Learning how to identify gu shu & make maocha - The Tea Urchin

„The terms "Xiao shu" (small tree) and "tai di" (terrace plantation) are often interchangeably used, but they should be given separate meanings. "Tai di" connotes high intensity farming, with the entire slope cleared & terraced to plant hedgerows & use of pesticide & fertilizer. But in many gu shu growing villages, there are also new tea plantations which are too young to be called gu shu (ie. less than 100 years old), but they aren't exactly "tai di" either. Many of these plants are growing next to old trees, in a bio-diverse forest clearing, with lots of space around them, not all are sprayed & fertilized. In the future, they will grow into "gu shu", until then we should call them "shen tai xiao shu" (naturally grown small trees)“

„What instead happens is that some teas require multiple tastings to reveal themselves one way or another. Sometimes the first time you brew a tea it doesn’t come out quite right not because it’s bad, but because you are still adjusting to it. It helps when you’re using the same teawares all the time, so that the only variable is the tea“