Finding the Zhang family was no simple feat. Early on, Austin had decided he wanted Tieguanyin wulong tea that came from the original Tieguanyin cultivar, the Hongxin Tieguanyin bush. However, in the more densely populated areas, the supply of Hongxin tea bushes was limited due to its slow growing nature and the farming lands were too close together to ensure organic farming practices. Austin was told he had to go deeper into the mountains to find authentic Tieguanyin.
By a stroke of luck, Austin met Zhang Qingmu through one of Qingmu’s acquaintances from university. Though Austin had found his Tieguanyin guy, making their way to Qingmu’s hometown, Tangdi village, was as difficult as finding Qingmu in the first place. The drive to Tangdi village was a steep and bumpy four hour drive, made longer by Qingmu getting lost at every turn. It was his first time navigating his way home by car! He usually took a bus and would nap for the long drive, taking in 0% of the route to get home.
Finally arriving in Tangdi Village, Austin met Qingmu’s father, Zhang Shuiquan, and younger brother, Zhang Qingjian. Tangdi Village sits in the mountains 1000m (3200ft) above sea level in Anxi County in the green Taizhou countryside of southern Fujian Province. Though Anxi has produced tea since the Song Dynasty, the tea terraces set into the mountains here are new and the bushes are young.
Zhang Shuiquan was born in 1957 in this small countryside village. Like many old generation tea makers, he came from a very poor family and received little formal education, ending when he was ten years old. From then to age 16, he worked to help take care of the family’s water buffalo like most countryside children. Zhang Shuiquan knew the value of education and the opportunity it could bring for the whole village and worked hard to send his oldest son to university. Qingmu was the first person from Tangdi village to go to university, introducing many people, like Austin, to the families in Tangdi village.
As a teenager, Shuiquan started learning the craft of growing and making tea from his grandfather for several years. But Anxi’s tea industry was stagnating as the tea market declined in the 1980s. Along with many other poor Anxi families, Zhang Shuiquan’s grandfather cut down the family’s old tea trees to make room for other more profitable crops to try and make ends meet. Because of these efforts to survive a time of shortage, there are few old tea trees left in the region.
However, when the tea market improved again in the late 1990s, Zhang’s family took the opportunity to begin growing tea once again on fresh land. Zhang, his father, and his grandfather cleared new terraces and bought the best available Anxi Wulong cultivar to plant in them, Hongxin (Red Heart) Tieguanyin, and have continued producing tea ever since.
Zhang Shuiquan now makes Hongxin Tieguanyin with his youngest son, Zhang Qingjian. Zhang Qingmu often helps on the farm, and has opened a small store to sell his family’s tea as well as his neighbours who do not have their own stores. We feel very privileged to bring their wulongs to you each year, along with their unconventional Tieguanyin white tea.
