After a whole winter chill, spring breeze brush, vegetation gradually sprouts out of the soil, sparrows begin to tweet. Changzhou, in a beautiful emerald-decorated spring, people will not neglect local green tea which fits well with spring’s green. On the contrary, it is doubly-concerned, when the tea buds begin to show the very first tip of green in the fields, when mountains and valleys are filled with tea buds’ greenish color, people will notice that spring is already here.
As early as the middle of the Tang Dynasty, the tea-making technology in Changzhou had reached the highest level at that time, and the white tea produced in Changzhou became the imperial tribute. Of course, people who understand tea truly won’t care about the reputations on tea too much. They would rather fancy fresh new tea produced in local area instead.
Liyang White Tea
White tea is a kind of tea created by Chinese tea farmers and belongs to one of the six traditional Chinese tea categories. Skipped the curing or rolling process, this kind of tea only goes through the drying process after tea picking. Every year after the Tomb Sweeping Day(Qingming Festival) before Guyu(a specific solar term) period, walking in the mountains and fields, looking up the mountains and valleys, visitors will be dazed with a great amount of green tea trees that crawl allover the mountains: light green, tender green, emerald green, dark green…… The tea-picking girl, carrying the bamboo basket, was busy in the mountains. With nimble hands, she quickly danced lightly among the tea trees and threw the picked tea leaves gently to the tea basket on her back from time to time.
The white tea from Liyang Tianmu Lake has a very high popularity in China. Although it is not among the top ten famous teas in China, it has accumulated a good reputation. White tea is a rare tea species, which can only be cultivated in a specific ecological environment. Tianmu Lake has created very favorable conditions for the growth of tea trees. In addition to one of the most famous tourist attractions in Changzhou, Tianmu Lake water is protected at the national level, local soil’s selenium content is more than 1 mg per kilogram, ensuring the quality of tea leaves produced there. Compared with other tea, Liyang White Tea contains more amino acids, which is particularly welcomed by female customers,and that is why it is also called the “beauty tea”.
Jintan’s Finch Tongue Tea
People who do not know much about tea are very unfamiliar with “Finch’s Tongue Tea”. Even if it’s not clear exactly what kind of tea it is, its lovely name suggests that it looks like a sparrow’s tongue, small, flat and pointed at the top.
Finch’s Tongue Tea is grown in Maoshan, where several tea plantations have made the list of “China’s Most Beautiful Tea Fields”. The tea garden is divided into neat and spectacular blocks by the road, which looks like a green ocean when viewed from high above. Rows of tea trees look like waves on the sea. Tourists here are full of joy to change into the strong Jiangnan characteristics of blue print cloth, experience the fun of tea picking. When the fresh leaves are picked and returned to the tea-making farm, they are covered with bamboo sieves, with a faint fragrance overflowing, and a strong sense of achievement.
A glass is the best container for making finch’s tongue tea, which stands upright in the water and bobs up and down like a delicate ballet. Pale green, as if along with the warm sunshine of spring poured in. People who drink tea taste the flavor and see the artistic conception.
In spring, the most comfortable thing to do is to invite good friends, sitting at a square table, boiling a pot of green tea, chatting and drinking. Tea, a small leaf, infuses the atmosphere with serenity and ease in a warm cozy day in Changzhou.
