“High altitude teas are typically more rich, smooth and fragrant, and you can brew them many more times before they lose their flavour, but they grow freely among all kinds of other vegetation and are also usually difficult to reach,” says Sun, who honed her appreciation of tea from her mother, a tea connoisseur. Sun tells us that wild tea farmers often need to hire tea pickers, who are paid by the weight of the tea picked each day. They have to go up into the mountains and deep into the forests to pick the tea each morning and return to the collection centre in the late afternoon.
“It is hard and, at times, dangerous work, so even with higher wages, the younger generations are not interested to take it on. This leaves the older pickers (mainly in their 60s to 80s) to do this work. However, even with the high labour costs and limited supply, the wild teas produced and picked from the high-altitude locations are worth the added expense for the enjoyment and health of the tea connoisseur,” Sun adds.
Sun, who is currently in the wellness business, feels that physical wellness is not just confined to proper exercise, relaxation and sleep. One also needs proper nutrition, she expresses. She has embarked on this tea journey and business to create her own brand of wild tea (a retail outlet is also in the works) targeted initially at the spa industry and also tea lovers in general (with private tea sessions and events).
At present, there is still a lack of appreciation of the benefits of drinking high quality Chinese tea, especially wild tea. As such, Sun would like to work on “educating the market on the health benefits and the fine art of enjoying quality Chinese tea”. All her teas, which include a variety of red tea, cliff tea and more, will be from the wild, sourced from all over China, and supply will be seasonal and limited.
