Telling a Story

Neither my girlfriend nor I have ever been backpacking. To be precise, and to be fair, I have never been camping at all. The closest that I have come was in the Summer of my junior year of high school. Some friends and I stayed but a single night at a campsite a mere three minute walk to the beach, about two hours south of where I live. There was a bathroom just a moments walk in the opposite direction.

My parents, forced out of the neighborhood of my youth by skyrocketing cost of living, cashed out and moved to Oregon last fall. No longer are they a simple ten minute drive away, and sadly I cannot see them as frequently as I would like to. As it happens, my girlfriend has family in Vancouver, Washington, so we arranged a trip to see my family and hers. 

We traveled by way of Crater Lake. If you have never been, allow me to recommend it with the greatest enthusiasm I can muster. It is one of the most breathtaking natural features you will ever see, a sight which defies all words, a sight which leaves one feeling so very, very small.

Saddled with her brother's backpacking gear, my girlfriend and I arrived at Crater Lake at 5:15 in the evening with the hopes to find a back-country campsite for the night. Our troubles began when the ranger at the entrance informed us that we needed to obtain a permit from the Ranger Station by 5pm. Stricken with fear, we dashed down the road to the station and found that it was not yet closed. We were greeted by a cheerful park ranger who happily issued us a permit. Small crisis averted, we drove back down the road to the nearby market to pick up a couple of essentials and a freeze-dried meal for our dinner.

With our car parked at the lot closest to the trailhead we had selected and, backpack loaded with far more gear than two people could possibly need for a single night in the woods, we made our way downhill and away from the sounds of cars and other humans. 

Hiking at any elevation above a few hundred feet is tiring for a city boy. Barely ten minutes and already exhausted, we passed a helpful couple who told us that some campsites were only another ten minutes ahead. We soon arrived at what looks to have been a campsite at one point in a small clearing surrounded by scorched, dead trees. We shed our kit and took to setting up our tent. 

It is a good idea to put a tent together at least once before you need to really use it. If not only to make sure that you understand how to put it together, but also to make sure that you aren't missing any pieces. Don't be like us. Don't skip this step. Missing no fewer than four stakes and at least one tent pole made putting our shelter together much more difficult than it should have been, but for one night, it would do.

Mosquitoes in suburban California are so small you can hardly see them. Not so in the forest. We were in our campsite for less than one minute before they descended upon us like an air raid, but without the courtesy of a siren to warn us. Bug spray does not smell good. It also does not taste good, so keep that in mind when applying it to every inch of exposed skin on your entire body.

Getting a fire going, now there's something I had done before. Lesson learned here was that when the air is damp, it is much harder to get even small kindling to catch fire. Start slowly, and add larger pieces very carefully.  It was about this time that my girlfriend discovered that a swarm of mosquitoes had settled on my back, which she brushed off, but the damage was done. Turns out these buggers can bite through clothing; I had no less than twenty bites on my back the next day.

After dinner (a freeze-dried vegetarian chana masala, quite good actually), we set to finding a tree to hang our remaining food in for the night. Much of Crater lake had been ripped through by forest fires last year - indeed we could see huge swaths of dead forest as we drove out of the park the next afternoon. We happened to be camped in one such area, and as a result most of the trees nearby were dead, causing their branches to hang downwards rather than outwards. Dark was approaching quickly and we finally managed to throw a rock tied to our rope over the one good tree branch in the entire area and get our bags into the tree.

Night, even in July, was cold. The sky was immaculately clear, lit by an extremely bright full moon. Somewhere out there in that frigid darkness came a yelp of a small animal, followed by a (much closer) set of three distinctive thumps. We shall never know what type of animal was our visitor that night, but when the sun rose, we were once again alone in our little valley. We breakfasted on the remaining food from our hanging bags (still there, I might add) and broke camp.

In spite of all the small things we went through in our endeavor to gain a better understanding of camping, we both agreed that the adventure was more than worth it. Life, it seems to me in the relatively few years I have been around, is all about gaining those small bits of knowledge to better appreciate the world and its small pleasures. These bits are not without cost, but sometimes you need to venture more than just money in order to grasp them.

Happy Tea Drinking.

Hunting for Aged Things

I have been curious about aged oolong (and really all aged teas) for some time. Aging tea was first introduced to me when I started getting interested in puerh. Back then I read through much of marshaln's blog and I noticed that he also devotes a large amount of text to discussing aged oolongs.

James at TeaDB has also devoted time to discussing aged oolongs, and I have read his reports with great interest. I can commiserate with him in the fact that much of what is available to me in the West is largely overpriced and uninteresting. I have been meaning to try some of the more premium aged oolongs from Tea-Masters, however I haven't gotten around to it yet.

A work colleague and friend of mine, whom I have spoken of before, hails from Taiwan and primarily drinks oolong tea. I can credit him with sparking my interest in loose-leaf teas in the first place, so I was curious to discuss aged oolong tea with him. He did not know much about it, and hadn't really encountered many people selling it in Taiwan. A friend of his did have some aged oolong that he obtained for somewhere around $1/g, which we tasted on a break at work and I wasn't particularly impressed by it. It seemed kind of thin and lacked depth.

My work friend, J, had to travel to Taiwan recently to aid at a customer site and he asked me if I wanted him to get me anything. I asked him to try to find some aged oolong.

On his one free day, J went with a friend to the town of Yingge, which is famous for their pottery. It was raining and they had missed their bus, so they had to sit around for a while till the next one came. My name was mentioned ('I have a work colleague, a white American' - I quote) and J told his friend that I was in search of aged oolong tea (particularly the variety that hasn't been re-roasted). As it turns out, an older woman was eavesdropping on their conversation and leaned over to say that her brother sells aged oolong tea, and, as luck would have it, has a shop in Yingge.

J and his friend accompanied the woman on a visit to her brother's shop. It was tucked into the corner of a back alley, and J would have never found it unless he had days to simply wander around.

The gentleman who ran the shop claims that tea these days is impure, that it contains pesticides and pollutants that didn't exist long ago, and so he strives to find old, "pure" teas. He claims he tastes something around 600 teas a year and only selects a few to sell. J and his friend tasted four teas, three of which J bought some of to bring home.

The teas are a 1969 Zhushan oolong, a 1972 Lugu oolong, and a 1978 black tea. All come in around $0.30/g. There was a fourth tea, an alleged 1934(!) green tea, supposedly obtained by a military fellow from Japan. This fourth tea is something around $1.30/g, and J did not have enough cash to purchase any.

Are any of these teas authentic? Who knows. The price for the quality was there, so I'm extremely fortunate to be able to try them. Many thanks to J for the teas, and many thanks for those who have read through all that story just to reach descriptions of actual tea.

1969 Zhushan 

This has a definite smell of Chinese herb shop. This tea was originally stored in an herb shop - it was given to customers to drink along with the herbs that they take. The shop owner passed away and left his business to his son, who found a bag of this tea in the back. The son did not want to continue in the business, so he sold the tea to the gentleman who now sells it in Yingge.

The tea is composed of very small leaves, many are broken now. There is the odd leaf which is bigger, and it was once loosely twisted and given a fairly strong roast. After many infusions, green can still be found in the leaves.

Its taste is thick, and the liquid sits in the top of the throat, producing a 'pooling' effect and a returning sweetness that lasts a good long time. This is the best tea of the bunch, in my opinion.

1972 Lugu

This tea comes from Lugu, the area in which Dong Ding oolong is produced. Was this a 1972 equivalent of dong ding? I can't say.

What I can say is that the tea is is not as good as the 1969 Zhushan. It still provides a nice aged taste, but its body is thinner and it lacks the throatiness of the previous tea. It also steeps out a bit faster. It is extremely difficult to overbrew it, never presenting sourness or bitterness, even when pushed. We have larger leaves here, many of which are mostly intact.

It reminds me a little bit of some of the aged wuyi oolongs from the now defunct OriginTea, albeit with less throat taste.

1978 Black

I'm not sure on the story behind this one. This is the first aged black tea that I have had, and it is an interesting tea. The dry leaf smells very strongly of malt and sweetness, just like a fresh black tea. There is a hint of something darker within the leaves, but it's difficult to detect.

The taste is very fruity, with a throatiness greater than the 1972 Lugu, but not as thick as the 1969 Zhushan. It is very sweet, and it has a mineral character which makes the tongue tingle. I think perhaps this is the aged taste?

I find it brews out rather quickly, although after letting it sit overnight and revisiting the leaves, I was able to get a few more infusions out of them. Its color is also very fresh black tea-like. More orange than the deeper, almost ruby red of the two aged oolongs. If I can find some more aged black tea, I'll be interested to compare. I know TaiwanSourcing has one..

Many thanks to J for the tea, and many thanks to anyone who has taken the time to stop by and read.

As a side note - I'm always open to doing some sample swapping with anyone who is interested. I'm always in the market for some more aged oolongs, so shoot me a message here or on Instagram if you wish :)

Happy Tea Drinking!