Exploring hidden TEA TREASURES at Kew Gardens - London

► Join Our Notification Squad: meileaf.com/subscribe/
I was honoured to be invited to visit the private Tea collection at the Royal Botanical Gardens of Kew. They have over 400 historical Teas with some dating back as far as the early 1800's. If only we could brew some up!
Please contact Aurora Prehn if you have any ideas or information about the teas in this video.
Aurora's Website: www.auroraprehn.com/
Mark Nesbitt (collection curator): www.marknesbitt.org.uk/
Kew's Economic Botany Collection: www.kew.org/science/collectio...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shop online: meileaf.com/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Join us on Instagram
/ mei_leaf
Tweet along with us
/ mei_leaf_tea
Write some friendly graffiti on our Facebook wall
/ meileaf

[@pkubek1]

I Love this doc so much! Its like bringing Mei Leaf to a new level! I am sure many tea heads are into history, collecting, etc fantastic! Thanks Don&Celine!

[@MeiLeaf]

Thanks it was great to visit them!

[@aidanm.5461]

The tea trips and travels are my favorite Mei Leaf videos! It's so fun to learn new things about tea.

[@YrjoPuska777]

I would not mind seeing more of Aurora on your show :)

[@kazumatv4403]

Wow! It's hard to find these kinds of tea even in China. Pu-erh tea wrapping paper is like a record jacket, colorful and like a work of art.

[@martinodman4068]

Don looking at these cakes as Bilbo Baggins looked at the ring

[@orangeblack1285]

17:03 god I love this woman. This level of enthusiasm for tea :D

[@elibint8921]

WOW.. Shifu Don, been a while now not visited your channel, and now this incredibly interesting video..... "Just when I thought I was out.. They pull me back in!"

[@MeiLeaf]

Haha you can never get out! 😜

[@chrisw7347]

Holy cow Don... you've released quite the banger of a video here haven't you? Anyone seriously into tea has to see this.

[@nathansmith9332]

What a cool video! Amazing opportunity. Thanks for sharing with us!

[@2deparrish]

Don & Celine, what a fascinating video! Thank you, Aurora, for opening up the "tea vault" to share so much history! There is so much to learn about the precious gift of tea, and we are grateful to the many Brits who have tried to preserve a bit of this for us. Wow! (I want to brew some of that very old puerh). I also enjoyed Aurora's clearing up of some of the misconceptions about Robert Fortune...I'm going to look for the book you mentioned about him.

[@Apollo440]

Beautiful stuff. Thank you for taking the time, making an effort and educating us, Don!

[@luisguhong]

Thank you very much for this fantastic video! one of the best on the channel. the tea at 31:00 closely resembles Oolong LongXu made from the ShuiXian cultivar. Now a days a rare type of oolong of Wuyi mountain.

[@jimmychristensen7112]

Very interesting..i was not even there, but i was still itching to try some of that puerh

[@tommygun9546]

the look on your face, when she said they had only hydrated the leafs 😅 and not tasted the tea... we say: perlen vor die säue werfen. thx for another great video on tea, don.

[@MeiLeaf]

It's totally inconceivable that they didn't have a little sip!

[@agskater1914]

Such a cool idea for a tea video

[@roopakgoswami]

Wonderful and amazing. Any collection from India.

[@oscars4107]

Those interesting jars of tea @ 35 mins approx immediately reminded me of twist tobacco. Very interesting way of storing and transporting it perhaps.

[@aurora-peopleplantsllc173]

Hi Oscar S, yes we agree! Very similar.

[@figgypreserves]

Very thankful she allowed you do do that that was a a delight to watch

[@xSilverFernx]

Ahhh I felt the vicarious joy of visiting a museum as soon as Aurora started the tour. Thank you for doing this! This was so exciting and fun!

[@LL-bl8hd]

This is so interesting! I love history, especially tea history. Those leaves look pretty good. 👍

[@Patrick-ux8ud]

I did not want this video to end. Great stuff

[@MeiLeaf]

They have another 400 teas there to explore!

[@Patrick-ux8ud]

@@MeiLeaf I hope revisit and make more videos.

[@inta98]

Great video. Fascinating watch. Loving the new insights you bring us. Thanks to all involved 🙏

[@guymcqueen6538]

In love with Aurora (and her work). 🖤

[@desertfox432]

Super cool episode! Wow, a tea brick as old as Beethoven.

[@zae5159]

Love tea history so much, this is a really great video, thank you!

[@tearush]

Wow, one of your best videos ever. What an experience!

[@Grayson.P]

Great video. Really interesting to see all these old teas. Had some Black Yunnan Tuo 96 last night. And cracking into Kickback Champ this morning.

[@cindyd936]

Wow. Hello from Missouri. Go Tigers. But, seriously this is so interesting.

[@imiguifurr]

I Loved this video so much!!! Oml!

[@murrayhardie8025]

Wow. What a fascinating and enjoyable session….Thanks so much for sharing these amazing samples can’t wait to see what comes next!

[@super60sand70s]

Fascinating!

[@davidvillaescribano5178]

What a wonderful documentary. Thanks Don. Nothing better than learning

[@bigbtb]

Simply fascinating and you can see how much she loves her work. I really enjoyed the video. I see that there's a book called "All About Teas Vol. 1" by William H. Ukers that references a tea with that name and general description as a canton oolong. It may be nothing solid to go on but interesting to see it referenced.

[@gnomebodyknows]

wait am I watching Objectivity or Mei Leaf?? this is wonderful!

[@achukmvlid.johnson9588]

Great video

[@jakubhadamek4591]

That rolled "cigars" remind me of Sri Lanka Blue Neetle oolong tea. Same shape at least.

[@sband4620]

Wait, was the braided tea done per each piece or did they spin a 'yarn' of tea and then cut it to length? How many leaf stems do you see poking out at each end - any in the middle? Maybe ask if a spinner can reproduce it? I used to spin small pieces of grass etc between my fingers as a kid all the time- but tea leaves wouldn't be uniform as they are wider in the middle and would then create a bulk shape in the middle (like the eyebrows), even when spun. To do it uniformly, you would probably layer the leaves - but not sure how hard it would be to do. Certainly it would have to be just the right combo of not-dry and not-wet. 🤯

[@charlesperez9976]

What a remarkable video from Kew!! I would officially announce my marriage proposal to Aurora 🥰😂 She is truly remarkable. I visited your shop on September 22nd,purchased a flute brewer and a bag of juice journo. Funny thing,I was in London to go mudlarking,to find marvelous things upon the shore of the River Thames. On one occasion,I found the most curious Chinese pot lid. I kept it,,despite the fact that it was just a lone little lid. 4 days later,in the mud,I found the pot!!!! It is a beautiful little tea caddy,found separately,on different days,now brought back together! And I shall cherish it,and store my finest tea leaves in it🥰

[@yvonnestreeter2820]

I'm not a tea head, but love history and books.... you sent me to Amazon and Robert Fortune's book which is still available. The Alistair Watt book was a little pricey. Wow! Fascinating! Had empathy for your desire to taste that ancient tea..... I will confess I was drinking fourth brew of some puehr tea I purchased from you... and as a Missouri resident with a Botanical Gardens membership, very proud of my fellow Missourian!

[@auroradp11]

Thank you for watching! Watt's book is not out of its initial print run increasing its price. If you can find a one at a reasonable price, do, because the price will continue to rise. It is a must read!

[@YushangChen]

That is crazy!

[@beth.7]

What a wonderful docu! I meant to brew up the last of my Candy Tree Black to drink with it, but I literally forgot to go about it until about 25 minutes had already elapsed. Super-fascinating!

[@tommygun9546]

😅 been there, done that. but don't you always find a nice way to rescue it then? let me know, how. cheers from tx.

[@MeiLeaf]

I am happy that you enjoyed visiting Kew vaults virtually.

[@beth.7]

@@MeiLeaf Absolutely! I’ll probably force people to go there with me in body, if I come to London again.

[@beth.7]

@@tommygun9546 😂 I would, if I had. Probably I’d just have drunk it and regarded that as an interesting experiment in taste. But I guess you misunderstood me: I did in fact forget to brew the tea altogether; just sat there with my tea ware, eyes glued to the screen … wie ein vergifteter Affe. 😁

[@PotatoSmasher420]

Hey Don (And Aurora), mind sharing a better quality pic of the vial from minute 32? It says it's from Prague, so as a czech maybe I'll be able to help with translation. EDIT: I already located the Apothecary - it used to be at Nerudova street 32, founded by Vincenc Dittrich in 1814, later run by his son (since 1845) Josef Dittrich (hence the J. Dittrich on the label). Might go there and ask if you want me to. Edit 2: the writing on the bottle is probably french for some reason reading: ???? Thée de la Chine en petites bottes. I already hit Aurora up on her website, so I hope it's at least a bit helpful.

[@MeiLeaf]

Great detective work!

[@Jan_Johny]

That was really great! Really interesting. But Im not sure how would tea so old taste. 😄😄

[@cgmartin9789]

It would be interesting to see recreations of the adulterated teas, to see what they would have looked like at the time. Obviously not for consumption.

[@nihilblum9670]

Do you know ShuiTang in Zurich? I‘m learning gong fu Cha there for a while now and have been in Taiwan and yunnan with my teacher to study more and produce some tea. It’s such an awesome topic and so much more than a beverage. Meanwhile I have my own small collection of aged teas and teatoys. Just love it!

[@madstevens8961]

I know her shop in the old part of Zürich. Unfortunately she doesn‘t seem to sell full cakes of puerh but only packaged samples of 50g. She is very knowledgable though.

[@nihilblum9670]

@@madstevens8961 she does sell whole cakes as well as staples 😜 I have all of mine from her

[@angelaschrag1729]

The twisted leafs, could they be old oolong? Before ball rolled became a thing?

[@thegamingruler1996]

It makes me think the Fancy tea at minute 32 were used as ciggars for smoking and medicinal purposes. That was my first thought on it, people probably got high on tea leaves.

[@utopiadaniele]

Isn't there a sort of yellowish powder on the 1860 cake? Like golden pollen, mould, or flour...

[@aurora-peopleplantsllc173]

Hi Daniele, It might be the lens there isn't an obvious powder, but I think there could have been rice flour used in processing.

[@utopiadaniele]

Thanks Aurora for the reply! Interesting! That golden powder colour made me think of a tea from Hunan, if I am not wrong, whose characteristic is a golden mould (seemingly beneficial) in the structure of the compressed leaves

[@firstjohn3123]

As far as deciphering the labels (@ min.32+), Israel uses a multi-spectrum light imaging unit that successively photographs writing under different wavelengths of light, the superimposes each image until the writing is legible. They use it for reading ancient parchment. Should work on the labels for clarification.

[@Backstoner]

Regarding the Fancy Tea: I have two theses on this. If we consider that tea was very valuable at that time, it makes sense to pack tea in small portions as a means of payment at sea. It may be that, as with tobacco, it served to make the leaves more resistant to the influences at sea. The second theory: If we assume it is Kuding tea or other bitter tea leaves, which is still used today as a medicine, then this type of storage would also make sense, as the leaves can probably be chewed in the same way as coca leaves. What do you think? Hope you understand wht i mean... 😊

[@syncrol]

off topic : Is it really bad to drink tea on an empty stomach ? like when i am fasting ? or in the morning ?

[@gingersensation9584]

This all very nice but when are you going to review PG Tips and those adorable monkeys?

[@rathernotsayatall]

Thanks for your work! ("brew" instead of "brews" in the description)

[@Mewtwo420]

What kind of shirt is that you are wearing?

[@Mewtwo420]

@@roman135 thank you

[@mowgli__383]

Would it not be arguably a good reason to sample some of these teas to identify their chrarcteristics ? Invite a few experts and try it out ! It would make for a great video, and add quite a bit of value to these samples, by knowing more about them... Also I believe there are means to find the exact origin ? Like comparing their genetics to samples from different provinces ? Do you know if there are researches in china about this ? Paleogenetics of tea ? Does it interest anyone to know how the plant was domesticated and refined ? How tasted tea hundreds of years ago ? I'd like to know !

[@mowgli__383]

Also I believe the "archaeology of senses" is a interesting subject, as much the use of our five senses to create science, as the questioning of the sensorial experiences of the past... maybe there is something there ?

[@nebahatdinisleyen4945]

Yes Türki wstanbol

[@TestMee]

so jelly, as to the un known tea. I just by looking at it i think its a white tea. I know they roll them like this sometimes. Was there still hair on the leafs? Cuz than its white from Yunnan Ning'er Town of Simao. If not it could be a sort of sun dried black tea in the same fashion. Now what it could be and im going on a lim here. It could be ment as a culinaire herb. Like you would bind herbs now. The Britse not aware of this may have mistakes this as drinking tea. It could explain te size of the leafs. Made of only mature leafs so not first 2 but furter down. Your not going to use those good young leafs for soup. For that your going to use leafs you cant drink. It would also explain the hard roll. The adult leaf would have to be rolled extensivly to break te cellwalls down. But still my first guess is white. The couler could be just age. The time from plant to the uk could be up to a year in very very wet environment on a ship in the sea. This would have sped up the oxidation a lot. The overall salt in the air would only made it even more so. The tibetan tea would be better protected becouse there would be way let exposed area to oxidise.

[@kwool5151]

Poo-urhhhh

[@angelaschrag1729]

The twisted leafs, could they be old oolong? Before ball rolled became a thing?

[@angelaschrag1729]

The twisted leafs, could they be old oolong? Before ball rolled became a thing?

[@aurora-peopleplantsllc173]

Could be!