For our sixth episode, we talk with Jeff Fuchs, a long-time WildChina friend, and a globally-recognized expert on tea. Jeff is also a pioneering explorer being the first Westerner to walk the 6000 some miles of the ancient tea horse road through the Himalayas. Today we’ll be talking with him about tea in China.
To cover tea in China, a country very much steeped in the culture and history of tea drinking, we are speaking with Jeff Fuchs.
Jeff is an explorer, author, and tea expert, voted one of Canada’s ‘Greatest Explorers’ by the Royal Canadian Geographic Society. He was the first documented westerner to have travelled the legendary Tea Horse Road, the nomadic Route of Salt ‘Tsa-Lam’, and the ‘Hor-Lam’, the Route of Pashmina through Ladakh. Jeff has led or been a part of over 30 expeditions in the Himalayas, chronicling both the fading oral narratives and the declining ‘Himalayan Water Towers’, the glaciers.
Jeff is also the author of The Ancient Tea Horse Road, a chronicle of his journey along the Himalayan trade route, and he’s the inspiration for, and host of, the award-winning documentary ‘The Tea Explorer’.
Episode Overview:
- 01:04 – Jeff’s background with tea
- 03:45 – Tea in Yunnan
- 07:20 – The roots of tea in China and the Tea Horse Road
- 12:02 – Tea regions in China
- 14:03 – The process of making tea
- 17:43 – The Tea Horse Road, the effect of the journey on the tea
- 21:40 – Where to buy high-quality Chinese tea in the US
You can also listen to The China Travel Podcast on:
Chinese Tea Regions:
- Yunnan (Pu’er)
- Fujian (Wuyishan)
- Anhui (Huangshan)
- Zhejiang (Hangzhou)
Where to get Chinese tea in the U.S. and Canada:
- Teance in Berkeley
- Tea Drunk in New York
- Crimson Lotus in Seattle
- JalamTeas (Jeff’s company)
Other ways to enjoy tea
In person…
- Join us for an expert-led journey along the Tea Horse Road led by Jeff Fuchs himself
From afar…
- Read The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See and/or watch our book club chat with her.
- Read the recap of our live event in Fujian where we talked tea at the origin with WuyiOrigin found Cindy Chen, Tea Drunk New York founder Shunan Teng and Chinese food expert Carolyn Phillips in A Taste Of China Ep. 3: Fujian’s Mountain Teas And Cuisine
Join our Expert-Led Tour:
Traversing the Ancient Tea Horse Road
Follow the trail back to its roots on this journey, led by China Explorer, author and tea expert Jeff Fuchs, along tea’s most ancient trade roads. Hike through the forests of the first tea trees and step into the homes of descendants of the first tea cultivators on this thirst-quenching National Geographic ‘Tour of a Lifetime’
