The Meaning Of Rain Flower

Yu means Rain, and Hua means Flower. Yu Hua Cha means Rain Flower tea. The story goes that during Bodhidharma's time a Zen master called Yun Guang lectured in Nanjing and the heavens was so moved that it rained flowers from above. Everyone believed that the Zen master was enlightened.

Nanjing Yu Hua green tea is one of the top 5 most influential teas of China, but you may never have heard of it nor find its existence outside of Nanjing. The small hills in an area called Gao Chuen about an hour away from the city is designated to be a nature conservatory, a pristine area asigned to growing tea only. Relatively young compared to other teas, Yu Hua green tea is not so much varietal as shape and taste, for about 4-5 local varietals can be made into this tea. After a little incident called the Nanking Massacre over 50 years ago, a tea was given to the people of Nanjing as consolation, rather than, say, a country. To commemorate their bravery and uprightness, the tea had to be shaped to reflect a perfectly straight spine.

This tea defies the word impossible, as it is defined by a shape called pine needle, the most difficult of all to make for a green tea. There are only about 10 artisans remaining who can hand make this shape, and about three works for the farm I visited. The criteria for a perfect Yu Hua tea consists of the following, in a poem:

Straight spine blade-like taper ,

Thin and pointy like hair,

White fuzz and green balance each other,

Round bottom like one end of the pine needle

This straight, thin shape is extremely easy to break, unlike, say, spiral shapes like Bi Luo Chun.

Moreover, aside from the difficult hand processing, the harvesting is of course, also done by hand, to the tune of 70,000 buds per lb. Only 2-3 days of harvest before the rain are used for the handcrafted needles!

These teas are usually commissioned by the Central Government as state gifts and not usually available for purchase. Today, there are a couple of grades below the supreme grade, made by a combination of hand and machine processing, for less perfection but more commercially viable quantities. By that, we are still talking about mere handfulls per year.

What happens when there are no more harvesters? What happens when the 10 artisans grow old and pass and leave no disciples? We may be the last to enjoy such great handmade treasures! (Hurry to the Rare Tea Harvest Party at Teance)

Taken from http://teapersonality.blogspot.com/