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“Whenever I see purple in a tea name it always makes me think of the ‘new’ Kenyan cultivar. Speaking of which can we all agree that the Kenyan purple tea is NOT a type but a cultivar, like Sencha....” Read full tasting note
明前林间紫笋
Harvest
March 10, 2021
Origin
Changxing, Huzhou
Guzhu Zisun or Guzhu Purple Shoots has a long history. It was a tribute tea to the emperors of the Tang and Song Dynasty for more than 800 years.
Lu Yu, a highly-respected poet and self-taught scholar, wrote The Classic of Tea around 780 AD. The Classic of Tea is an extremely detailed and comprehensive guide to Chinese tea during the Tang Dynasty. The book consists of ten chapters about the complete process of tea growing, harvesting, crafting, and brewing, with painstaking details of each tool and crafting method. It also includes notes on where the best tea is grown and the best ways to identify tea quality. It is a masterpiece, and arguably the most important historical book on tea ever written.
Lu Yu went to Changxing and instantly fell in love with the mountains there. He acquired his own tea garden in Guzhu Mountain. He grew and made his own teas, and lived in the ancient mountains where he wrote, “In the Zhejiang region, tea from Huzhou is the best”.
This Purple Shoots comes from the bamboo-covered hills and valleys of Guzhu Mountain in Changxing, Huzhou. It is located in close proximity to Tai Lake, one of the largest freshwater lakes in China. The lake creates a temperate microclimate for the Guzhu Mountains – misty all year round, less direct sun radiation, and a higher moisture level in the air. Spring is cooler here, thus tea leaves grow slower. The soil is also unique to the region, made up mostly of granite and purple sandstone.
The elevation of these indigenous trees are located slightly lower than the Wild Purple Shoots, therefore the harvesting season was two weeks earlier than the Wild Purple Shoots: on March 10 of this year.
An extremely delicate, gentle and smooth tea. It is invigorating for the body and mind. The mouthfeel is strikingly clean and crisp, with notes of fresh bamboo, alpine flowers and sweet spring water on the palate. It has an exceptionally lingering sweet finish.
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Whenever I see purple in a tea name it always makes me think of the ‘new’ Kenyan cultivar. Speaking of which can we all agree that the Kenyan purple tea is NOT a type but a cultivar, like Sencha. Anyway, it is interesting that we so easily receive, brew, and drink tribute teas such as these when they used to be consumed by royalty. It is a crisp brew, not very astringent but crisp like a fall morning Bits of farm notes and summer grasses. But to be honest, I’d rather have a Bai Mu Dan, I feel that this one just doesn’t offer much. It could also be that I had a terrible nights sleep and feel grumpy. So I will revisit this one at another point.
