Floating Leaves Tea Home ---Shiuwen's Blog!

Thursday, December 04, 2014

Yunnan Tea Tour - April 2015

My tea friend, Awoono (born and raised in Yunnan), offered me the opportunity to lead a Yunnan tea tour with her. I have been wanting to go there for a long time!



We have been working on the itinerary. The more I work on it, the more excited I am about the trip. I am looking forward to exploring Yunnan with you!

The trip will be scheduled as a 10 day tour. We are planning for the tour to take place from April 12th through the 21st.

The highlights of this trip will include:

The city of MoJiang (Awoono's hometown) to visit Awoono's uncle who is tea farmer. We are hoping to pick tea with him and learn how to fire tea as well. We will also be visiting a Puer tea farm where the farmer has been practicing ecological/traditional ways of farming (no pesticides or chemical fertilizers). Awoono is making arrangements with him to show us how to press Puer cakes.



Then we will travel south to the Menghai region and visit a well-preserved tea forest. Awoono told me this is one of the best-preserved old tea trees areas. The tea trees there are from 200 to 1000 years old. I can't wait to hike through the tea forest! Then we will go to NanNuo Mountain to talk to some farmers and hunt for some more delicious Puer teas.



We will then return to Menghai city, just in time for one of the biggest festivals there. This celebration is observed throughout Southeast Asia, in such countries as Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar. In Yunnan, it's celebrated by the Dai tribe. Locals sprinkle water on each other, hoping to wash away the "old and bad" and to welcome in the new.




We are also planning to take participants to visit some locally-made pottery workshops. Clay pottery is a great way to store the precious tea cakes that you will be able to find during our trip. At the end of our tour, we plan to visit the beautiful old city of LiJiang.

There will be more details to come. Meanwhile, if you are interested in the tour, please contact me at tea@floatingleaves.com so that I can make sure you get the latest news and updates about the this very special trip. Let's go to Yunnan together!

*photos provided by Awoono.

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