Tuesday, February 21, 2012

2011 TOST - Solar Withering (10/19/2011)




The fresh leaves we saw earlier, plucked by those skillful ladies in uncle of Wang's tea field delivered to the plant...Our members are getting ready to hands on working on these leaves...

Wang-Ting tea plant has installed shades to adjust the sunlight...also with transparent vinyl as optional for raining days. In addition to the shades over the top, Wang also installed net screen from the surrounding sides to prevent the strong wind or avoid the contaminated air/smoke or naughty birds' visit. All these screens and shades are remote controlled and can instantly react to the weather changes in the high mountain area.

Our leaves are spread on the trays to be handled by each member with name tagged...and Mr. Wang's team are using large canvas sheets for big volume of tea leaves to rest and enjoy solar withering...

By looking at these photos now, I believe you will be able to feel the passion of our members. (Wang's relatives and neighbors were there to see and wonder why these foreign friends come all the way from US and Canada to "play" with the leaves?)

How long the solar withering process should be? It is all subject to tea masters on site to make the decision. There is a good way of saying that - you don't follow the book to make tea, you will have to deal with different leaves with the weather condition and make the adjustment from time to time... Morning leaves, noon leaves, afternoon leaves, all subject to change... When the leaves are ready to move indoor... it could be a 911 call... we all have to listen to the order.

In martial art, we get used to the word - "Gongfu", actually all these craftsmanship involved in making good tea requires great efforts, concentration, patience and many years of practice. This is our first step, only. A lot more to learn.

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