Enshi Wildbrook Village Portrait 7 | Science, Soil, and Tradition — Guided by Master Yang Shengwei and Teacher Zhou

Enshi Wildbrook Village Portrait 7 | Science, Soil, and Tradition — Guided by Master Yang Shengwei and Teacher Zhou

In Wildbrook Village, our tea workshop stands on stories that began long before us.

Two people shaped the way we understand tea:
Master Yang Shengwei, the Mother Father, and also National Representative Inheritor of Enshi Yulu craftsmanship. He defines what standard Enshiyulu should be in official pappers. and Teacher Zhou, a farmer who planted all of our oldest tea trees in the village fifty years ago.

Master Yang was leader in the work of  defining what the official standard of Enshi Yulu should be in national documentation.
His work set the foundation for how Enshi Tea is recognized and measured across China today.
Through decades of study and teaching, he became both the guardian of its history and the voice that gave it form.


Master Yang: The Art of Steamed Green Tea

Master Yang has been making Enshi Yulu since the 1960s. His hands carry a lifetime of practice.

He helped preserve the ancient steamed green tea process — a rare craft that survived quietly in the mountains of Hubei while most of China turned to pan-firing.

Over the decades, he has trained hundreds of students, written about the craft, and reminded everyone that tea is both chemistry and culture.

When we visit his small workshop, he always smiles and says,
“A good tea is half science, half heart.”

That line became a compass for us.

In Wildbrook Village, we follow that same idea — to use chemistry to understand oxidation, aroma, and steaming temperature, yet never forget the rhythm of hand and fire.

Every experiment we do must still taste like our mountains.


Teacher Zhou: The Roots Beneath the Leaves

Teacher Zhou connects this science to the soil.

Back in 1975, he planted tea trees along the hillside behind the village. Many still stand today, tall and strong, their roots gripping stone.

He never used synthetic fertilizer. Instead, he relied on compost from the cows that graze nearby.
His way of farming was quiet and patient — he called it listening to the land.

Because of him, the soil stayed rich, and the flavor of the leaves stayed clean and light.


Between Two Eras

When Master Yang speaks about refining Enshi Yulu, and Teacher Zhou walks through the fields showing where the first shoots appear each spring, we realize we are standing between two eras —
the craftsman and the farmer, science and patience, tradition and renewal.

They remind us that a tea workshop is not just a place to make tea.
It is a bridge between generations , a living conversation between what was learned and what is still being discovered.


Continuing the Flow

At Wildbrook Village, we carry that dialogue forward.
We adjust steaming times by seconds, refine oxidation, and map flavor chemistry leaf by leaf — while keeping our feet in the same soil where Teacher Zhou once planted and Master Yang once taught.

Through them, Enshi Yulu remains more than a tea.
It is a way of understanding how wisdom, curiosity, and care can all flow together.

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