Before it was a beverage, tea was a dietary supplement mixed into soups and dishes. An imperial tribute in the 10th century, like salt and other commodities, tea was exchanged for horses with the Mongols, whose diet was essentially meat-based.
From the TANG dynasty (618-907) onwards, tea became a national beverage, highly prized by nobles and the Imperial Court. Precious objects appear, as well as a technique known as “tea art”. During this period, tea was also associated with Buddhism (the Chan school), which is still used today in Japan for the “tea ceremony”, where powdered green tea is beaten.
The most important treatise on tea is Lu Yu ‘s (photo) 758 Chajing, (The Tea Classic) in three volumes and ten sections. It describes in great detail the cultivation, harvesting, preparation, water (appropriate sources), objects to use, how to drink and so on.
Tea arrived in Europe thanks to the Indo-Dutch company, around 1602. In 1640, Dutch physician Nicolas Tulpius published a medicinal treatise on tea, probably inspired by the tales of sailors from the Orient. By 1655, the drink was already widespread in Parisian high society.
Two French physicians also wrote about tea: Morisset in 1648 and Jonquet in 1657. The tea toured the courts of Europe and was adopted by the Imperial Court of Russia. It first appeared in England around 1661, but it was in 1669 that the first shipment made its official debut with the Compagnie des Indes. Such was the success of tea in England that it became an economic force, provoking a “tea war” with the Middle Kingdom.
The enormous financial stakes involved meant that special ships had to be built to bring the precious tea harvests to Europe and America as quickly as possible. Originating in China, tea is now the most widely drunk beverage in the world after water.
In China, there are as many varieties of tea as there are producers, from 8,000 to 9,000 depending on the source. Chinese teas are classified into six families:
– Yellow tea
– The white
– Green tea
– Wulong tea (Oolong)
– Red tea, called black by Westerners
– Black tea
Each family develops into a sub-family of varieties. The equivalent of grands crus are called Grands Jardins, which can be found in every family. In general, these Grands Jardins come from small-scale productions, some of which were reserved for the Imperial Court and are still used today by the government.
Red teas are so called by the Chinese because of the color of the infusion (it’s our black tea). Wulong is fermented between 15% and 60%, and those fermented at 15% are known as “blue-green”. They are tasted in Gong Fu Cha. White and yellow teas are rarer and more subtle, prepared with care.
Other teas, such as Pu Er, are in great demand today; they can be kept and improve for many years, as can Sheng Cha, whose fermentation has not been stopped. Pu Er Sheng Cha are the origin of tea and Chinese pharmacopoeia, imperial tributes traded by the Court to the Mongols in exchange for horses. Caravans traded from Tibet to the Persian Gulf along the famous Tea Routes.
Like our wines and spirits, tea is a knowledge, a culture. All the teas we present are teas whose origins we know exactly. As well as terroirs, picking times, processing, transport and storage. Two trips a year are devoted solely to our tea supplies. Our catalog therefore presents our teas with their picking times.