Rediscovering green tea in China

Recently, my fellow choristers and I went to China on a Culture Path tour. We shared a cultural exchange with a local choir, and performed in five cities with two Celtic fiddle groups and renowned tenor Ken Lavigne.

Our group leaders also created many wonderful opportunities to see and experience some unique aspects of Chinese culture. Long before we visited the Dragon Well Tea Plantation, I noticed how delicious was the green tea we drank on our visit to China.

This made it all the more delightful to visit a place where the tea is grown and processed. By luck, we arrived shortly after the first picking of the new buds in March, the best part of the crop. Green tea, I learned, contains no caffeine as unlike black tea, it is unfermented. In fact, explained Mr. May, who studied tea at Zhejiang University, it contains many substances that are good for health.

Left: tea bushes in foreground, with terraced hills of tea behind them. Below: a glass of freshly brewed green tea.