All tea comes from varieties of the plant Camellia Sinensis. In the wild, the plant grows to the size of a tree. There are, in fact many ancient tea trees still thriving in China, active testaments to a long-standing tea culture in the country where this beverage was first drunk. For the convenience of plucking, most tea plants are pruned down to the size of a bush, often giving the tea estate the appearance of a manicured garden.

‘Language of the Leaf searches for the best gourmet teas from around

the world to help you create memorable tea experiences”

There is a tea in China that people say may actually be picked by monkeys. Like many Chinese teas, it has an exotic name that sounds like a character right out of a Chinese fable or even a martial arts film. “White Monkey King” tea grows in the misty Tai Mu Mountains of the southern Chinese province of Fujian where it is said there is a Taoist temple high on a mountaintop encircled by tall and wild tea trees.

Tea aficionados today will tell you that White Monkey King is so named from the fine silvery white down on its exquisite leaves, plucked early in the spring or ‘before the rains’.

But perhaps the legend is more compelling.

Taoist monks of ancient China drank tea as an aid to help them focus during meditation.

Silver haired monkeys were native to the area, and the monks trained the monkeys to help pluck the tea leaves from the far reaching branches. They must have been good at it, for this exotic tea came to be known as White Monkey King.

Gourmet teas with names like White Monkey King may seem intimidating and out of reach to the average tea drinker, but they are a surprisingly affordable every day luxury.

Does the taste live up to the story? Fortunately yes. White Monkey King is a green tea that brews to rich pale gold liquor. The taste evokes a gentle sweetness with the hint of sweet nuts and asparagus found in exclusive green teas. This carefully selected tea is one of China’s most exotic exports exclusively available to a handful of tea importers who understand the tastes of discerning tea drinkers. So would you drink a tea picked by monkeys? Follow the wisdom of the monks.

and help them create gourmet tea experiences”

What tea did Chairman Mao offered President Nixon during their famous 1972 meeting in China? Hint: It’s the same type the Emperors of China drank.

It’s hard to imagine sitting with Chairman Mao only to be served an ordinary tea! Happily, we can say that Nixon was served Chairman Mao’s own personal favourite, an exquisite green tea known as Dragonwell.   

Best known among China’s green teas, Dragonwell was long revered as ‘tribute tea’ to  the Emperors, who would have enjoyed the sweet, gentle chestnut flavour and smooth ‘mouth-feel’ offered by this distinctive tea. It gets its evocative name from the Running Tiger Spring, reputed in folklore to house the spirit of a dragon. It was the seemly order of things for the privileged to drink tea made from the year’s first leaves using the spring’s water.

Chairman Mao was quite partial to Dragon Well. During his two well documented visits to the Liu Village Villa by the West Lake in the early 1960s, he picked Dragon Well tea with his own hands. The leaves of this tea would have then been shaped to its distinctively flat and smooth shape and pan fired by an experienced tea craftsman in a wok, with the liquor imbibed shortly after. In Mao’s own words: ‘Few things compare to Dragon Well tea infused with water from Running Tiger Spring’. We can only imagine Nixon that enjoyed the tribute. Happily, one doesn’t need to be rich or walk the corridors of power to enjoy this privilege, for fine and fresh Dragonwells are available to tea lovers who know where to get them. Running Tiger Spring water is another matter!   

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