fushoushan Farm and the old dictator’s requirement of having vast expanses of land for his pastoral weekend reflections at his mountain retreat. It is necessary to point out that Fushoushan Farm, which is also a famous appellation in the world of High Mountain Tea, was established by the KMT to give work to some of the thousands of de-commisioned soldiers that had fled the mainland when ousted by the revolutionary troops of Mao. This beautiful Farm, which is well worth the visit, has a bleaker story than the one you will hear from the official information given by the Farm staff… Nevertheless, the Atayal communities in the range made the best of these new conditions and settled on whatever lower plateaus they could find in the range. This is one of them… but there is no plateau here, just a short line where the inclination is not as sharp as elsewhere. What you do find though is the necessary stream of fresh water that remains one of the necessary requirements for Atayals settlements. This stream happens to flow just next to the tea factory and it is its trickling that we hear in the background as we drink every word of Mr. Gao’s story.

… it was like having a gaiwan of freshly infused leaves stuck to our noses all the time; simply divine!

After a delicious meal shared with the expanded family that included the elder generation, we got a tour of the premises. I have to say that this new factory has one of the best layouts and cleanest set-up that I’ve witnessed in all the high mountain workshops I’ve visited. Moving to the higher level, just above the firing and rolling room, we find the indoor withering rooms. The day’s pickings were there waiting for the next day transformations. As this is an enclosed space that looks like a solarium, I let you imagine the perfume that lingered in the air, it was like having a gaiwan of freshly infused leaves stuck to our noses all the time; simply divine! Then, apologetically, Mr. Gao opens a door adjacent to the withering solarium to show us our quarters for the night. This is where he built some rooms for the staff that often required to stay over for the night duties. He assured us the staff has left the place clean enough for us. We reassured him and thanked him, overjoyed at the prospect of dozing off bathed in such fragrance!

This was not a Chinese tea I was drinking. It was a tea like only an Atayal could make.

The following morning, after a deep and restful sleep that only such pristine mountain air can bring, we indulged: in the warm rays that this beautiful Sunday brought about, and in the golden yellow ones of the nectars we were required to taste. After all, we did come for business (what a distasteful word in such circumstances!). For each lot we sampled, Mr. Gao had a story to tell on the making of each. He talked about them as if he was describing the personality of a person. I always thought that tea was a living beverage and one was to make conversation with it to understand and appreciate it. It has a past, a present, and  a future, especially high mountain oolongs that require several steepings to reveal themselves fully. In the case of Mr. Gao’s tea, there was another impalpable dimension to it, something that is noticeable to all, and at the same time impossible to define. It was definitely something that was way more than a sensorial impression, it was alive with an energy that could be felt. It was as if I was finally tasting what the meaning of the word “authentic” would taste, or the expression “mountain tea” as if tasting what a mountain tastes was ever possible. I state that in the case of this tea it is possible. There was certainly something multi-dimensional in the experience. At every sip, I felt connected with all the stories I had heard the previous night about the fate of the Atayals, about their proud culture, and especially their heritage. This was not a Chinese tea I was drinking. It was a tea like only an Atayal could make. And, as I thought further about this, I couldn’t help but think that I had experienced the cultural dimension that is referred to in the definition of the word “terroir”. A specific terroir is defined by much more than territorial, mineralogical, meteorological and other common attributes shared between agricultural products. It must also take in consideration the human elements of culture and tradition behind it. There was no clearer representation of this than in Mr. Gao’s tea.

Ancient cypres

“Next time you come, we’ll go and visit the old tree together”

As we concluded our business and regretfully had to think about making our way back before darkness, Mr. Gao pointed to the large picture on the wall that was facing me. It was a blow-up of a picture that a friend took of an 800 year old cypress tree that lives in the mountain somewhere above the village. The tree sits on a mound and despite its crooked and tilted wind-sculpted shape, it sits proud and strong overlooking all of the surrounding nature. Mr. Gao, tells me: “Next time you come, we’ll go and visit the old tree together”. He did not say “see the tree”, he clearly said “visit the tree”. Of course, I thought, the tree is a living entity, not just a thing, like everything else on this mountain, and like the tea we were bringing back from this mountain. “It will be an honour”, I replied while shaking his hand with all the vivacity I could find to express my friendship to him.

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Mr. Gao’s tea can be found here. Even though this entry describes events that surround our selection of our Winter 2012 Lot, we assure all of our distinguished  readers that the Spring 2013 Lot has no reason to be jealous about its predecessor.

 

2 replies
  1. Leaf
    Leaf says:

    Reading this article while planning to taste this High Mountain Spirit Lishan wulong is an incredible and humbling experience. I’ve always been saddened by the fact so many tea sellers hide their producers under the tea they sell, as if the producers were shameful secrets when they should actually shine above.

    Thank you so much for sharing those important and precious moments, and all those informations — reading you, I feel as if I’ve been there with you. This tea was already special to me, now it is doubly so. Thank you.

    Reply

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