BAMBOO TEMPLE YUNNAN

Try wishing for anything and seeing whether it comes true. It’s possible that a cup of Bamboo Temple is just what you need right now. The great black tea called Shizhusi is named after the Shizhusi (Stone Bamboo) temple on Shizhu Mountain in the Chinese province of Fujian. Visitors who spend the night in the temple’s Jiuxian (Nine Immortals) Tower are said to experience blissful dreams, gain renewed vitality upon waking, and discover that their desires have come true, according to a local urban legend.

An expert tea connoisseur would ask why a tea from Yunnan region, where it is cultivated and made, would be called after a temple in Fujian province. Intriguing thought! We rely on myth once more for this one, this time a story heard on one of our visits to the city that produces the tea. According to the myth above, this is the tale of a Yunnan tea master who farmed a little plot of land and barely scraped by. Desperate, he went to see his long-lost cousin, a monk at Shizhusi Temple. Because the monk could tell that his cousin was in a bind, he gave him a place to stay in the historic structure. The craftsman dreamed that night that his fields were overrun with dense bushes of a hitherto unknown tea kind. Soon after waking up, he thanked his cousin and began the journey back to Fujian. When he got back, what did he discover? You know how this tale ends since you’re holding a bag of this tea right now.

Should we put faith in a myth? Things of stranger kind have happened. The tremendous depth of flavour provided by this magnificent broad-leafed black tea is something that can be believed without a doubt. A toasty scent suggesting malt rises from the cup as the crinkled leaf unfurls. The tea has a robust flavour on the palate, like that of high-quality Assam’s. We think that after your first sip, you’ll want more and more and more. One of the best black teas in China.