Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Posted by 醉茶生 at 08:30 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Categories: Tea

In his 1995 novel, High Fidelity, Nick Hornby write about a record store owner, Rob Fleming, who spends his life making up lists of “Top 5"s: the top 5 episodes of Cheers, the top five floor-fillers at The Groucho, the top 5 Elvis Costello songs, and so forth. Tea also has its top ten (中國十大名茶), although exactly which teas make it to the list varies from source to source. The only thing that all the versions of the list have in common is that Longjing is always listed first. Here is one version of the list:

1. Lóngjǐng 西湖龍井 from the West Lake (in Zhèjiāng Province)
2. Bìluóchūn 洞庭碧螺春 from Dòngtíng (in Jiāngsù Province)
3. Tiěguānyīn 安溪鐵觀音 from Ānxī (in Fújiàn Province)
4. Máofēng 黃山毛峰 from Huángshān (in Ānhuī Province)
5. Yínzhēn 君山銀針 from Jūnshān (in Húnún Province)
6. Qímén Hóngchá 祁門紅茶 from Qímén (in Ānhuī Province)
7. Dà Hóng Páo 武夷大紅袍 from Wǔyí (in Fújiàn Province)
8. Guāpiàn 六安瓜片 from Liù’ān (in Ānhuī)
9. Báiháo Yínzhēn 白毫銀針 (in Fújiàn Province)
10. Pú-ěr 云南普洱 (in Yúnnán Province)

To the tea connoisseur, the most startling thing about this list is how different the teas on it are. The first two teas on the list are as different as chalk and cheese. Longjing has a very savoury flavour, like fried chicken or steamed fish; Biluochun is lighter and sweeter, like peanut candy. At the bottom of the list, Baihao is a very very light white tea that is almost sugar-sweet, whereas Pu-er is a dark, musty tea, like old books or camphor wood. While one may express a preference for apples over oranges, it is hardly meaningful to rank apples above oranges on this basis. Number one on this list is not ten times better than number ten on the list. If the list is useful at all, it is that it serves to highlight the best of the best. The main problem with lists such as these is that they may solidify into dogma. Tea is a living, growing thing that is constantly changing. Economic development and enterprise bring change; Tieguanyin used to be known as a fairly dark tea, heavily roasted, with the fragrance of dried fruit; in the last twenty years or so, many plantations have started producing greener version of the tea that have been well received. New teas and new versions of old teas are constantly appearing. The list is of uncertain antiquity, but is probably around a century old, possibly more. Since the list was formulated, Taiwan has started producing some of the best oolong teas in the world, but its teas, like Gāoshān 高山 and Líshān 梨山, do not appear on the list (although Dòngdǐng 凍頂 appears in some versions).

Perhaps the best use of this list is as a spotter’s guide for the tea-novice. Just as amateur astronomers may spend a night in spring ticking off galaxies and nebulae from Messier’s catalogue; so working your way through the list of “top 10 teas” may allow you to experience something of the breadth and depth of flavours that Chinese tea is able to offer. At the very least, you will have expanded your horizons beyond the narrow world of Lipton’s gold blend and PG tips.

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