2024 En Shi Matcha Special Grade 恩施抹茶特级

In 2024 June, we made a trip to Enshi to visit Golden Fruit tea estate that supply our Enshi Jade Dew (恩施玉露). Off the main city and into the countryside, the farm and company are located in a village of Badong Town (巴东县) where the tea farms are away from pollution. To realise an end-to-end value chain for their tea business, the tea estate comprises numerous factories and buildings including tea farms, fruit farms, production factories, quality control labs, packaging factories, cold rooms and warehouses. This estate produces green and red teas in the tradition of Hubei tea culture - the famous Enshi Jade Dew and Li Chuan Red Tea (利川红). Tea making in Tang dynasty style came alive when we witnessed the matcha production of the Tang dynasty and the tea steaming method using old (as well as modern) machines. 

While it is true that all tea styles in Asian lands and beyond historically originated from China, some of such original styles were unfortunately lost in time in the motherland. Treading through the dynasties, Han dynasty saw tea as one of the other herbs to be boiled together in a medicinal concoction, whereas the Tang dynasty started to focus tea in itself by grinding them into powder and boiling them in a pot. As described in the Classic of Tea (茶经) - the first and only tea encyclopedia of the time written in 760 - 780 Tang dynasty - by Lu Yu (陆羽), freshly picked tea leaves were first steamed to kill green, and compressed into flat round shapes using the residual moisture from the steaming. These "tea cakes" were then roasted over fire to dry them for subsequent storage. When making tea, one breaks off a small fragment from the "tea cake" and ground into a fine powder using a medicine mill - the same you see at traditional medicinal shops in the Singapore heartlands. These tea powders were then added to a pot of boiling water, flavoured with a pinch of salt, and cooked like a medicine. This method of boiling tea gives rise to its name - boiled tea, or Jian1 Cha2 (煎茶) in Chinese. 

With the establishment of the Ming dynasty, the first emperor issued a royal ban on compressed tea as the default style of royal tribute, owing to empathy towards the farmers who have had to exert tedious efforts in making such styles. With this, powdered tea fell out of flavour, at least in the royal courts, and full leaf teas immediately came in to fill the vacuum. Production of powdered tea continued in small remote pockets of China but never become mainstream.

Enshi located in the southwest of Hubei is home to lush terraced mountains and communities of Tujia and Miao ethnic minorities. Being deep in the mountains and secluded from the populace, it was one location that retained the ancient method of steaming and grinding tea. This is also one of the few places in the world that is rich in selenium, a micro-nutrient that is a strong anti-oxidant and boosts thyroid health. The tea is harvested from high-altitude areas where the year-round average temperature is just 16.4°C and the humidity is very high at 82%. 

Matcha is a defining symbol of Japan as much as loose leaf tea is for China. Golden Fruit recognises that Japan leads the world in matcha processing and resolutely customised the full sets of matcha and gyokuro processing machines from Kyoto to be separately installed in their factories. This Chinese matcha is cultivated using the Japanese method of sun-shading before harvest, and processed using the Japanese machines. The steaming is a short duration at 20 sec. This is known as asamushi - a light steamed tea (浅蒸茶) in Japanese sencha making. You can expect a lightly steamed tea to be laden with umami, sweet and floral. 

This matcha is special grade - shaded for 20 days and picked 1 bud 1 leaf early spring. This is the best matcha of the company, in the same way that Japanese tea farms name their best matcha as ceremonial grade. The variety is a local variety called Chun Bo Lv (春波绿). The matcha is ground in-house using mechanical grinders, and mechanically sifted through a large fine mesh.


Brew Flavour

We are using a bamboo whisk (chasen, 茶筅) to whisk this matcha swiftly in a ceramic bowl (chawan, 茶碗) to create a foamy and smooth broth. As compared to the Japanese matcha, it is bolder in flavour and afterflavour. We are using 5g to 60ml of 60°C water to make a thin beverage called a usucha (薄茶) and reducing it to 50ml of water to make a thick beverage called a koicha (濃い茶). For more umami and lighter profile, one can choose to use 4g to 60ml of 40°C water. Without a bamboo whisk or matcha bowl, one can use a small fork in a mug and stir speedily. A delicious yellowish green shows up, with umami and jasmine dominating the flavour, and a thick texture supporting these aromas. With higher temperature, roasted nuts can be savoured from the matcha. Adjust the dilution to your own liking, adding more water if there is a noticeable bitter note and reducing water for a thicker brew.

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