Questions to ask while drinking tea

Essential aged puer + drinking with your body.

The regal red mark

The tea: 2007 Hongyin puer, sold by Wistaria. NT$8,400 for 375g.

If you want to taste quality aged puer, teas from Wistaria are essential drinking. Tea scholar Zhou Yu founded this Taipei teahouse in 1981 and has sold a renowned line of house blended puer teas under its auspices. The Hongyin (“red mark” or “red label”) is one of his most famous productions, styled after the prized 1950s puers of the same name. Back then, Yunnan puer factories were nationalized under the Chinese government, and teas produced there were cheap regional commodities rather than anything particularly high end. Paradoxically, low economic pressures, coupled with traditional agriculture and processing, yielded high quality leaf material for pressed puer cakes. The resulting teas were mouth-puckeringly astringent when first made, as was the style at the time. But with careful storage in hot, humid conditions, they transformed into rich and powerful brews that became the gold standard for aged puer. Today, aged teas from this era cost a fortune. The auction house Sotheby’s recently valued a single 321 gram red label puer cake in the neighborhood of $50,000.

I haven’t tasted puers from the ‘50s, so I’ll leave it to wealthier drinkers to say whether the Wistaria Hongyin is a fitting homage. What I can say is that it’s excellent tea, and at current exchange rates, its ~US$260 price is a pretty good value compared to what other sellers charge for similar quality puer. Flavors of incense, wood smoke, and tamarind dance through 10 or more infusions. Layered aromas of dark fruits and old books transport me somewhere every time I drink. If you use 5 grams in a pot, a session with this tea costs just $3.45. See what that gets you at Starbucks.

The source: The building that houses Wistaria dates back to the 1920s, when the island of Taiwan was under Japanese occupation. It was the residence of the imperial governor until 1945, then saw a variety of uses in the early days of the new Taiwanese national government. When Zhou began what would become the Wistaria brand in the ‘70s and ‘80s, the teahouse was a cultural center for intellectuals and political dissidents. Today it’s a registered historic site that’s been preserved through several renovations, and it offers a serene destination for drinking some of the best tea you can find in Taiwan. If you’re planning a trip to Taipei, pay a visit sooner rather than later; the teahouse will be closing for renovations again soon. Zhou recently parted ways with Wistaria under terms I’m not privy to. Current owner Sophie Lin still sells his puer in person and online with prompt DHL shipping, and she recently opened a Wistaria branch in Paris.

To brew: Brew this tea in a small pot over a series of infusions. Wistaria’s puer tends to shine with a lighter dose of leaf than some others; I like 5 grams in a 100 milliliter pot (1g/20ml). For the tea freaks, I’m using a Purion clay pot from Taiwanese brand Lin’s Ceramics. The mineral blend of this unglazed clay seems to work well for me with Wistaria teas. Brew with boiling water and steep for just a couple seconds at first, lengthening the brew time for later steeps. The act of drinking tea is sometimes used as a mindfulness meditation, and this one would be a good subject. It’s a tea I feel as much as I taste: a sunny warmth rising from my chest to my face and temples that engenders an optimistic, introspective mood. Take your time with each cup and register the sensations in your mouth, throat, head, and body. These are the qualities that make good tea so precious to drink.

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The sensory register

Brewing tea at Wistaria, from my trip in 2015

It took me a long time to understand what people meant when they said “drink with your body.” Other people pick it up right away. Like so much about tea, this stuff gets personal. I can’t speak for you or your experiences. All I can tell you is what I’ve picked up along the way, which is this: the value of certain teas goes well beyond their immediate taste, and with practice, we can recognize and benefit from that wider range of sensations. Like cannabis, alcohol, or any other drug, tea can take you places. We can use it as a tool to look outward or peer inward.