Yunnan tea is like life: life is about learning, and wisdom is cultivated through practice.
Every time I open a cake of Xiaguan tuocha, I first study its bowl-mortar curve. I tap the tea gently with a finger, judging its density by the sound—a habit taught to me more than thirty years ago by an old tea man in Dali. I had just entered the trade then, and in a tea shop on an old street in Kunming I tasted an eight-year-aged Xiaguan tuocha for the first time: the liquor deep red like amber, the aged aroma striking the nose, and with one sip the returning sweetness lingered in my throat. At that moment I knew I would never be without this taste for the rest of my life.
The story of tuocha begins in 1902. That year, craftsmen in Xiaguan, Dali, created this unique compressed tea form. Xiaguan stood at a key town on the Tea Horse Road: to its west ran the clear springs of the Eighteen Streams of Cangshan, to its east the rushing waters of the Lancang River, gathering the fragrance of teas from all over Yunnan. Building on the round tuan tea and the “Yunnan girl” tuan tea, the merchants’ guild of Xizhou, Dali, created the world’s first modern bowl-mortar-shaped tuocha. In 1916, the tea was shipped via Kunming and Zhaotong to Xufu in Sichuan and the Tuo River area, capturing the Sichuan-Chongqing market at a stroke; the name “tuocha” gradually evolved from “tuo cha” and has been used ever since.
I often tell the younger generation: making tuocha is like being a person—you must withstand pressure and endure storage. The Xiaguan tuocha making technique gathers fine sun-dried maocha of Yunnan’s large-leaf variety, passed through more than ten procedures—aging in highland warehouses, sieving, sorting, blending, weighing, steaming, kneading, pressing, shaping, bag-release, drying, and packaging—and not one of them may be done carelessly. The old masters often said: “From palm to heart, in fractions of an inch, skill reveals itself.” Tea has grades high and low, but people of every station may enjoy it. Whether you drink a hundred-yuan daily tea or a treasured aged tuo, the craftsmanship is the same.
That compressed tea became the mainstay commodity of the Tea Horse Road has its scientific reasons. The bowl-mortar shape is compact and sturdy, resistant to moisture and crushing on long journeys; in its compressed state, the tea’s internal microbial environment is more stable, aiding the transformation and enhancement of flavor. Dali sits at about 2,000 meters altitude, and the temperature and humidity of the highland climate provide an exceptional environment for slow aging. Tuocha stored in highland warehouses yields a liquor that is deep red and bright, a taste that is mellow with returning sweetness, and a pronounced aged aroma. I once spent an afternoon in a tea warehouse in Xiagong, watching tuocha cakes arrayed neatly on their shelves, the air suffused with a faint aged fragrance—as if time itself had slowed down.
From a health perspective, after years of aging, the tea polyphenols in tuocha have oxidized into gentler substances, easy on the stomach and suitable for daily drinking. I am past my seventies, and still tuocha is my daily companion: a cup of aged tuo after meals aids digestion, cuts grease, and leaves body and mind at ease. Friends ask me the secret of my health, and I say: “No miracle elixir needed—a cup of good tea suffices.”
Today, the Xiaguan tuocha making technique has been inscribed on the list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity. This is not only recognition of a traditional handicraft, but affirmation of the profound depth of Chinese tea culture. Every time I treat friends to aged tuo, I tell this story of a century’s transmission. My friends often marvel: so much wisdom of so many generations is hidden in a single cup of tea. In today’s globalized era, heritage crafts face new opportunities and challenges. How to keep the essence of tradition while adapting this craft to modern market demand is the question every generation of inheritors must ponder. The century of continuous development of Xiaguan tuocha may already hold the answer: hold fast to quality, and move with the times. As I often say, drinking tea is a lifelong practice—no rushing it, and no slacking.
With tea we make friends—please, have a taste.
Author: Lam Sam (LamSam), the Old Tea Head
ZENTEA MANOR
Alliance Supply Chain Co.
www.zentea-shop.com
