Master Xu, whom we met through a common friend at the time we were still at Xiamen, is a man of the Dao, a man of great achievement, skill and historical knowledge on Wuyi tea. He created a welfare community of growers on the rugged cliffs east of Wuyishan Park, where they cultivate tea in a most rigorous ecological way, with only two harvest a year. They share skills among the members, communal activities, dinners and dividends at the end of the year, while preserving their sacred environment of idyllic and terrifying beauty.
The tea is floral, replete with radish, rotten leaves, coconut, a bit spicy and extremely refreshing during summer, replenishing with vigor during lonely winter months that suddenly are not that lonely anymore. It's a treasure of human skills and how they harmonized with a splendid nature with a most ambiguous face..
Shuixian Rock Tea from Jingwoshen Community Tea, by Master Xu, Wuyishan, Fujian.
This is a classic Shuixian, the most delicate, subtle and aromatic of the Wuyishan Yanchas. It is best done in the traditional way, in a Dehua gaiwan (like the one we sell on the store). You steep it for 2-3 seconds for the first three infusions, almost immediately pouring it into the Gongdaobei, which is the ewer. From there, you serve it into the cups, only filling half of them for respect to the guests. If you fill the whole cups, it is considered strange, like to say: it is time to go to sleep.