Cloud tea is like life; life is learning, wisdom is cultivation.<\/p>\n
Dear old friends, for a tea house to be crowned “King of Tea” is never an empty name. Today let us look closely at what sets Song Pin Hao’s teas apart \u2014 how it came to stand out among so many tea houses.<\/p>\n
First, the material. Song Pin Hao’s leaves come entirely from the fine ancient tea gardens of the Yiwu region. Yiwu’s ancient trees commonly stand from several decades to several hundred years old; their roots run deep and draw abundant nourishment. And Yiwu’s altitude, climate and soil suit the tea tree perfectly, so its leaves are especially rich in inner substance. Song Pin Hao’s buying is strict: only spring-picked buds of one bud and two leaves, or one bud and three \u2014 at that stage the leaf’s tenderness is just right and its inner substances richest and most balanced. Leaves of other seasons are clearly inferior to spring tea, and Song Pin Hao will not use them.<\/p>\n
Next, the craft. Song Pin Hao’s tea-making inherits Yiwu’s traditional hand methods; from kill-green (fixing), rolling, and sun-drying to steaming and pressing, every step follows the old ways. Kill-green demands the most skill: the iron wok must hold around two hundred degrees, and once the fresh leaves go in they must be tossed without pause so every leaf heats evenly. Underdone, the tea keeps a green, raw smell; overdone, it loses its vitality and its later transformation suffers. Rolling, too, has its measure \u2014 too light and no juice comes out, too hard and the leaf structure breaks. With decades of experience, Song Pin Hao’s masters bring each step to just the right point.<\/p>\n
As for the cup: the hallmark of Song Pin Hao’s teas is “sweet, mellow and thick.” The liquor pours golden and luminous; at first sip comes a faint bitterness and astringency that quickly turn to sweetness \u2014 a returning sweetness that lingers remarkably, leaving the mouth sweet and moist long after. The soup has superb body \u2014 a “rice-water feel,” nothing thin or watery. The throat-feel runs deep and long, leaving a cool, open sensation in the throat after drinking. Together, these are the very bearing of the “King of Tea.”<\/p>\n
From the wellness angle, because its material is fine and its craft precise, Song Pin Hao’s tea keeps an especially rich store of active compounds. High polyphenol content gives strong antioxidant power; a full range of amino acids soothes the nervous system; and Yiwu ancient-tree tea holds unique aromatic substances that relax the mind and ease stress. I often advise friends under heavy work pressure to brew a fine Yiwu raw tea and slowly savor its passage from bitterness to sweetness \u2014 a miniature of life itself: bitter first, sweet after, with the returning sweetness lasting long.<\/p>\n
Tea has grades high and low, but everyone may enjoy it regardless of status. Song Pin Hao is crowned King of Tea not because its price is highest, but because its quality is steadiest and best stands the test of time. Many Song Pin Hao teas from those years remain excellent after decades of keeping \u2014 the finest proof of the title. Drink tea without blindly chasing fame, but knowing a few truly capable teas helps sharpen your own palate.<\/p>\n
Next time the chance comes, try a session of Song Pin Hao. You need not buy the costiest old tea \u2014 their newer releases in recent years are worth trying too. The inheritance of quality is continuous; a good brand does not fade with time. Making friends through tea \u2014 please, have a cup.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
Author: Lam Sam (LamSam), the Old Tea Head
ZENTEA MANOR
Alliance Supply Chain Services Limited
www.zentea-shop.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cloud tea is like life; life is learning, wisdom is cultivation. Dear old friends, for a tea house to be crowned “King of Tea” is never an empty name. Today let us look closely at what sets Song Pin Hao’s teas apart \u2014 how it came to stand out among so many tea houses. First, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lamsam-tea-notes-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13820"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13822,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13820\/revisions\/13822"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}