Ban the Tea Ball

the dreaded mesh tea balls

This sounds like an old-peace, love and flowers mantra from the protest-laden 1970’s. No, it’s not a political statement but it is a direct attack of sorts against the old-fashioned, one-cup metal and mesh tea balls that dangle from a chain.

When we began our business 35 years ago, tea-balls were about the only thing that one could purchase to corral one’s tea leaves. Either that or it was necessary to use the British house-hold method of steeping tea by using two teapots: one pot to steep the tea ( and retain the tea leaves ) and the second one to decant the steeped tea into as soon as the tea was properly steeped.

Back then, tea-balls made sense with the way that tea was graded and cut: most tea was English-style black tea, very finely cut; noting much was available then in long-leaf black tea or full, intact green teas. These teas steeped quickly and the flavor was ‘good enough.’  The comparatively slim selection of tea available in tea shops at the time had a similar appearance and all of it fit reasonably well into a teaball. I can even remember when we received our first shipment of ’tea-balls’ that were shaped like little houses…and hearts….ye gad. 

So today, in my book, tea balls are ‘dinosaurs’ of the past. They make no sense for steeping the gorgeous, whole-leaf teas that tea enthusiasts can purchase today.  To be honest, the idea of someone purchasing some of our premium, hand-made artisan tea and then squishing it into bits to stuff it into a teaball distresses me. Not only is a shame to crumble-up whole-leaf tea that has made it all the way from tea factory to one’s kitchen intact, but teaballs simply cannot hold enough black, green, white, yellow or oolong tea to do the flavor of the tea any justice. They are just wrong, wrong, wrong on all counts.

So, with all of this in mind, we took the hard-line and banned tea balls in our store two years ago, much to the dismay of those who inquire.

But, in their place we have something better that even the most diehard tea-ball-users comes to love. They are single-cup tea infusers made from stainless steel or gold mesh. There are many choices in these infusers, such as different diameters, with or without lid, etc, but most of the time the best one for a customer is the one that will fit in his or her favorite tea cup or mug.

These infusers have spacious capacities so they happily steep the largest and longest tea leaves without having to damage the tea. And the tea leaves are able to hydrate to their full extent, so the flavor is infinately better than with a tea ball. The infusers are easy to clean, do not clog or have little chains to break, and, they cannot be accidently dropped down the garbage disposal, like the fate of so many tea-balls! And, they are ecological and re-useable, unlike the single-cup paper ‘tea sacs’ which are commonly used in cafes for take-out-cups of tea.  

stainless-steel infuser

gold-mesh tea infuser

2009 Before the Rain Teas

Asian tea enthusiasts believe that the earlier the pluck, the better the green tea. They are eager for the arrival of spring, as the time for harvesting early-season green teas is only-once a year and fleeting.

Our gorgeous selections of Before the Rains teas have just arrived, and we are thrilled to be able to offer them to all of our tea enthusiast customers. These lovely green teas are from eastern China and western China and all of them epitomize the ‘ideal’ of fresh and sweet.

Choose from:

Du Yun Mao Jian - Fuzzy Tips

   

Du Yun Mao Jian – Fuzzy Tip

Although we have encountered this lovely tea in China, this is the first time that we have had Dun Yun Mao Jian for sale. It’s one bud-one leaf plucking standard is reminiscent of the appearance of Pan Long Yin Hao ( Dragon Whiskers ). It has an earthy, woodsy flavor that makes me think of Xin Yang Mao Jian: both of these teas possess a straightforward, minerally-backbone that is very pleasing, and a telltale clue to their western China origin. Dun Yun Mao Jian is from Guizhou Province, a place of fascination and wonder that is populated by several of China’s colorful ethnic minority groups known for elaborate silver jewelry, embroidery and textile arts.

    

Fo Cha - Buddhist Tea

Fo  Cha- Buddhist Tea

Fo Cha is the local name for the tea from Jiu Hua mountain, a magical place of dense woods, waterfalls, bamboo forests. And green tea that has a refreshing sweetness from the special environment of the tea gardens. Jiu Hua mountain holds special memories for us: on our first tea buying trip to China we visited the Zhan Tian Buddhist Temple ( we had a vegetarian meal there and tea with the head monk). Later, we had a midnight tour of the bustling Jiuhua Mao Feng Factory ( yes, they work round the clock during prime harvest season ).  The leaves are long and needle-shaped and covered with tiny white hairs, and very fresh tasting.

Gu Zhu Zi Sun - Purple Bamboo

 
Gu Zhu Zi Sun – Purple Bamboo

This tea is cultivated on Mount Guzhu on the western side of Lake Tai in Zhejiang Province. Purple bamboo has an interesting appearance – the bud is tight and the single leaf is long and full and slightly opened. Some leaves have a light yellow cast, a mark of early spring plucking ( end of March ). Purple Bamboo tea was one of sage Lu Yu’s most cherished teas. He brought this tea to the attention of the Tang Emperor Dai Zhong ( 762-79 ) who order the creation of the first imperial tea garden at that site to insure  continual supply of Purple Bamboo tea to his court.  Purple Bamboo has a classic eastern China ‘taste’: sweet, clean and refreshing.

Jing Shan Silver Tips

   

Jing Shan Silver Tip

This tea has great historic significance in China. Jing Shan was the place where the great temple of Jing Shan ( once believed to have comprised close to three thousand buildings ) welcomed Buddhist monks and scholars during the Tang dynasty ( 618-907 ). This temple was one of the most famous temples in China, and its tea gardens were abundant and especially prized for its fragrance and sweetness. It is from this place that priests returning to Japan brought back word of the delicious nature of Jing Shan tea. Over time, the temple and the tea gardens fell into ruins, but today, thanks to the efforts of the Tea Research Institute of Hangzhou nearly fifty years ago, the gardens are thriving once again. Our Jing Shan is a Hao Ya style curled leaf with abundant white tip.

 

For more information and to purchase tea, please visit our webwsite:

http://www.teatrekker.com/main.htm

Sun Moon Lake Tea from 100 Year Old Tea Trees

Sun Moon Lake Black Tea from 100 year old tea trees

 In the villages surrounding Sun Moon Lake in central Taiwan, black tea was developed for export by the Japanese during their occupation of Taiwan in the years preceeding and during WWII. Many of the major tea producing countries had an imposed embargo on tea exports during the war years, so the enterprising Japanese hit upon a scheme to produce black tea for export to the West. I don’t know if this scheme worked or not, but today black tea production in Taiwan is very, very small.

In Yuchin township, several small villages continue to work with the Yuchin Branch Tea Research and Extension Station to determine the best ways to revive interest in this unique black tea. Quality tea ( rather than quantity ) is the focus, and accordingly, these teas are carefully plucked by hand. Sun Moon Lake black tea has very large, thin, and twisted leaves and a soft, delicate flavor with a suggestion of sweet osmanthus, cinnamon and peppermint.

Our tea, however, is even more special. It is made in February by our friend Lisa’s great-uncle, a gentleman and former tea man in the Sun Moon Lake region. It is made with leaf from 100-yr-old wild tea trees ( not the tea bushes cloned by the Japanese tea researchers for their export black tea ) and it is hand-processed only once a year. He doesn’t sell his tea on the open market but makes just a bit for friends and family. We are thrilled to be included in this select group of those who are privileged to drink this fine tea.

This tea is delicious and has a good amount of dynamic cha qi which stems from the organic cultivation, healthy growing conditions and careful cultivation of these deeply-rooted 100 year old tea trees.

The quantity of tea that we have to sell is very small, so if you are interested in experiencing this truly delicious tea, you must act quickly.

More New 2009 Spring Plucked Tea

Mengding Mountain Rock Essence

Mengding Mountain Rock Essence

Mengding Mountain Rock Essence is a fine, thin, plucked bud that is manufactured as a green tea, not a yellow tea like its cousin Mengding Mountain Snowbuds. This is still an early spring tea, made from buds that are brimming with the vigor of tea bushes beginning their growth cycle. Rock Essence tea is made from the buds of tea bushes that grow at a higher altitude than Snowbuds, in a terroir that is more spare. The soil is thinner, the area more rocky and overall this location is colder and more remote. Hence the name is an appropriate one for a tea that reflects the solid nature of its stony, sparse surroundings.

This tea is exceptional among Chinese green teas and is not always available. It has a concentrated and beguiling piquant ‘rock’ flavor that also suggests windswept pines and the frosty chill of early spring mornings. Rock Essence is not a soft and sweet tea – it has a steely spine like a great Reisling wine. You can taste the effects of high altitude and thin air in this tea just as one can taste it in a Himalaya-grown tea, such as a 1st Flush Darjeeling tea. Rock essence needs several infusions to show off its deep-rooted flavor profile.

This mountain on the Tibetan Plateau in NW Sichuan Province is likely the birthplace of cultivated tea. Mengding Mountain is northwest of Mt Emei, one of the four sacred mountains in Chinese Buddhism. We fell head over heels for this tea the first time we drank it in 2004 at the monastery on Mengding Mountain.

Zhu Hai Jin Ming

Zhu Hai Jin Ming

Zhu Hai Jin Ming is a stunning black tea from Zhu Hai village, located in Yixing county, Jiangsu Province. Jiangsu’s most famous tea is the lovely Bi Lo Chun green tea; other than that, Yixing County is best known to tea enthusiasts in the west as the place where the famous Yixing purple clay teapots are made.

This tea caught our attention recently and we swooned over the samples we were sent. It has the tippy style and polished appearance of Panyang or Bai Lin Congou, two terrific black teas from Fujian Province that are very popular with our tea customers.

But, in addition to the soft oxidation-style that is so characteristic of elegant Chinese black teas, Zhu Hai Jin Ming has a distinctive, concentrated flavor that is elusively reminiscent of the gorgeous floral flavor of a Fenghuang Dan Cong Zhi Lan Xiang oolong tea. While Zhu Hai is indeed a true black tea, its beguiling flavor makes it seductively different than all other Chinese black teas.

Japanese Fukamushi Shincha 'First Sprout'

Japanese Fukamushi Shincha ‘First Sprout’

This Shincha was picked around May 2nd and is sometimes called Eighty-Eighth (88th) Night Shincha. This refers to Shincha tea that was picked on the 88th day after the first day of spring in the traditional Japanese calendar. This marks a special time in the Japanese agricultural calendar ( known as “Hachijuhachiya” in Japanese ) as it is the time that all the plants and vegetation begin to sprout.

The leaves of First Sprout are very shiny, thin and delicate. The leaf is picked and then processed very quickly, in order to highlight the incredible freshness of the early spring flavor. This fresh taste can be delicate, and is sweeter than the rest of the year’s Japanese green tea. The pungently delightful aroma is a celebration of the smell that you breathe when you visit a tea garden and factory in the rural Japanese landscape in the spring.

Picked in small quantity and kept meticulously, First Sprout Shincha is available for only a short time, and is highly sought-after. It is best drunk during the season – now, when it is young and full of the moment. It is not a tea for keeping, or saving for special occasions ‘later’

2009 Pre-Qing Ming Yellow Teas are here !

Last but certainly not least, our yellow teas have just arrived from China. Yellow teas are very few in number these days but they remain very important in the Chinese repertoire of classic teas. Yellow tea is most easily described as a variation of green tea, but this suggests that the methodology for making it came after the perfection of green tea making skills. I have a hunch that yellow teas were made before green teas were classified as such, but this is just based on my own thoughts and musings about tea-making history in China.

Anyway, those of you who have never tried a yellow tea ( and those who will admit that you have never even heard of one before now ) are in for a treat. Pre-Qing Ming yellow teas are not readily available in the USA and certainly not when they are this fresh.

Yellow tea differs from green tea by the addition of an extra step in the processing. During leaf manufacture ( which begins with de-enzyming and shaping ) the fresh leaves are steamed very slightly and then allowed to rest. But, as nothing is ever really as easy as it may seem in the complicated world of Chinese tea manufacture, the steaming step is where the genius of the tea maker comes into play.

For example, details such as: how long to steam the tea leaves, how many times to steam or for how many days, how much rest to give the tea in between each steaming, how to wrap or cover the steamed leaves while they rest, will all affect the final flavor of the tea. The tea master decides the answers to these questions and it is only after he sees the fresh leaf and judges its quality and essence that he can determine how he will execute the ‘yellowing step’.

Because of this yellowing step, yellow teas are very smooth and fine flavored. Yellow teas are always made from an early spring plucking of budsets ( buds and one or two leaves ) the crème de la crème of spring teas. They were once made only as Tribute Teas, reserved for the Emperor’s exclusive enjoyment.

2009 Pre-Qing Ming Mengding Mountain Snow Buds

2009 Pre-Qing Ming Mengding Mountain Snow Buds

This mountain on the Tibetan Plateau in NW Sichuan Province is likely the birthplace of cultivated tea. Mengding Mountain is northwest of Mt Emei, one of the four sacred mountains in Chinese Buddhism. Mengding Mountain Snow Buds are a springtime phenomenon: they are big, fat, first-of-the-season juicy buds that are brimming with the vigor of tea bushes that are beginning their growth cycle. Tea pluckers gather these buds in small silk bags, rather than the more common ( and large ) tea plucking baskets. Two people picking in this manner for one full day will gather only one kilo of fresh buds.

This is a very elegant tea with a slightly toasty taste: it needs several steepings to really show off its deep-rooted flavor profile. The overall taste sensation from this tea is sweet, crisp and clean. There is a cool and bracing quality to Mengding Mountain Snow Buds that affirms its high altitude terroir.  

2009 Pre-Qing Ming Huo Shan Yellow Sprouting

 2009 Pre-Qing Ming Huo Shan Yellow Sprouting

Another incredible yellow tea from Huo Shan county in Anhui Province. This tea is comprised of a bud with one tiny leaf. The leaf is covered with a fuzzy down, a trait of this tea bush cultivar and the nature of the leaf. Huo Shan Yellow Sprouting brews a lovely pale golden green color in the cup, and the flavor is slightly warm, nutty and reminiscent of artichokes or chestnuts. These tea gardens, located on Jin Shan Tou, are not positioned at a high elevation – just around 2,500 feet. But the location is rocky, and gives the tea a yen character. The richness of the soil is evident in the buttery flavor.