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China Spring Green Tea
In China spring teas are made from the emerging
tea buds and leaves of tea bushes awakening from
winter dormancy. The time for plucking small,
tender leaves is fleeting and the opportunity for
manufacturing spring teas ends almost as quickly
as it began. Anticipation for the arrival of new
teas in the local markets is high. As the spring
season gets underway in different regions of the
major tea producing countries, new types of green
tea come to market as soon as their time of the
season arrives.
In a sense,
these early spring teas are made from baby tea leaves
that are delicious, ‘just born’ expressions of the
flavor of the tea. As such, these teas are vigorous
and bursting with flavor and contain a large amount of
beneficial plant nutrient. In just a few weeks time,
the leaves on the tea bushes will grow too large to be
baby tea leaves any longer this year. The leaves will
grow and produce mid-spring teas ( teenagers !
) and by summer the full-sized leaves will produce
milder green teas ( adults ).
Our Chinese spring green teas have these seasonal
designations:
1.
Early spring plucked teas
2. Late
spring plucked teas
Our
Chinese spring green teas are noted by one of these
pluck dates.
The 2011
China spring green teas are here!
Click here
to browse updates to our China Green tea listings page.
Japan Green Tea
The tea harvesting season in Japan begins at the end
of April or early May, weather depending. The first
tea plucked each spring is Shincha. Only a small
amount of Shincha is available each spring as the
period of time when the sprouting tea leaves are
this tiny and new is short. Tea workers race to beat
the clock and harvest the tea leaves before they
grow too large to be called Shincha. After the
Shincha harvest, various pluckings of Sencha begins,
and so on throughout the season.
The 2011
Shincha is here.
Click here to
browse updates to our Japanese Green tea listings
page.
Korea Green Tea
Tea enthusiasts who have had the opportunity to
taste truly fresh Korean yasaeng-cha (
semi-wild grown tea ) know how pleasurable a cup it
is. And how unique the taste of yasaeng-cha
is. But finding premium Korean tea outside of Korea
has been difficult, if not impossible, until now.
The 2011
Korea spring green teas are here.
Click here
to browse updates to our Korea Green tea listings page.
China White Tea
The primary Fujian white tea harvest is still a few
weeks away, but we have discovered two interesting
and unusual early harvest Chinese teas (Pre-Qing
Ming ) that have been manufactured as white tea.
The 2011 China spring white teas are here!
Click here to
browse updates to our China White tea listings page.
China Yellow Tea
In yellow tea processing, early spring buds or fine
mao feng (a specific bud and leaf pluck) are given
a short ‘smothering’ (after the leaf has undergone
its initial firing) in a unique process known in
Chinese as ‘men huan’.
The 2011 China spring yellow tea is here!
Click here to
browse updates to our China Yellow tea listings page.
India 1st Flush
Darjeeling Black Tea
Darjeeling tea is beloved worldwide for its smooth,
rich muscatel flavor and fine bouquet. It is often
referred to as the ‘Champagne’ of tea because of its
elegance and finesse in the cup.
The Darjeeling tea gardens are located in the lofty
Himalaya of West Bengal in Northern India. The
flavor of Darjeeling tea is greatly influenced by
the mist-shrouded environment of the tea gardens and
the slow maturity of plant development that cool,
high-altitude locations provide.
The 1st flush Darjeeling teas are highly sought
after each year by discerning tea enthusiasts
worldwide. These teas command the highest prices of
all the Darjeeling tea plucked each year.
Spring is the peak time for new leaf growth after
the tea bushes awaken from winter hibernation.
Depending on the weather, 1st Flush teas plucking
begins as early as the end of February or early
March.
The 2011
Darjeeling 1st Flush teas are here.
Click here to
browse updates to our Darjeeling tea listings page.
China Oolong
Tea: Fujian Province
Our Ben Shan and Huang Jin Gui semiball-rolled
oolongs are here! These are the first 2011 Early
Spring oolongs from Fujian to arrive in our shop.
These intensely aromatic and flavorful teas are
bursting with juicy flavor. These teas are named for
their specific tea bush variety: Fujian tea
producers like to boast that there are more than
twelve varieties and cultivars of tea bushes growing
in this region.
The 2011
Early Spring Oolong teas are here!
Click here
to browse updates to our China Oolong tea listings page.
Taiwan Oolong Tea:
Li Shan
Taiwan produces some of the world’s finest oolongs.
High mountain oolongs – gao shan – are
particularly sought after and respected by tea
enthusiasts worldwide. These teas are made from
fresh leaf that grows at altitudes of 6,000 feet or
more. Li Shan ( 8,000 foot elevation ) produces
Taiwan’s most famous gao shans, and specifically
those harvested from the Da Yu Ling tea growing
area. Da Yu Ling produces only two harvest
each year: one in the spring and one in the winter (
considered the most flavorful and aromatic).
The 2011
Winter Pluck Da Yu Ling tea is here!
Click here
to browse updates to our Taiwan Oolong tea listings page.
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