ZhangPing Narcissus

Region: ZhangPing, Fujian Province
Categoy: Oolong Tea
Shape: Square Compressed Tea
Color of dried tea: green, brown, yellow
Color of the soup: golden bright
Smell: A very unique orchid-flower smell
Flavor: Very quickly to go from bitterness to sweetness
Color of leftover: yellow leaf with red trim

Narcissus Tea is one kind of Oolong tea in Fujian province. It originated from the Northern part of Fujian（JianYang 建阳，JianOu建瓯). People believe that the narcissus tree was first found in a cave called "Zhu Xian(祝仙洞）". In the Fujian dialect, "Zhu" is the same pronunciation as "Shui", so local people call it "Shuixian", which means narcissus in Chinese.Also, the tea has a very special orchid and narcissus flavor, and that's the origin of the narcissus tea's name.

It is until the Qing dynasty (1857), a guy called Zheng Shibao from YongChun (Southern FuJian) brought the narcissus tree to Southern Fujian and then YongChun became into the origin of Southern Fujian narcissus tea. Based on different origins, narcissus tea is categorized into: Northern Fujian Narcissus, Southern Fujian Narcissus. 

Red A is Jianyang; C is Jianou; Green A is FuZhou, the capital of Fujian province

Green A is YongChun, Red A is FuZhou

Narcissus tea has a very unique orchild smell and usually lasts for more than 7 pours. It is not strong so it's ok to finish the whole 7+ pour. There's also narcissus flavor in the soup. Southern Fujian is also famous for its narcissus flower. It is really fun to drink the narcissus tea in winter with flourished narcissus flowers. The leftover leaf has a very unique "green leaf with red trim" feature. 

The leftover leaf with red trim. The cotton paper is very delicate with the seal of the manual workshop.

ZhangPing Narcissus

ZhangPing Narcissus is from Southern Fujian. The packaging of ZhangPing Narcissus is very special, which is called "mini compressed tea". It is seal-size pack wrapped with delicate cotton paper. When you open it up, it is square-shape tea pack with compressed thread-like tea leaves. 

Picture A: My own tea cup with very delicate narcissus tea packs.

Picture B: Mini pack narcissus tea with yellow, green, brown colored thread-like tea leaves.  

Compared to other narcissus tea, ZhangPing Narcissus is famous for its "light baked, light fermentation". Drinking the light-baked tea is like eating steamed vegetables, while well-baked is like braise in soy sauce. Chinese tea connoisseur like to tell which tea is more well-baked by tasting the flavor of the fire. The color of the dried-tea is different: light-baked tea is more bright while the well-baked is more dark. For the tea soup, it is the same: the light-baked one is more bright, and that is why ZhangPing narcissus's soup is so bright. Also, light-fermented tea is more green, while well-fermented is more red.

Picture A: First pour.The tea pack is still very condensed.It is not surprising why it usually lasts for 10 pours. 

Picture B: Golden bright tea soup.

Tea Meditation

ZhangPing narcissus tea is a very good example of the doctrine of mean in traditional Chinese culture. Different from other kinds of tea, it is very well packed and you can only see and smell its dried leaves when you open it up. Also, it takes time to know it. After 3 to 4 pours,the leaves could finally open up. But it lasts much longer than most of the other kinds of tea (seven pours on average). Wuyi narcissus (the most famous Northern Fujian narcissus) is more heavily baked and fermentation, which makes its soup more dark and thick-flavored,but it also covers the orchid-flower flavor.However, the ZhangPing narcissus is more balanced with both the bittersweetness of tea and the orchid flower, just like traditional Chinese people's "a little bit of everything"

Tea is not just a drink

This cartoon is actually a joke between me and my boyfriend. Since I started to learn Chinese tea this year, I get into it very quickly and always try to share those interesting knowledge I learnt with him. One day, I was telling him that as a tea connoirsseur, you need to bring your own tea cup to a tea house. So he asked me seriously: so do you need your own cone for a green tea ice cream?

Well, of course I am not THAT crazy! Actually one year ago, I am totally a coffee drinker. Tea, for me, is just a drink. It’s more like a subsitute for coffee in the afternoon. This year, I happened to visit several really cool tea houses in Beijing and fall in love with Chinese tea quickly. I gradually realize tea is not just a drink, it’s a culture. It has a lot to do with the Chinese history, geography and philosophy.

A lot of people know Chinese “blue-and-white” porcerlain. But not so many people know it has a close relationship with the Chinese tea. In the Tang Dynasty, people like to tell the tea’s quality by the color of the soup (the hot water you pour inside), so a white-inside tea tool became a perfect choice. However, this trend has been changed in the Song Dynasty, which is another important time period in the Chinese tea history. The emperor at that time, HuiZong, likes to drink tea in crude pottery. So the “blue-and-white” lost its dominant role since then.

Also, tea has a very close relationship with the the propagation of Buddhism in China, both chronologically and geographically. Chinese people started to drink tea at a very early stage. But it is until the Tang Dynasty that tea started to become a nationwide drink. And that is also the time that Buddhism started to become popular in this country. The propagation pathway of Chinese tea is very similiar to Buddhism as well, which is from the Southern part to the Northern part of China. Tea is always considered to be a symbol of peaceful and cool mind which matches the Buddhism philosophy perfectly well.

You can also see ancient Chinese philosophy from tea clearly. For example, a lid cup has three parts that will never get separated: the lid, the cup and the mattress. Chinese people believe that “the universe is a balance between the sky, the earth and the people”. A small tea cup contains a deep meaning: for all the creatures living in the planet (tea in this example), you need the sky as a lid, an earth to stand, and a person to foster.

Fascinating, isn’t it? Well, now I’m really thinking about bringing my cone for the next green tea ice cream.