Page 82 - #47 English

Tea
Article: Melody Kemp
Photo: Paul Wager

Cloud Tea

The seeds landed at my feet along with the climber’s sandals.

I was outside Ban Komaen in Phongsaly watching The elder Phunoy told us that the trees were possibly
the spectacular sunrise over the cloud filled valley. Three older, but that their collective memories were not.
Phunoy had climbed the famously named the ‘400 year Later back in the village, Mr. Ly went to a bag of
old’ tea trees (camellia sinensis) in search of the valued tea and inhaled deeply. An imperceptible smile. He then
leaves at the tips. My gift, a cluster of bulbous seeds from reached in for a handful and began an age old ritual of
one of these trees, was taken with due respect, and given making tea for guests - an inextricable part of the local
to the Luang Prabang Botanic Gardens to be coaxed into culture. For someone used to the denser black camellia
growing. sinensis assamica style, the lighter tea required a differ-
ent approach. First the inhalation to capture the valley
freshness, the grassy or floral tones. Then the tentative
sip to gauge the heat, the acidity (usually low) the depth
(it varied with age and style).
Several days later, after a somewhat scary mo-
torcycle ride on a pathway at times only a half a meter
wide, followed by a walk up to our knees in river water,
we found ourselves again above the clouds watching
Mien people picking leaves from the few wild tea trees
that survive there. Nobody could tell us how old the
root stock was.
Wild tea is highly prized in China and the few
remaining stands in Yunnan, some thought to be over
1000 years old, are protected. Not so in Lao where wild
trees appeared threatened by China led logging and
burning.
Mr. Ly, a tea farmer from Phongsaly.
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