Much sipping, waiting, travelling, and finally contentment, has been put into creating a tea tour with Wild China where we will sip of the greens, the whites, the precious Puerhs and as many other teas as we can manage in between. A journey that begins next March spanning China’s famed southern tea belt, it will be nothing short of an odyssey of instruction and history as it applies to what was known once simply as ‘du’ or ‘bitter herb’.
A tea cultivator enjoys a tea high away from the precious leaves
An immersion into the fluid, the leaves themselves, and the personalities behind names like the famed (and much faked) Longjing, and ancient tree Puerh. How tea is produced, its history and a rampant bit of sampling at all hours of the day and night will be enjoyed.
From my adopted home in Yunnan, we’ll head east into the southeast of China, where Oolongs were born and shipped out by schooner, and where white buds now stir up trends.
Tea as a medicine, as a tonic, as a food and fuel, and tea in its most notable form: desiccated leaves unleashed by water, will all be looked at and sampled where possible. We’ll take in one of the ancient world’s great green commodities in tiny sips, and great heaving gulps.
About JeffFuchs
Having lived for a decade in Yunnan, Fuchs’ work has centred on indigenous mountain cultures, oral histories along with an obsessive interest in tea.
Fuchs is the author of 'The Ancient Tea Horse Road' (Viking-Penguin) and he was the subject of 'The Tea Explorer' documentary based on his exploration of the Tea Horse Road.
His photos and stories have appeared on three continents in publications such as Kyoto Journal, TRVL, and Outpost Magazine, as well as The Spanish Expedition Society, The Earth, Silkroad Foundation, The China Post Newspaper, The Toronto Star, The South China Morning Post, and UNESCO amongst others. Various pieces of his work are part of private collections in Europe, North America, and Asia. Fuchs served as Asian Editor at Large for five years at award-winning Outpost magazine.
Jeff has worked with schools and universities, giving talks on both the importance of oral traditions, tea and mountain cultures.
His recently released book ‘The Ancient Tea Horse Road’ (Penguin-Viking Publishers) details his 8-month groundbreaking journey traveling and chronicling one of the world’s great trade routes, The Tea Horse Road. Fuchs is the first westerner to have completed the entire route stretching almost six thousand kilometers through the Himalayas a dozen cultures.
Fuchs partnered with Wild China to create a journey along the Tea Horse Road which National Geographic Traveler called one of the "50 Trips of a Lifetime".
He is co-founder of Akahiao Nature Institute on the island of Hawai'i along with his wife, Julie Rogers.
