從城裡被撿回來的製茶師-鍾明志 ● 島農作息 Mitch of Alishan

Mitch of Alishan – the tea-maker who came back from the city 

採訪│李育萱，陳儷云 2015-11-16

我爸說：「雖然八八水災沖毀了家園，但至少撿回了一個孩子。」Mitch(鍾明志)一邊開著車一邊在蜿蜒的山路上向我們說著他的故事。他車開得快，對這山頭的大小路況十分熟悉。只是，從小在茶區裡長大，Mitch卻從來沒有想過要回來做茶；從小在這片山頭走跳，下山到城市裡念書就把上山的路往後拋。「你知道那有多累嗎? 大家下課後就去玩，我則是要到茶園裡幫忙，特別是採茶的時候。」Mitch開玩笑地說。

"My dad said: although the autumn flood washed out the plantation, at least the kid was harvested".

Mitch tells us his story as he drives the serpentine mountain road. He drives fast as he is familiar with the passages atop. 

Though he grew up in the tea county, Mitch never thought he would one day return to it; he went up and down the mountains ever since he was a kid, and when the time became to descent to the city for studying, he thought to leave behind the windy mountain roads for good. 

"You know how tiring it is? Others went to play after the class was over, but I had to help with the tea plantation, especially if it was harvest time", he laughs.

六年前的莫拉克風災(又稱八八水災)重創台灣，土石流同時也沖毀了Mitch的家園。大家都知道這是他決定回家的轉捩點，他卻總是只提起當年如何從碎瓦殘牆間，把一隻小黑狗搶救出來的故事，心境上的轉換沒多琢磨。談茶，聊阿里山，提農業政策，針對地理環境小常識出考題，Mitch樣樣都可以聊得起勁，彷彿這些日子他不曾缺席。不過，這六年來從「不懂茶」到能夠「識茶做茶」，他用心習茶的態度低調但藏不住。

爸爸神農獎得主的帽子很大，Mitch歸零返家重新學茶，過程中酸甜苦辣很難用三言兩語帶過。回想那段初入茶產業的日子，日出前就出門，夜半星光點點才回家，好在有領養來的邊境牧養犬丁丁作伴，讓Mitch在苦悶之餘多了喜樂。丁丁是隻能分辨茶葉優劣的牧羊犬，也是Mitch踏進茶圈子初期不可或缺的好夥伴，雖然只有緣相處了342個日子，但意義非凡，日後更造就了丁式茶茶品牌誕生，有別一般人對傳統阿里山茶印象。

When the typhoon Morakot hit Taiwan hard in 2009, the resulting landslide ruined the family plantation. Everybody here knows it brought him back, but he only mentions the story about how he rescued a small black dog from the ruins of a broken wall.

He talks enthusiastically about tea, Alishan mountain, farming policies and environmental issues like he was never away. Since 2009 he has shifted from not understanding tea to knowing it and making it himself. Even though his fondness towards tea has remained in low-key, it is nevertheless there. 

Dad´s hat, which he has won as an award for his accomplishments, is big. Mitch returned home to learn tea anew, and the endured hardships during the process are difficult to describe just in few words. 

Mitch recalls the first days when he began working in the tea industry: 

he left before the sunrise and returned when the stars twinkled, and it was good to have his adopted border collie, Ding-ding, as a partner to cheer him up. 

Not only can Ding-ding distinguish the good tea leaves from bad, but it has also become an indispensable partner when it comes to entering the tea circles; although they had lived together for only 342 days, Mitch came up with a tea brand that is to Ding-ding´s liking, thus changing the way people feel about Alishan tea.  

提到大家對阿里山的茶印象，大概都不出手採、半發酵、烏龍幾個關鍵字。Mitch最開始製茶，卻是選紅茶下手。或許是初生之犢不畏虎，覺得既然下定決心要做茶，就要有配合時代潮流的想法。研讀歷史資料和產業狀況，看準市場上紅茶的消費趨勢，加上女朋友又是紅茶愛好者，丁式有名的紅茶系列產品便就此誕生。這片孕育紅茶的茶園，採用友善農法管理，落實安全用藥觀念，茶園雖不整齊美麗，產量也少，但在Mitch細心的呵護，以及製茶技術上不斷精煉，如今不只能做出好喝的紅茶，還可以嘗到同一片茶園做出的蜜香烏龍、清香烏龍、紅水烏龍等等風味各異的單品茶。

When it comes to Alishan tea, nothing is thrown away and half is fermented, as it is crucial to making oolong tea. Mitch chose specifically black tea, perhaps out of fearlessness of being young, thinking that, if he really is to make tea, then it should resonate with the trends of the day. After studying history and the consumer trends in the market – given also his girlfriend´s fancy towards  black tea – the renowned Ding-ding series of black tea products came to be.  

For this species of tea, the plants are grown environmentally friendly, implementing the concept of being safe for medicinal use. The plantation does not look neat and pretty, and the yield is low too, but under Mitch´s attentive care, combined with technology, the plantation not only grows delicious black tea, but also several kinds of oolong teas which are unique and individual products in their own right. 

Mitch製茶除了靠身體記憶，經驗傳承外，他還盡量地讓製作流程數據化，以科學的角度去理解說明茶。茶葉為什麼會有不同的茶香?茶湯裡的滋味是怎麼組成的?茶園管理都在做些什麼樣的事? 面對各式各樣的疑問，Mitch像老師一樣有條理地為我們揭開茶看似神秘的面紗。讓經驗數據化的另一個用意也在於，感官經驗總有一天會隨身體老化而不再敏銳，為了讓製成的結果維持一定水準，製成的經驗可以相互傳承，能夠量化的部分，他都會盡量紀錄。除了擁有專業的製茶技術證照外，這幾年他也勤跑農委會的農民學院進修學習，在茶業官能品評上不斷磨練。

Mitch不敢稱他自己為製茶師，「這六年多來的積累也只是皮毛，我還有很多事不懂。」把自己放得越低，沉潛越深，他卻玩出越多不同的「茶」樣；採用台灣的茶菁、製茶技術，卻做出了日式綠茶的風味；拿台灣四季的花卉窨製花茶，延續土地滋養的味道；從城裡被撿回來的製茶師，雖然起步晚，卻有著溫古詠新的力量，一步一步地為自己的茶鋪長長的路。

Mitch´s tea manufacturing is not just about manual labor, as he collects digital data and tries to understand tea cultivating from a scientific perspective; why do different tea leaves have different fragrances, what factors constitute to the taste of tea, what exactly do all the things related to tea-growing do? 

Like a teacher, Mitch has a method for letting us unveil the mystery that is tea-growing. 

There are several reasons behind the digital data collection: our senses start to get weaker as we get old, the quality remains at the same level, the experience can be passed on to another and everything can be recorded. 

In addition to being a certified tea-making technician, for the past couple of years Mitch has attended an agricultural academy in order to further understand the tea industry.

Mitch dares not to argue that he has mastered tea cultivating; "the past six years has been just the tip of the iceberg – there are still many things I do not understand". 

However, staying humble and venturing ever deeper, he has come up with various kinds of teas: with the help of technology, he has cultivated Taiwanese tea and turned it into a Japanese style green tea, and with the four seasons of Taiwan come the corresponding flower teas. 

The boy who left for the city came back to master the tea-making, and, though he started late, he has mustered the powers of the age-old and the modern to pave his long and windy road to comprehending what is tea. 

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