Tea trees

Large-leaf varietal tea trees in Lincang and further south in Xishuangbanna bordering both Myanmar and Laos, are home to some of the oldest tea trees in the world. Some of these arboreal wonders have enjoyed over a thousand years of summers and even longer. Our timespans are dwarfed in comparison. 

Tea trees stand solitary (a single tree) or in communities."Ancient," "old" are common appellations to describe the age of these trees, but without cutting down a tree and counting the annual growth rings, the exact age of a tree is debatable. Estimates vary in the hundreds to a few thousand years. Numerical calculations aside, these old tea trees are a testament to the "genealogies of tea," the migration of people, of tea seeds and tea knowledge, of mythical beings that speak of "the enduring, the always is." 

All tea mountains and gardens are in my estimate natural tea tree museums. One of the earliest meanings of the word museum comes from the Greek "mouseion"- "seat or shrine of the Muses. " It's not hard to imagine that in these tea mountains or tea gardens reside Tea Muses who are the protectors, the guardians of these vast green spaces. 

Tea leaves are plucked from young bushes (roughly 15-20 years), medium-aged bushes (roughly 20-80 years old), old trees (roughly 80-90 years), "ancient" trees calibrated in ages 100 years and above, and leaves from "wild tea trees," trees that have been left uncultivated in tea forests or "ancient" tea gardens. 

Each tree will produce its own flavor profile unique to where the tree or evergreen bush is grown. Generally, the older the tree, the less astringency in the tea leaves, but less bitterness is not just about the tea leaves but how they are processed from the moment the leaves are plucked to finally drying the leaves in the sun. Older processed teas are also called vintage teas and are generally much kinder to stomachs in contrast to leaves plucked from younger trees or bushes. 

It is not uncommon to have tea leaves plucked not from one single bush or tree, but "mixed" or "blended" with different aged leaves. While many search for a tea from a single tree or tea estate, they may in fact be getting a number of different aged tea leaves from different aged trees or bushes. So much of Pu'er tea is labelled "old" or "ancient" with many buyers assuming that the loose or compressed leaves are hundreds of years old when in fact they might be less than 20 years. The modern Pu'er tea world is plagued with these fuzzy concepts of "old" and "ancient" which deliberately manipulate and affect the palate's of many Pu'er tea drinkers. 

Added to this confusion, are claims that the leaves have been sourced and harvested from one single tree or bush. The Pu'er tea world has its fair share of fake or counterfeit teas which purport to be sourced from a "famous" tea mountain and usually fetch exorbitant prices.

Many of the wild tea trees in Mengku are no longer elusive unicorns, some fenced off for protection. But not all these majestic trees and others across southwest Yunnan are protected. The "King of Tea Trees" at Nannuoshan in Menghai, Xishuangbanna, for instance, estimated at over 800 years, died in 1994. I admire, as does the poet Diane Lockward, "the longevity of trees, their fidelity to stick it out," yet surely something could have been done to mitigate the passing of this tree: 

Every death means a divine occasion 

Has been taken from us, a divine perspective,   

Though the loss gets only a line or two in the news.   

--"Days of Heaven" by Carl Dennis

About two meters from this now deceased tree resides another old tree said to be almost 800 years old also known as "The King of Tea Trees." Some have also dubbed the tree as "the son" of the deceased "King." After the tree's demise in 1994, tea farmers on Nanshuoshan were determined not see other sacred tea trees follow a similar fate. A sign on a tea house located in the vicinity of the new King reads: "History has Bestowed Upon Us The Sacred Duty of Protecting Ancient Tea Trees." 

I don't believe one tree should be singled out as "the king of tea trees" or "the king of kings" since all of these trees regardless of their age are all part of a royal and hallowed ecosystem which deserves our admiration and care. And if the tea leaves from these trees are processed properly, they will produced something equally sacred.