Translator: 易帆 余
Hello, everyone. I'm Yucheng Lin.
Today, I want to share a wonderful journey
I've experienced in the past ten years.
In this journey, I've found a lot of great flavors on this land.
I've also seen the traditional tea ceremony going away from people's life.
I've also turned from a consumer to a brand operator.
My business philosophy is:
Bring the fragrance of Taiwan Tea close to everybody's life.
The story would begin from my first taste of tea when I was in college.
When I was a sophomore, my cousin called me at one day,
asking me to skip class and drink tea in his house.
My cousin studied a lot about the traditional tea ceremony.
I was expecting to drink great tea immediately after my arrival.
But not until I arrived did he begin to open the gas to boil water.
He also took out the timer to calculate the time of boiling.
I felt puzzled:
why didn't you make tea before I come so that I can drink right away?
He answered dismissively: It doesn't taste good.
I went speechless, but I had nothing to object.
Finally, the water was boiling, and the tea was ready.
He gave me two cups.
One cup was tall with tea in it, the other was empty.
I directly took the tall one to drink but was stopped by my cousin.
"Yucheng! The tall cup was just for smelling fragrance."
"You have to dump the tea in it to the short cup."
"Then, take the empty cup close to your nose,"
"to feel the aroma of the tea."
"After that, drink the tea in the short cup."
After his illustration, I thought:
"I don't want to drink tea any more. It's too complicated."
But after I drank the tea, something fantastic happened.
"Gosh, how can there be so great thing to drink?"
I asked my cousin immediately:" Did you add sugar? It tastes sweet."
He said:" No, I made it right under your nose. How could I do that?"
When I was about to ask for the second cup, I smelt orchid fragrance in my mouth.
That was the first time in my life
to feel clearly what the orchid fragrance was.
This cup of tea was the High Mountain Tea from Lishan.
Because of this cup of tea, I deeply fell in love with Taiwan Tea.
After that, I tried my best to skip class.
I went to tea shops, tried teas,
bought tea leaves and tea sets, and learned making tea.
And I found that none of my friends would like to drink tea.
Because they thought that drinking tea was old-fashioned.
I also deeply realized the
three "toos" of the traditional tea ceremony.
The first too, too difficult. The second too, too complicated.
The third too, too much time spent.
Because of these, people don't like drinking tea.
Since I'm a consumer, good-to-drink is the most important for me.
I also want to know how people define "good tea" and "good to drink"
Centennial Tea Line said to me,
"We've sold tea since my grand grand father's time.
Our tea must be good."
Some brands told me:
"We cultivated tea in an organic way, so our tea must be good to drink."
Some brands tout their great tea processing and baking technologies.
So their tea must be good to drink.
These points sound reasonable, but they don't sound complete to me.
I met with several problems when I was learning tea.
For a long time, I thought, because people all say that,
"There is only Oolong tea in Taiwan"
But I've drunk the Oolong tea with orchid , gardenia and even toffee frangrance.
It's weird that they have different flavors but they have the same name.
I exposed to High Mountain Tea first. There was a name Moutain's breath.
For example, Lishan tea has the Mountain's breath of Lishan.
Ali Mountain and SunLink Sea have their own Mountain's breath.
I asked a lot of people:" Please tell me, what Moutain's breath is?"
No one could explain it clearly.
And for a long time, I thought the tea with dark colour
must be strong and bitter.
But I've discovered that it was a big misunderstanding!
I drank more and more tea, and found out another thing:
Why are some teas in a round shape like Oolong tea?
And some teas are in a strip shape like Wenshen Paochong Tea?
Why are some teas short and scattered like Oriental Beauty?
And some are finely divided and short particles.
They are all tea. Why do they need these shapes?
I read a lot of books and asked a lot of people, but I couldn't find out an answer.
So I had to answer it myself.
I solved the problem from the history of Taiwan Tea and back to tea itself.
Do you know why we have Taiwan Tea?
Fujian people brought over 100 kinds of tea trees to Taiwan a hundred years ago.
The 100 kinds of tea trees
meant over 100 kinds of tea processing technologies.
So there are many different baking degrees,
different fermenting degrees and different shapes of tea in Taiwan.
Oh, I see.
After they came to Taiwan, they first settled in the north of Taiwan,
then they slowly moved to the middle and southern part.
Taiwan was the tea production firm of the world before the 1980s.
We once sold tea to more than 140 countries in the world.
We sold Japanes the green tea; sold English the black tea.
So the tea makers in Taiwan could make any kinds of tea.
After the 1980s, because of the rising costs of land and labor,
they had to shift to domestic sales of delicate Oolong tea.
That was the time when Taiwan Tea owned the real international status.
Then, "go back to the nature of tea". What does this mean?
For a long time, many peopole told me: "people" is the key to decide
if the tea is good to drink or not.
I was lucky to meet an old tea maker who had 40-year experience.
That means he experienced the time when Taiwan Tea was sold abroad:
And he is experiencing this golden time of Oolong tea.
So he had no difficulty in making tea.
He is able to make every kind of tea, but I often heard that, he said:
"Alas, for the bad weather, we can't make good tea even though we are good at it ."
Like the spring tea, they all lack a sweet taste because of the drought.
Or maybe it rains when we pick tea leaves. The air humidity is too high.
So we can't make good tea."
Then I found out that:
Even such a master with profound skill was so humble in front of the nature.
I'm certain that the nature was the key to decide if the tea was good to drink.
And I'm certain that the best tea in the world is Taiwan Tea.
Three reasons: firstly, there are various kinds of tea trees in Taiwan.
Besides those brought in by Fujian people, there is an official agency called
"Tea Improvement Station" for cultivating new tea varieties and creating new scents.
Secondly, the unique habitat.
The tea-producing countries in the world have centuries of history.
The high mountains in Taiwan was only exploited
in the past hundred years.
So, there is very natural environment and fertile soil in Taiwan,
which can breed the best tea trees.
Thirdly, the advanced tea-making technologies for centuries.
After Fujian people handed these technologies to Taiwan people,
during this century,
tea-making masters kept improving, upgrading and advancing these technologies
And finally they made the best tea in the world.
So as for the tea we drink today and the flavor we taste,
there are three contents in it:
the tea plant varieties, local conditions and processings.
Ok, as "variety" sounds a little abstract, I'll use flowers as a metaphor.
Like rose, fragrans and jasmine, they look different and smell different.
Although tea trees all look alike,
each kind of tea has its own scent.
For example, High Mountain Tea belongs to Green Oolong Species by standards
Green Oolong Species has an orchid fragrance.
Osmanthus Oolong Tea, another kind of tea, has a toffee flavor.
Local conditions: different producing area
can breed different qualities of tea trees.
We use human as a metaphor this time.
A yellow man, if he grow up in Taiwan or in America,
and the food, drink, clothes, daily use, and views are all different.
Is it natural to shape different qualities of him?
So are the tea trees.
We take a Green Oolong Tea with an orchid fragrance as a metaphor:
The ones grow in Lishan taste elegant;
the ones grow in SunLink Sea taste more vigorous.
Now I realize that what the Mountain's breath is.
Mountain's breath is all the natural conditions in the tea garden.
including sunlight, air, soil and water.
Tea is not like vegetable. We can't eat or drink it directly after picking.
It must go through tea-making process.
There are many tea-making processes. For example, baking makes tea taste warm.
Fermented tea makes it have a scent of honey.
And there are some round-shaped tea.
In fact, it's a round-kneading process to increase its lasting appeal.
Some teas, like the Pouchong Tea, are in a strip shape.
It's to highlight the scent of the tea.
For a long time, during my process of learning tea.
People usually describe how to drink the tea in this way:
After drinking, there will be an aftertaste,
promoting body fluid, sweet lingering and complete comfort.
That was like a book from heaven to me.
I totally didn't understand what he was talking about.
I can understand it many years later; but for beginners,
it's too difficult to describe tea in this way.
For me, Taiwan Tea is the natural perfume.
So, by the concept of "top, mid and base" of perfume,
I divide drinking tea into three steps:
Top: the aroma you smell before drinking;
Mid: the sweetness and smoothness of tea in your mouth.
So mid includes flavor and feeling.
Base: all the feelings of your body and soul after drinking the tea.
For some teas, the fragrance will be left in your mouth;
For some teas, your throat will feel warm and thick. That's the aftertaste.
You will feel refreshed after drinking some teas.
All of these that I'm talking about are good feelings.
Something, some teas, after drinking,
you feel dizzy, headache and have a stomachache. These are bad feelings.
I've been drinking tea for many years.
Many people said, "Wow! you are so tasteful!"
I would tell him: Don't say that. You can be tasteful without drinking tea.
Why?
If you can use the notion of top, mid, and base
to distinguish the quality of all the food and drink in your life,
then I tell all of you: the key is the base.
If the base make you feel bad, this object is usually not very good.
If you can reject the bad things from all sides,
you are also a man with taste.
OK.
In my growth, I've been drinking tea for more than ten years and I found out that
food is becoming less and less; while products are becoming more and more.
One day, I went into a convenience store to buy a packet of biscuits.
I couldn't help to look at the labeling of the ingredients on the back.
Wow! There were so many terrible food additives.
I had to use Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji in the Stems-and-Branches,
and Shuowen Jiezi to read it.
I was thinking that, as for these food addittives,
if you eat them for a short time, you feel nothing special,
but if you eat them for a long time, they must do much harm to your health.
Dining locally. I've been drinking tea for a long time, and I've changed a lot of
my consumption habits, including dining locally.
I often accompany my wife to shop for food in the market. There, I find out that
so much food in the market is not from Taiwan.
We have apples from Chile, Kiwi from New Zealand,
carrots, potatoes and onions from America.
And upon my graduation,
I once worked in Japan and lived in Chiba-ken.
Because I lived alone at that time.
I had to go to the supermarket and buy food to make at home.
It was so weird that the food made in Chiba was always sold out first.
I asked my Japanese college: Why? Why do you buy things like this?
He said: are't they the freshest?
After the transportation for a long time and a long distance,
the state of any food has already changed.
If you want to taste the freshest flavore of the food,
dining locally must be necessary.
Now, value and price.
I used to buy things according to the price. I bought a lot of cheap things.
I bought some food and drink as if I didn't need money to buy them.
Then what happened? I couldn't eat them up.
And just left them there to go bad, thus caused great waste.
And I didn't really need some things.
I just bought them as they were cheap,
and I just left them there after using them once or twice.
Then I rethink my consumption habit. It was not right.
We have to think about its value before we buy it.
Firstly, to determine if you need it or not;
Secondly, Are the quality, productions, the whole process good or not.
Finally, to assess the price and your budget.
What do I find out after making these changes?
I reduce a lot of waste in my life.
I like and treasure everything I bought very much.
OK. I've been dringking tea for so many years. Of course I've drunk many good teas
I also recognize the great value of the nature and culture in Taiwan again.
But before the end of this talk,
I'd like to share three most charming natures of tea with all of you:
Peace, kindness and priceless time of gathering.
As soon as there is a holiday,
some of my friends will book the exclusive resort, or go to the suburbs.
I asked them why. He said: I want to find a moment of peace in my mind.
I told him not to be so troublesome.
You just take out a cup, make a cup of tea
Tea is very interesting. As soon as the water is poured, you can feel the scent,
You wait for the spread of the flavor and then take a sip.
A feeling of peace. I told him, this is the garden in your heart,
The garden in your heart is aroused.
I also told him:
If you could feel this instantaneous touch in your life frequently,
then you certainly could see the perpetual Zen of life.
So the first nature of tea is peace.
The second nature: kindness.
Compared with coffee and alcohol,
tea is best able to bring people's hearts closer together.
In my life, if I could,
I always create many oppotunities to drink tea with my colleges and families.
We often talk about many issues while drinking tea.
Good communication will reduce the violence between people
and increase much harmony,
OK, the last one, priceless time of gathering.
My mother is 70 years old now. I'm lucky that
when I was in college, I often skipped class to drink tea at home.
You know, a pot of tea is too much for one person to drink.
So I often chatted with my mother.
I think that time is the most precious memory in my life as a son.
OK, that's all I want to share today.
I hope it will make you feel the fragrance of Taiwan Tea,
and begin your own wonderful journey with Taiwan Tea
in your life.
Thank you.
(Applause)