MARKETS : Almost All the Tea in China

At Sun Long Tea, a clerk offers you a sample cup of fresh Oolong and urges you to inhale its aromatic steam. “It’s cleansing to the system,” she says as you breathe in.

Looking around the shop, with its stately, antique-style Chinese furniture, transports you to an era when tea-making was elevated to an art form and teahouses were the center of Chinese social life and business dealings. Sun Long’s mahogany chairs are carved with openwork dragon and phoenix motifs, and their paw-footed tiger’s legs support seats inlaid with jade-green Taiwanese marble.

An entire wall of the store is lined with handsome polished wood shelves that hold rows of identical five-pound brass tea canisters. These are filled with bulk teas, while gift teas are displayed in beautifully wrapped packages.

It’s not just the look of the place, though, that introduces you to another world. As Sun Long’s extravagant surroundings suggest, the teas in its canisters have a character unmatched by the garden varieties you get with Chinese take-out or at neighborhood restaurants. With magical-sounding names such as Dragon Well, Iron Bodhisattva or King’s Tea, the seductive flavors range from the bright freshness of a meadow after rain to the slight smokiness of roasted chestnuts. Many teas are sold in several levels of quality, with prices from $10 to $120 a pound.

One tea, fresh Oolong, is so delicate it must be kept in a deep freeze to prevent it from fermenting. Another rare tea, stocked only several months a year, is the finest grade of Tung Ting. Grown atop mist-shrouded mountains, this particular grade of Tung Ting is hand-harvested in the spring and tends to sell out soon after the harvest is shipped. For the Chinese, a gift of such a tea is comparable to receiving the best French Cognac.

Sun Long’s teas are all grown on Taiwanese plantations operated by the Lee family and marketed under the name Ten Ren Tea. The family has produced five generations of tea experts and, like most specialty growers, they cure their own teas on the plantation. That’s because tea picked during the day must be processed immediately that night, says Esther Lee, who helps run the family business in Los Angeles. “At the plantation, when we open our windows in the evening,” Lee says, breathing in to illustrate, “the smell of freshly curing tea is always in the air.”

Lee maintains that the key to a tea’s taste depends as much on its processing as on its botanical variety, and she credits the unsurpassed skill of the company’s tea masters or “chefs” for Ten Ren’s high quality. She is fond of telling customers that each master has his own original secrets and special formulas.

Ten Ren’s history is steeped in tradition. The Lee family first grew tea in Fukien province, 120 miles across the East China Sea from Taiwan. Lee says her great-grandfather moved the whole operation to Taiwan in 1927. With its tropical climate and huge central mountain range, the island approximates Fukien’s growing conditions. There, the family developed a reputation for fine artisanal teas that it sold to other dealers. In 1953, the Lees began setting up the Ten Ren retail shops--there are now 58 in Taiwan.

Each generation continued with a forward-looking marketing plan. Ten Ren now owns shops also in Japan, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Toronto, Vancouver and Los Angeles. Most recently, in addition to its main store on Atlantic Boulevard in Monterey Park, Sun Long has installed branches in several of L.A.’s large Chinese supermarkets.

The family’s newest venture brings the company back to its roots. Last year, Lee’s brother, Ray Ho Lee, entered into several joint ventures for tea growing and processing in Mainland China. When the mainland is ready once again for premium teas, the Lees will be there to serve it up.

SHOPPING LIST

With the exception of teas served at dim sum, gourmet Chinese teas are usually offered after meals to aid digestion and to be enjoyed during after-dinner conversation. When tea is presented at formal social occasions or to welcome guests, serving tea requires following strict procedures and rules of etiquette. Adding sugar or milk is unheard of in China, so a tea’s subtleties are all the more important.

For 1,800 years the Chinese have cultivated a bewildering array of specialty teas. Most of them fall into the following categories.

* Green tea has not been roasted or fermented. “Oxidized” is actually a more accurate term than “fermented” because, a tea’s flavor is altered primarily by exposure to air. However, throughout the centuries, tea men have used the term “fermented.”

* Oolong teas are allowed to “ferment” only slightly and are roasted to varying degrees. This is why they have a darker color and more robust flavor than green tea.

* Black teas are fully fermented. Lee says that Sun Long’s tea is 90% roasted, as are most black teas. Some 100% roasted teas are available on order, but their charcoal-like taste is not very popular.

* Flavored teas such as Lychee Black or Jasmine are made from one of the above categories.

Here is a selection of Sun Long’s Taiwanese teas.

GREEN TEAS

Scholars and monks who claim these teas improve their ability to think and meditate for prolonged periods prefer them to any other.

* Kings Tea/Fresh Oolong: The best green teas are consumed as soon as possible after being picked, and this puts Sun Long’s fresh Oolong near the top. It is sold uncured and unroasted--”only dried slightly in the sun and lightly rolled,” according to Lee. It is then kept frozen. Fresh Oolong has a meadowy, herbaceous flavor.

* Dragon Well/Lung Ching (Longjing): The famed poet Su Dongpo of the Tang Dynasty described Dragon Well as being “known for its four uniques: a mellow taste, an appealing aroma, a green color and a beautiful shape.” The “shape” of Dragon Well at Sun Long is a needle-like cylinder rolled from one or two leaves and a tiny white bud. When brewed, the buds turn green and stay furled while the leaves, each no longer than the digit of your pinky finger, open completely. Each pound of fine Lung Ching contains about 25,000 hand-picked bud-and-leaf sets. It takes great skill to make this tea, as the young leaves are especially tender and the heat used to dry them must be matched to their delicacy.

It’s tempting to brew Dragon Well too strongly because its pale color and subtle flavor are deceptive. But if you drink the tea strong you soon get a definite caffeine buzz. Thought to be cooling in hot weather, Dragon Well has a bright, refreshing flavor but lacks the grassy quality found in some green teas.

* Pi Lo Chun (Biluochun): Westerners probably won’t associate the name Green Snail with mouthwatering flavor, but for the Chinese it suggests an appetizing taste as refreshing as spring. Legend has it that Pi Lo Chun (Green Snail Spring in English) was named for the way its tightly rolled leaves form a tiny coil. The best Pi Lo Chun is harvested in the spring, and it takes the skill of a master to coax these delicate tender leaves into their snail-like shape.

Originally the tea came from around Lake Taihu near Shanghai, where tea grown on a mountain in the center of the lake was constantly shrouded in a mist that kept the young leaves moist. Sun Long’s Pi Lo Chun, of course, is grown in Taiwan, where a misty mountain area duplicates the tea’s original home.

* Chencha: Sun Long’s version of Japanese-style green tea, Chencha (after Sencha or “regular” tea--as opposed to one of the fancier styles) has the lightest, most acidic flavor of any tea on the shop’s shelves. Since Japan imports quite a bit of its green tea from Taiwan, I’m assuming Sun Long’s version would be to the Japanese taste. But Ten Ren uses a slightly higher drying temperature than Japanese processors, and the result is a tea that, while having the fresh aromas of a rainy garden, lacks the particular raw flavor of some green teas. Chencha’s whole leaves unfurl quickly in simmering water (below-boiling temperatures should be used for brewing green teas).

OOLONG TEAS

Tea aficionados will be familiar with the name Formosa Oolong. Most Oolongs are grown on Taiwan, which, of course, the Portuguese once dubbed formosa , meaning beautifully shaped ; the name now belongs to the tea but not the island. What gives each Oolong its particular character is the amount it has been fermented and the degree to which it has been roasted. Sun Long sells Oolongs ranging from 30% to 90% roasted.

LIGHT OOLONG:

* Chin Chua: The more familiar name for Chin Chua, Pouchong (or Baozhong or Pau Jung, depending on who’s spelling it), is derived from the tea’s place of origin. Chin Chua is very lightly fermented and roasted and, therefore, technically an Oolong although it is often sold as green tea. With a flavor more mellow than a sharp bright-green tea and not as heavy as a more darkly roasted Oolong, Sun Long’s Chin Chua has an excellent character of its own. It is also used as a base for jasmine tea because its mellow flavor doesn’t overpower the flower’s scent. Chin Chua is another tea sold according to when it is harvested. The Taiwan shops offer 10 grades of it; Sun Long generally stocks three or four.

* Jasmine Tea: With its gentle floral aroma, Jasmine is a good tea to serve after a meal of strong-tasting foods. Ten Ren uses Chin Chua as the base for its jasmine tea, scenting it by a process similar to that invented during the Sung Dynasty about 800 years ago. The scenting must go on at night because that’s when the jasmine flowers release their sweet fragrance.

At Ten Ren, according to Lee, the jasmine is picked early in the day, when there is still humidity on the blossoms. When the flowers literally pop open in the evening, the scenting process begins. Cured tea and flowers are spread out on huge trays and the mixture must be stirred every few hours, or it will ferment from the heat the flowers emit. The mixing process goes on four or five times before the tea is fully scented; it is then lightly re-roasted to prevent any fermentation. When completely dry, the tea-flower mixture is winnowed to cull most of the tea from the spent flowers.

MEDIUM OOLONGS:

* Tung Ting (Dunting): Known as the Champagne of Formosa Oolongs, Tung Ting Oolong is Taiwan’s most famous tea. If you were to buy a top grade of this tea at its source in Sunpoling (the Taiwanese village below the Tung Ting tea fields), its price could exceed $100 for a catty (a 1.3-pound package).

Before discovering Tung Ting I’d never imagined tea as seasonal produce, but some grades of it aren’t available all year. Tea connoisseurs find the Tung Ting Spring harvest so irresistible they buy up most of it before autumn, if not sooner. There’s nothing shabby about the fall and summer flushes (harvests) of top-quality Tung Ting either, though they are not quite so prized.

Sung Long sells Tung Ting in light and dark roasts. Lightly roasted Tung Ting has dry leaves that shrivel into what teamen call a half-globe shape. Unlike darker-roasted tea leaves that remain coiled as they brew, these open completely on the first infusion, producing a golden, sunny colored liquid with a slightly floral taste. More darkly roasted Tung Ting yields a pale amber brew with a nuttier flavor. Of Tung Ting’s nine grades, Sun Long has four or five available at various times of the year.

DARK OOLONGS:

* Pu-erh (Pu’er, Pou-nei): In legend at least, Pu-erh was introduced to the Chinese by the Mongols for its medicinal properties; it is often taken to relieve an upset stomach. It is supposed to aid digestion by emulsifying fats and helping to break down protein, and it is thought to cool the heart and body.

If you were pressed to define Pu-erh’s taste you might recall well-ripened cheese. Pu-ehr doesn’t taste like cheese--some describe it as “earthy” or “elemental”--but it is deliberately allowed to ferment (really ferment, as well as to oxidize like other teas) to create its special flavor characteristics. Because old teas with a slight coating of mold are said to have increased medicinal benefits, some devotees keep their Pu-ehr tea leaves in storage as though aging fine wine.

Sun Long’s Pu-erh does not have a coating of mold, nor is it sold in compressed cakes, as are many varieties of the tea. It comes plain in a loose-leaf style or blended with dried chrysanthemum blossoms that make the tea’s slightly musty flavor more palatable to some.

* Ti Kwan Yin (Tie Guanyin, Tit Koon Yam): This tea is named after Guanyin, the Buddhist equivalent of the Madonna, who qualified to enter Nirvana yet remained on earth to bring enlightenment to the masses. Guanyin was supposed to have appeared in the dream of a tea farmer and described a secret place where the farmer could find a sprout of this tea, which he then propagated.

Kwan Yin’s name, says Norwood Pratt, author of “The Tea Lover’s Treasury,” is often mistranslated as Iron Godess of Mercy. The “iron” in this case refers to the leaves of this particular strain of tea plant which are thick and sturdy with curling serrated edges.

Sun Long’s Ti Kwan Yin is 50% fermented with a medium-dark roast. The result is a pleasant, aromatic brown-orange brew with a roasted flavor and lingering aftertaste. Unlike lighter teas such as Tung Ting and Chin Chua, Ti Kwan Yin has tightly furled leaves, baked into a shape that doesn’t unfold completely at the first or even the second infusion. They release their flavor slowly into each successive, slightly different tasting brew. The habit of making the first infusion intense and adding hot water for several additional infusions is typical of a formal Chinese tea service.

* Heavy Baked Oolong: Sun Long’s 90% roasted Oolong is the darkest and heaviest of all the Oolongs. Though roasted the same amount of time as black tea, it is distinctly lighter, a result of its partial fermentation. Even more than the Ti Kwan Yin described above, this tea’s heavily baked larger leaves stay crimped through several infusions and produce successive brews with slightly different tastes.

* Black Tea: Known to the Chinese as “Red Tea” for the color of its brew, black tea, as mentioned earlier, is always fully fermented. This removes its astringency and contributes to its dark color. Sun Long’s black tea, made from large pieces of cut leaves, is mild, clean tasting and slightly flowery--not the sort of brew you’d want to add sugar or milk to.

TEA POTS AND SETS

Throughout the centuries, the Chinese have made tea brewing vessels from all sorts of materials including bamboo, celadon, porcelain and even gold or other precious metals. But over the years, sturdy earthenware pots have gained favor for their ability to retain heat and, in the case of a well-seasoned pot, add a little flavor to the brew.

Sun Long sells earthenware pots in many designs. Most come with a large bowl and small handle-less cups. The whole set is first placed in the bowl and boiling water is poured over it to warm it. When it has absorbed the heat, the pot is ready to use for tea and the cups will be kept warm until the brew is ready to serve.

GINSENG

Though known for its teas, Sun Long has an enormous and varied selection of ginseng. Some is imported from Mainland China and Korea, but much of it, including wild ginseng, is harvested in the United States at such unlikely places as Kentucky and Ohio. Ten states, in fact, grow ginseng, the best being New York Blue Mountain and ginseng from Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Like its teas, Sun Long’s ginsengs come in a wide range of styles and prices. A few are very old rare roots, gnarled with many fingerlets that indicate the age. A few roots are as expensive as $300. The shop has a special slicer--it is to ginseng what a grinder is to coffee--and with it they will ready your ginseng for brewing.

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Sun Long Tea, 748 Atlantic Blvd., Monterey Park, (818)-576-1289. Open from 10 a.m to 7:30 p.m. daily. Other locations at Hong Kong Market, 127 N. Garfield Ave., Monterey Park, (818) 573-4738, and 137 S. San Gabriel Blvd., San Gabriel, (818) 285-8328; Hoa Binh, 771 W. Garvey Ave., Monterey Park, (818) 570-6089 . Also, Ten Ren Tea, 726 N. Hill St., Chinatown, (213) 626-8844, and 154 W. Valley Blvd., San Gabriel, (818) 288-1663.