10/31/2025
🍃 Aged Oolong 1999 — Lucky Joy Tea’s Aged Tieguanyin
Speaking of Aged Tea
Uncle Yang is my younger sister’s father-in-law — a tea farmer born and raised in my hometown.
Ever since we first met, two crazy tea heads became good tea friends.
Whenever I talk about aged tea, I can’t help thinking of Uncle Yang — the tea farmer who won first prize in the 2014 Fall Tieguanyin Roasted Oolong Tea Competition.
He’s a man who lives and breathes tea.
No matter who he meets, he’ll always end up talking about roasting, aging, and tasting tea.
He’s spent his whole life on the tea mountain — working, roasting, and sharing stories.
Every cup he brews carries a story of its own.
One day, as we sat drinking tea together, he leaned in with a mysterious smile and asked,
“Do you know why I always like to roast and store aged tea?”
I could feel his excitement. He couldn’t wait to tell me his story.
Uncle Yang is the father of five — four girls and one boy.
Like many traditional Chinese men, he believed that having a son meant keeping the family’s roots alive.
But back then, birth control policies were extremely strict.
So he and his wife fled deep into the mountains, far away from their hometown in Anxi —
into endless bamboo forests where no one knew them.
Besides making tea, Uncle Yang was also a talented bamboo craftsman.
He built a small cottage and made all kinds of bamboo wares by hand.
Every day, Aunt Yang carried those crafts from village to village, hoping to sell them.
But people were poor, and few could afford to buy.
Then one day, she had a clever idea.
Instead of asking for money, she told the villagers:
“ You can pay with rice — fill the bamboo container full!”
A spoon only needed a spoonful of rice; a bowl or plate cost a little more.
Soon, everything sold out — and the family finally had enough to eat.
What a smart woman she was!
One scorching summer day, Uncle Yang was busy crafting when some villagers passed by, carrying a young man who had collapsed from heatstroke.
There were no doctors, no medicine in the mountains — the man was barely conscious.
Uncle Yang stopped them and poured him some roasted Tieguanyin — the same tea he drank daily.
Before long, the young man regained his strength.
Grateful and amazed, he became close friends with the Yang family.
That day, Uncle Yang realized something powerful —
that aged roasted Tieguanyin holds not just flavor, but healing energy.
He began to believe in tea’s quiet, natural power.
Soon after, his only son was born.
The family returned to their village, ready to face the government’s fines,
and continued their humble life — farming tea and crafting bamboo.
When Uncle Yang was 48, he left his village for the first time.
He traveled with his eldest daughter to Shantou City to sell tea.
There, he met many people who loved roasted aged Tieguanyin,
and heard a story that would change his heart forever.
A local tea drinker told him about a tragedy during World War II.
After the Japanese invasion, many villagers were poisoned by chemical weapons.
People were dying — no food, no medicine, no hope.
Then one man found three large pottery jars of tea in a ruined house.
He brewed the tea and shared it with others.
Miraculously, many recovered.
Since then, people in Shantou have believed in the “magic” of aged tea —
that the older, the better.
From that moment, Uncle Yang’s passion for aged tea grew even stronger.
Every harvest, he roasted and stored more tea than he could sell —
not for profit, but for love.
He believed that one day, someone might truly need it.
Even when it brought financial challenges, he never stopped.
His heart simply wouldn’t let him.
Now, more than twenty years later, Uncle Yang is still on the tea mountain —
roasting, storing, and sharing tea with anyone who stops by.
Whoever meets him can feel his warmth, his humility, and his deep love for tea.
He is a simple man,
but through his tea,
you can taste the wisdom of a lifetime.
🍵
— Yan, 2014
