Tong Mu Paradise: Secretive Birthplace of Black Tea

Hey teaheads! This is Don from Mei Leaf. In this video we're visiting the birthplace of black tea. In this video I'm going to be taking you on our pilgrimage to the most famed tea-producing village on earth, Tong Mu Guan, in Fu Jian province. This is the birthplace of black tea, the home of Lap Sang Su Xiong, and produces some of the most expensive tea on earth in We've got about a four-hour drive up a steep mountain pass, so let's go and visit the most legendary little village which has changed the drinking habits of billions of people across the globe. We're about half an hour away from Wuyi city, so the plan is to head into Wuyi city, meet of our producers there, have some tea, have a little chat, warm up from this cold weather, and then he says he's going to try and bring us into Tong Mu himself, or with him, so that if we're accompanied by a local we should hopefully be okay. Let's see. We arrived into Wuyi yesterday, and it was really, really pouring down with rain, so we sat, we drank some tea with one of our producers, and we decided not to go up to Tong Mu yesterday. It was pouring down with rain. There was nothing that we could see. Today it's looking a little bit brighter. I don't know if we're going to be able to see any picking and processing of black tea. It's always a risk. Whenever we're traveling we're trying to time it right so that we arrive when there's picking and processing, so that we can see it all, we can learn more, we can taste the tea, but you know, it's never a sure thing. Right now it's looking right on edge as to whether or not we're going to see anything up in Tong Mu. But we're going to head up anyway, so let's go and see if we get lucky. Welcome to Tong Mu Guan, one of the most famed and mercurial tea villages on earth. In the 1600s people from the northern part of Fujian wanted to escape all of the in the area, and they found this beautiful, secluded, high-mountain valley pass where they set up home. I have to say, even in this modern day they like to keep this village secluded. It's a UNESCO-protected area. It's stunningly beautiful, this wonderful, high-mountain valley with this river running through. I'm so desperate to get up there. I know that they are not particularly happy to see foreigners, especially recently. Apparently, there have been some foreigners who have been taking some protected species of plants, and taking them away from this village. So I've been told by our producers, and by the locals in Tong Mu, that it's not going to be easy to film up there. So we may have to move to mobile phones. It may get a little bit lo-fi. We will try our best to get as much footage as possible, because this is the historical birthplace of black tea, and it still produces some of the most incredible teas on the planet. Let's see what we can find in Tong Mu. We made it past the checkpoint. We don't want to go too far into where the museum area is, apparently. If we kind of go there there might be some issues. So we're trying to just kind of explore the area, and what has just struck me, it's just so different from any other tea place I've ever been, is that the teas are literally made by households here. I mean, you can see every household we pass. There are about 2,000 villagers living in Tong Mu, and it's very scattered around. So you don't have a sort of central area, it seems. It seems like they're all scattered in different areas, with their own sort of fields, you know, either close by, or a 40 minutes walk, or an hour's walk away. You've got these production facilities which are basically minute. We go way, way below micro-lot. We're talking nano-lot in terms of teas. You've got a few ovens, a small shed for withering. So I'm starting to understand why there's so much variation in the flavors of Tong Mu black tea, because it seems like with this level of individualism in production there's going happening, depending on the terroir, depending on the leaf, depending on the picking, and finally depending on how each person individually processes their tea. So it makes sense why we're always finding teas from Tong Mu to have such variation in terms of their flavor profiles. This area is just blowing my mind, really, truly. This is a household that smokes their tea. So the famous Lap Sang Su Xiong that's smoked, a lot of it is mass-produced in other provinces in China, not in here. The proper, authentic, Tong Mu-smoked Lap Sang, or Zheng Xuan Xiao Zhong. How quaint is this? You've got this oven here. You've got the pine, not wood, here. So this is the wood that they use for smoking, and then above will stack the tea for smoking, and that will produce the very famous smoked black tea, which is the first-ever black tea that was ever produced. Beautiful, cute little puppies just strolling around. Everything here is like so quaint, and just so charming. This has exceeded my expectations. I was always expecting Tong Mu to not live up to the expectations, because, you know, you go to tea-growing areas, and you go to famous tea districts, and they've become big towns, or even close to cities, because the production and the fame is so big, and it just grows the economy, and then everything just revolves around the selling of tea. But clearly, their desire in Tong Mu to keep things secluded, keep things local, is just super, super charming. I feel like we're really just lost in time. You've got this house, next to it you've got a little beehive, and then just right next door to their house trees, which look like they're wild-growing tea trees. They look quite old, actually, because they're Xiao Zhong varieties, and with the height of them they look like they could be 100-year-old tea trees. This is just strolling around. I mean, again, the fact that they protect this area, and really sort of make sure it's not exploited in any way, means that just in people's back gardens you've got 100-year-old tea trees just growing wild, and this is not unique. Everywhere we look we just see tea trees growing in amongst these houses, in amongst the most glorious landscape imaginable. I mean, if you could just see what we can see, we'll try and get some cutaways so that you can see the stunning location with this fresh river water running through. Te Hua probably doesn't get much better than this for tea, and it's right on their doorstep. Driving up this valley pass that they call Tong Mu village, but really it is just scene after scene like this, with tiny clusters of a few houses next to tea fields like this. Unbelievable Te Hua. We're about 1,000 meters up. You see bamboo forests, you see pine trees, you see palm trees, you see rocks, and of course you see these tea plants here. The locals call these the Qi Zhong Xiao Zhong variety, so that's new terminology for me. They are Xiao Zhong. They are a small leaf variety. These are the tea trees that are used to make the black teas that are so famed in this area. Just look at the earth that they're growing in. It's just rocky. It's just boulders and rocks. This is all you see all around it, and we've said it so many times before that Wu Yi area is well known for this. Tea trees growing and kind of grappling around rocks like this, which means slow-growing, which means richer tea, and also the minerality that these rocks must lend to the soil every time it rains gives that Yan Yun, gives that aftertaste, gives that body, gives that physical sensation to the tea that is so unique to this area. It is stunningly beautiful here. Words cannot describe the environment that we're in. It's got this sort of beautiful, calm, imperial, clean waterfalls, clear water, pine forests, and bamboos of, say, Qi Men, like that classic imperial, crouching tiger, hidden dragon sort of environment. But then it's also got this wild ruggedness, this sort of King Kong island, dramatic cliffs and rocks, and huge, huge expanses of forest that remind me a little bit of Yunnan. This has to be the most incredible tea terroir I have ever visited. I'm so privileged that we've been allowed in. There is nobody here, really. It's just us, and to be standing in tea fields that look like this I have an even higher esteem for Tong Mu tea. I'm always trying to decipher the differences between Jin Jun Mei. For those of you who don't know, Jin Jun Mei is one of the most expensive teas in the world, a black tea produced in this area, a relatively modern type of tea. You get different looks in Jin Jun Mei. You get some which are very, very golden, and some which are darker and more skinny, the buds. I tend to prefer Jin Jun Mei's that have a higher proportion of those darker buds, rather than the golden ones, to my taste. Now I've spoken to different producers. One producer insists that the best Jin Jun Mei comes from not just picking the top bud, but also picking these side buds here. This is a really great representation here, so you can see it. These side buds here are much smaller, much skinnier, than this one here. Now this one is going to grow much larger. This is still early in the season, so this is going to grow larger, and will be hairier than the side buds, and those hairs contribute to the gold color. So my opinion, and it is an opinion which I'm getting conflicting reports on, is that Jin Jun Mei is made with the buds, it's made with these buds, the top bud, and the side buds, but having a higher proportion of side buds means that you have tea which is darker, and to my taste at least, has a much more satisfying taste profile, rather than those very light, malty Jin Jun Mei's. We're really lucky. We've got some break in the weather, and we've got the auntie of one of our producers picking Jin Jun Mei. You can see she needs to wear her glasses, because the buds are so small. They're tiny. We're going to get a cutaway of her basket. I don't want to touch them. They're so precious. She's picking one at a time, sorting out any little small leaves, and then putting them in this little basket. Again, everything is done on a different scale here. Normally, when you go to tea-picking areas they're having these big baskets. They're filling with leaves. Here you've got this tiny little, strapped around her waist, little bucket where she's dropping the most precious little buds you've ever seen, and they're going to command a massive price at market. So Jin Jun Mei is being picked. We're not going to be able to see the processing, but again, the terroir here is just straight out of a dream. If you look behind me, that big row, those are tea trees. Those are tea trees. They are huge. We're going to go over there and take a little look, but they are huge. They must be well over a hundred. I can't imagine that they would be less than 200 years old. So we're talking Gu Shu here. We're talking Gu Shu tea. I want to know what tea they produce from those. We've climbed over here to look at these incredible tea bushes, these tea trees covered in moss. Really, really big. They are very, very old tea trees. I spoke to the auntie here, who's approaching 60, and she said her great-grandfather tended to these tea trees. So this is Lao Cong Shui Shen. So this is Shui Shen used to make Yan Cha. Don't forget that we are in Wuyi, the origin of Yan Cha. So they're picking Jin Jun Mei over there, and then they're going to make Lao Cong Shui Shen. You know, two super-premium teas, the most top-end teas in China, and it's just in their tea garden right next to their home. Incredible! Wow! Look at that! Wow! Look at this! The environment as well! And look at the cook! Hi! The cook! Beautiful! We're back in time, and it's a beautiful feeling. Look at that view though. Check out the view. Not a bad view from your kitchen. The tea tree is just there. The tea tree is just right there. And that one. Initially, we were thinking we were going to be able to see some Jin Jun Mei processing here, but it's a little bit too early. We obviously have to plan our trips in advance to try to time it right. Unfortunately, we didn't time this one right. It was going to be being processed now, today, but because of the sudden cooling down of weather in the last few days they've had to delay picking, which is perfectly understandable. So there's no activity going on here, but you can see how small the production facilities are in each household. So you can see they've got their rolling machine here, waiting for the leaves to arrive. They've got their little withering shed here, which is a wooden trough. They've got their bamboo mats for them to dry their tea, and then they've got their ovens here for doing baking. Really, really small, small production. I don't think I've ever seen something this small before. This is what we're seeing from household to household. Everywhere we go we see exactly the same setups. I really would have loved to have filmed some tea production, but as I said, the weather decided to trick us on this occasion. There are some special moments in your tea journey, and in my tea journey this is one of them, sitting in Tong Mu with Mr. Ji, a Tong Mu black tea master. For generations he has been making tea. I've asked him, how long, and he says, I don't know, my father, my grandfather, just a long, long time. To sit here in Tong Mu and drink Tong Mu Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong is something super, super special. We're tasting last year's tea. We're on about the 10th infusion, because I've been chatting with Mr. Ji all about tea production, and the spirit of black tea, and what makes Tong Mu tea so special. But sitting here drinking this sweet, smooth tea, I've asked him about his quality markers for tea, and he says, it's got to be sweet, it's got to be smooth, it's got to be pure tasting, it's got to have a nice, long finish, and most importantly, it must leave you feeling comfortable. So again, he went through the taste, he went through the aroma, he went through the look of the leaf, and the body sensation all in one sentence. Yeah, he says it looks like edible oil. It's the first time I've ever heard that phrase before, but I like it. It does look like edible oil, and it certainly is more than just edible. It is delicious. We're about to try Master Ji's Jin Jun Mei. I'm super excited about that. I just want to show you this rolling machine. This is the classic rolling machine which is used in all tea production for making black teas, for making Oolong teas. You load this chamber up with leaves. It spins around, and inside the leaves twist, and extract those oils which then can oxidize in their... I'm going to call it an oxidation shed. That's what I'm going to call that. For Jin Jun Mei I was saying, but how can you do that with Jin Jun Mei? He said, you can hand-roll it. Sometimes they do hand-roll it if it's super, super, tip, tip, tippy, but otherwise they use this IKEL mini version of the roller. How very, very cute. So this is a small one where you can put your Jin Jun Mei in for rolling to make sure that they're just a little bit more delicate, or a lot more delicate, with that tea. Let's taste this JJM. Wow! See, normally with Jin Jun Mei you have a sort of split. You've got the flowery Jin Jun Mei's. You've got the chocolatey, fruity Jin Jun Mei's. I tend to be more inclined towards the chocolatey, fruity type. When I see the color of this liquor I'm thinking, mmm, it's going to be flowery. It's going to be one of those ones. It is very flowery, but I am then getting fruit and chocolate towards the end. So I'm getting all flavors in this one. This is really, really something special. Such a pure taste, such a clean taste, so aromatic. Getting that cocoa, getting a sort of lychee, and a little bit of... Which flower is it? Rose. Rose, lychee, chocolate, but all very, very bright, light, nothing too deep and pungent. Take a look at the leaves. Ooh! The smell. Really, really lovely smell on those wet leaves. Really, really lovely. Ah! Real toasted brownie note. Oh! Looking good, people. I don't know the price of this, but it is a really, really good one, and we have tried a lot of Jin Chun Mei's, as you probably are aware. Most of the time they're all being produced for looks. Beautiful, golden buds, but not for taste. This is definitely a tea made with absolute love and craft. Really sweet finish as well. That might be the water though. So what we're going to do is we're going to grab a sample. I don't want to get sucked into the magic of this area, and this moment. Whenever we're tasting the mountains I'm very well aware. I have made mistakes before, where I just get so overexcited by the environment and the atmosphere that I just make buying decisions. Always, always, always need to reset, calm down, take the sample, taste it in your standard environment, and then you can assess it properly. Kindly, they've given us some nice, big, chunky bags of samples. So we're going to take these samples down the mountain with us, and really assess it before we make any decisions. But it is a really, really top, top shelf Jin Chun Mei. We're about to head back down the mountain. It has been a magical experience for me to visit Tong Mu today. Anybody who knows black tea will tell you that Tong Mu produces some of the most characterful and flavorful teas on the planet. I was speaking to Mr. Jie, who has generations of experience in making black tea, and I asked him, why is it that Tong Mu black tea is so special? He talked about the terroir. He talked about the altitude. He talked about the special varieties here. He talked about this amazing water that is flowing through this valley. He talked about the rocks. He talked about all the standard things regarding terroir. But then he actually admitted to me that he doesn't actually truly know. Often when we make these videos we try to go through all of the technicalities for how to make a tea, and we were a bit disappointed when we came here that we weren't going to be able to do that. But actually, I think it's fitting, because when I spoke to him about his technique every answer was, we don't know. For example, how long do you smoke it for? We smoke it until we feel it's ready. What temperature do you smoke it at? Not too hot, not too cold. Everything was very, very much based on instinct, rather than accuracy. I think that this is the key here. The reason why Tong Mu tea is so special is the attitude. Yes, it's very, very secluded and secretive. However, I think it is this special attitude that comes from seclusion from the outside world that gives these people a freedom to express themselves. Forget the standardization. Just allow their instincts to flow, and craft the tea that they would love to drink. I think it is that freedom which makes their black tea so special, and brings magic to Tong Mu village. That's it teaheads. Check out our other videos. Fire over any questions, comments, or video ideas. Taste our tea wherever you are in the world by browsing our website online, or visit our teahouse in London. Other than that, I'm Don from Mei Leaf. Thank you for being a part of the revelation of true tea. Stay away from those tea bags, keep drinking the good stuff, and spread the word, because nobody deserves bad tea. Bye, and thanks for watching.