Tea is like life; life is about learning, and wisdom comes from practice.<\/p>\n
On the night of the Ghost Festival, the scent of joss paper and candlelight drifting through the streets always stir up many thoughts. This is a day when Chinese people honour their ancestors, and also a perfect moment for a dialogue with oneself. Every year during the Ghost Festival, I do one thing \u2014 brew a pot of aged tea, sit alone at the tea table, drink slowly, and reflect.<\/p>\n
This year, I prepared a 1998 Menghai ripe pu-erh that has been stored for over twenty years. This cake was acquired in my youth when I was still a tea farmer in Yunnan \u2014 climbing mountains to pick tea by day, crafting tea inside the factory by night. This cake travelled with me from Yunnan to Guangdong, surviving several moves, yet it never left my side. Each time I open the wrapper, that aged aroma rushes out, like opening a time capsule.<\/p>\n
The allure of aged tea lies in its story. Every infusion carries decades of time within it. From the astringency of young tea, through the transformation of middle age, to the mellow depth of aged tea \u2014 this process mirrors life itself. In youth, boundless energy but lacking experience; in middle age, steady yet occasionally lost; only in old age does one truly understand what matters. The mellowness of aged tea cannot be achieved overnight \u2014 it requires the sediment of time and the harmony of environment.<\/p>\n
Brewing this aged ripe pu-erh requires boiling water and quick decanting. The tea has already become so gentle; it needs no long steeping. The first infusion yields a liquor that is deep red and crystalline, beautiful like red wine. The moment it touches your palate, that aged fragrance fills the entire mouth \u2014 dates, medicinal herbs, and wood notes intertwined in rich layers. By the third infusion, the liquor grows even more velvety, the texture smooth as silk. By the fifth, the returning sweetness emerges, a sweetness that lingers through the whole throat.<\/p>\n
Drinking aged tea on Ghost Festival night, what is most special is that sense of conversing with time itself. This cake was made in 1998, when I was still a young man, full of hope for the future. Now drinking it, I have become an old tea head, having experienced so much. The tea has changed, and so have I. But that love for tea has never wavered. This is the power of tea \u2014 it transcends time, connecting past and present.<\/p>\n
I often think: if I could speak to my younger self, what would I say? I think I would tell him: \u201cTake it slow, don\u2019t rush. Good tea needs time, and so does a good life.\u201d These truths, in youth, fall on deaf ears; only at my age do they truly sink in. What aged tea has taught me is not just brewing technique, but the principles of living.<\/p>\n
From a wellness perspective, aged ripe pu-erh, through years of post-fermentation, has become extraordinarily gentle in nature, with virtually zero irritation to the stomach. The Ghost Festival falls in the seventh lunar month, when the weather begins to cool. A cup of aged ripe tea warms the stomach and calms the spirit. Traditional Chinese medicine says aged tea \u201charmonises the five organs and settles the emotions\u201d \u2014 a view I deeply agree with. Every year after drinking aged tea on Ghost Festival night, I feel a profound stillness, as if all troubles have vanished.<\/p>\n
Tea has its grades, yet all people may share it equally.<\/p>\n
By the eighth infusion, the liquor has grown very light, yet still carries a faint sweetness. At that moment, a breeze drifts through the window, stirring the curtains. I close my eyes and think of many who have passed \u2014 some left us years ago, others only recently. But on this Ghost Festival night, with a pot of aged tea, I feel as though they are all beside me. This is the magic of tea \u2014 it transcends the boundary between worlds, connecting the living and those who have gone on.<\/p>\n
The Ghost Festival is not only a day for ancestor worship; it is also a precious opportunity for reflection. Over a pot of aged tea, I look back on the years gone by and contemplate the road ahead. The mellowness of aged tea reminds me that a good life requires time to settle. The vigour of youth and the steadiness of middle age transform, in old age, into true wisdom. This process is just like a cake of tea transforming from new to aged \u2014 it demands patience, time, and experience.<\/p>\n
Make friends through tea; please, have a cup.
\n—<\/p>\n
Author: Old Tea Head \u00b7 LamSam
\nZenTea Manor
\nTian Ying Supply Chain Company
\nwww.zentea-shop.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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