I’ve known Master Tseng for quite a few years. Mrs Yu Hui Tseng is a Master of Tea, following the Chinese tradition, and of the Gongfu tea ceremony (Gongfu Cha). She is also famous for being the first (and only) woman to become a Master of Tea. I had the opportunity to work with her on the Seven Sensualities series of dinners to accompany Dom Pérignon vintages 1998, 1999 and 2000—dinners which deserve their own entries, by the way. I am grateful to her for bringing me into her world: the world of teas and especially the highly sought-after pu ers. Master Tseng comes from Taiwan, which became during the 20th century the sanctuary for the age-old tradition of Chinese tea ceremony, but she regularly explores all the terroirs of mainland China. She was the first Master of Tea to settle in Europe, and more specifically in Paris, where she established her tea cellar and store (La Maison des trois Thés). She explained to me that she chose Paris because of the French culture of gastronomy and appreciation of delicacies—including fine wine! La Maison des trois Thés is also a tea library, offering very rare teas (e.g. from the 19th century, from single trees or extremely old trees, some of them more than a thousand years old) to connoisseurs, willing to pay a premium for this exclusivity.
Coming back to the Seven Sensualities dinner for the launch of 2000 Dom Pérignon, we selected three teas, all of them magnifiying different facets of the wine: the first one called Ba Da Chun (from the pu er sheng cha family), from the 2007 vintage, young and vibrant; the second one called Chen Yin, vintage 1992, from the Guang Dong province, a very rare tea, intense and complex; and finally another pu er sheng cha from the 1990 vintage, mature and tactile. Talking with Master Tseng, I have come to understand that there is so much in common between wine and tea, all the way from the terroir to the appreciation: indeed for the ancient Chinese, tea was a drink supposed to satisfy the senses as well as the soul. She follows tea from the plantation to the cultivation and harvest, followed by the selection, production (including sometimes fermentation!) and the aging process. She also pointed out that pu ers, much like wines, are categorized by vintage and region of production—and also sometimes counterfeit! The quality of storage is as crucial as for wine: strict control of temperature, humidity or air flow is necessary. Tea and wine have been consecrated by their respective culture; tradition is key, and Master Tseng and I embrace it as well as modernity. As China is increasingly opening its doors to a world of fine wine, I hope that the rest of the world will be eager to discover the amazing depth and quality of Chinese tea.
