Blog
-
期待每天睜開眼睛後，有機會
喝到來自台灣各地不同品種的好茶。I get to wake up every single day and taste some new exciting tea from Taiwan.
-
海关大人，这是台湾茶叶不是走私大麻！
来源：Austin Yoder 2013/08/30 发表于 The News Lens 关键评论网
Photo Credit: 陈镜 CHEN-CHING 翻译／红凯利
栽踏进台湾茶的世界是一条不归路。
2009年盛夏，我为了学习中文初次造访台湾。当时的我，对中华文化以及中文抱持着高度兴趣，每天花上数个小时学习、复习甚至于阅读中文报纸以增强我的语言能力。不得不说，我当时真是一位品学兼优的好学生呢！
直到我遇见来自韩国、对茶有深入研究的世进（音译）。
我和世进是中文课的同班同学，比较熟稔之后，我发现我和世进对「茶」有着相同的喜好及狂热。在我抵达台湾之前，世进已经在台湾待上几个月了，对于政大猫空附近的品茗馆如数家珍，因此熟门熟路的带我前往一探究竟。 我真的很感谢世进带我进入台湾茶的世界，让我有机会认识更多知名的台湾高山茶，像是阿里山乌龙茶、梨山茶、福寿长春茶及大禹岭高山茶等等。
虽然非常感谢世进带领我一头栽进台湾茶的世界，但我似乎变成一个「糟糕」的学生了。因为对茶已经上瘾的我，在学期最后的几堂课，常常偷偷溜去附近茶馆品茶，甚至，把奖学金都「投资」在乌龙茶跟紫砂壶上头了。 因此，课程结束要返回美国时，行李箱、手提袋满满都是我最爱的茶叶，但美国海关在扫瞄器中看到我行李箱里满是小小绿色植物，于是就把我拦下来做更详细的检查，因为怀疑我走私大麻。
为了不让我心爱的茶叶被没收，我花上数个小时说服他们那不是大麻。甚至，如果海关愿意提供一杯山泉水或是饱含矿物质的水，像是法国矿泉水Evian，我愿意拿出顶级阿里山乌龙茶叶和紫砂壶当场冲泡给他们品尝。 结果，他们不但拒绝我的提议，还立刻派出一群受过训练的缉毒犬搜查我的行李。虽然我多花了一两个小时和缉毒犬缠斗以及被搜身，但回头想想，那些海关人员可是损失了品尝顶级乌龙茶的机会呢。那一刻我知道我一定要再次回到台湾，与许多热情的制茶者学习更多茶的文化与知识，并发扬茶的文化。
于是，2011年，我再次造访台湾，回到猫空的小茶馆，为的是拾回心中那一口念念不忘的甘甜记忆，就好比棉花糖融于草莓口味的水烟一般——是的，那一口记忆来自台湾十大名茶之一的木栅铁观音。
记得2009年某天行程是这样的，下午四点左右喝了一壶传说中的木栅铁观音，晚餐吃了一碗重口味的辛辣泡面，吃饱喝足后又喝了几口苏格兰威士忌来调剂夜生活，洗漱之后安稳地睡了八小时。
隔天当我在闷热的早晨中醒来，木栅铁观音的甘醇以及芬芳口感竟然仍在口中散发着，我脑海中不禁浮现Mitchum除臭菌的广告台词：其强效，保证你度过香喷喷的完美一天。可想而知，我感到既新奇又讶异，同时，却又担心喝下另一口茶后，木栅铁观音的香甜会被冲散，我就无法再与那甘醇多相处一会儿了。
从那次经验后，我再也没有喝过如此令人回味无穷的茶。但我相信，未来我还是有机会的。
定居台湾后，对于茶有着越来越深入的了解，我努力运用我所知道的知识来发扬台湾茶的产业；也期待每天睁开眼睛后，有机会喝到来自台湾各地不同品种的好茶。
只要爱茶成痴的我不改其志，只要我仍然想将茶叶带回美国分享给更多人，未来我还是会被美国海关和缉毒犬纠缠数小时吧。
但是，只要想到我在台湾曾品尝到的好茶、接触过的好人以及渊远的茶文化，我想，背那数个小时的黑锅，都会是值得的。
The point of no return for me? Yeah – that was when US Customs thought I was trying to smuggle a suitcase full of weed through the airport disguised as tea. The moment where I knew that I would come back to Taiwan to live here was right around the time the drug dogs were jumping up on my legs to sniff my crotch.
My first trip to Taiwan was more than three years ago during the summer of 2009. I came on a scholarship to study Mandarin, Chinese. When I arrived, I was a diligent student of language and culture, spending several hours per day reading over my textbook and trying to supplement my studies by reading newspapers. I could soak up Chinese vocabulary like a sponge, and completed all of my assignments on time.
I was diligent, earnest, hard-working student.
Then, I met Sejin.
Seijin is a Korean friend of mine who studies tea. As it happened, he was spending the summer in Taiwan improving his Mandarin skills, and we were in the same class. Sejin and I shared an interest in teas, and Sejin had been in Taiwan for a few months already by the time I began my studies.
Consequently, Sejin knew most of the good tea spots around our university – NCCU, and graciously spent a few weeks introducing them to me.
I am eternally grateful to Sejin for introducing me to the tea of Taiwan – the best high mountain Oolong teas like Alishan, Lishan, Fushoushan, Dayuling, etc., but boy, his introducing me to tea turned me into a terrible student!
By the end of my first summer in Taiwan, I was skipping class to sneak off to teahouses around my university. I was spending all of my scholarship money on Oolong tea and zisha clay teapots; living from check to check like an addict.
When I left to go back to the states, I had collected so much tea that it literally filled my carry-on suitcase to the brim. US Customs saw my carry-on suitcase full of small green plant matter go through the luggage scanner, and detained me on suspicion of ferrying marijuana across international borders.
To their credit, I would probably also have been suspicious of a white person carrying a suitcase full of loose leaf tea.
I argued with TSA agents for over an hour, trying my best to assure them that the kilos of green in my suitcase were tea, and not weed. Hell, I even offered to brew them a cup of Alishan High Mountain Oolong tea to let them sample the product for themselves. I had a zisha clay pot handy, I told them, and all they would need to supply was some fresh mountain spring water at a boil. Or a soft mineral water, like Evian. And did Mr. and Ms. TSA happen to have some Evian handy?
They declined, and promptly unleashed a horde of drug sniffing dogs over me and my luggage.
I lost an hour or two to drug dogs and pat downs, but those customs agents missed out on tea the likes of which I guarantee they've never had before – the very best tea that Taiwan has to offer. At that moment, I knew that I had to come back to Taiwan and live here, learn more about its teas and its culture, spend more time with the people who had been so hospitable and welcoming to me.
I returned to Taiwan in November of 2011, chasing memories of my personal white whale: a Muzha Tie Guan Yin Oolong tea that tasted like cotton candy and strawberry hookah. I drank said tea, the only perfect 100 tea I've ever tasted, in the teahouse near the university where Sejin and I had studied together.
Back that first summer in 2009 when I first learned about Taiwan's teas, I tasted this Muzha Tieguanyin around 4pm, before a dinner of spicy instant noodles. After my dinner of instant noodles, I had a scotch and brushed my teeth (scotch and toothpaste are both very heavy flavors), and went to sleep for a solid eight hours. When I woke up the next morning, that fateful muggy summer day in 2009, the full flavor and mouthfeel (口感) of the tea was still so strongly present in my mouth that I didn't even want to brew a morning cup of tea. I felt like I was still drinking tea from the night before! That Muzha Tie Guan Yin was like Mitchum deodorant: "so strong you could skip a day."
I haven't had another 100 point tea since that day, but I'm confident they're out there. As I have learned getting to know the tea industry in Taiwan, Taiwan produces some of the best teas in the world. While the Spring 2013 harvest of Muzha Tieguanyin was not, in my opinion, as outstanding as the Spring 2009 harvest, I now have taken my previous studious habits and applied them to exploring all of the teas that Taiwan has to offer, and love life as a foreigner in Taiwan's tea industry.
I get to wake up every single day and taste some new exciting tea from Taiwan or another interesting country, and there isn't a week that goes by where I don't reflect on the experiences that Taiwan has introduced to me to. Although I haven't been detained again by customs for carrying around too much suspicious looking tea, I'm pretty sure it'll happen again one day. As long as I get to continue experiencing the tea, people, and culture Taiwan has to offer on a regular basis, that hour or two I'll lose to customs again someday in the future will be well worth it.
Sourse：Austin Yoder 2013/08/30 The News Lens
Photo Credit: CHEN-CHING 陈镜