Timeline for Arrival of Our 2013 Teas

Early spring is an exciting time for us. It marks the arrival of the new tea season in China, India, Japan, Taiwan and Sri Lanka, and with that the anticipation of delicious new tea. We eagerly await the moments when we are notified by tea supplies that the 1st plucked teas are ready and samples have been dispatched to us. The teas we select are then shipped to us via AIR CARGO in order to obtain these premium teas when they  are just 10 days to 2 weeks old. They are such a taste treat, and so rarely available for sale in the USA this soon after manufacture.

Seasonality in tea is important. Tea enthusiasts are beginning to understand that some teas are plucked in only one season of the year, which is usually spring, while other teas may be plucked over the course of two or three seasons. Some teas are best when plucked and manufactured in the spring, others in the summer, still others in the fall, and so on. Some teas have a main spring crop and a secondary crop in the late summer or fall. Knowing the season that a tea was plucked can reveal important information about what to expect in the flavor and aroma of that tea.

All teas, even those manufactured in more than one season, have a time of the year when they are at their tastiest best. For example, for many Chinese tea enthusiasts, green teas plucked early in the spring ( premium teas which are harvested only once a year ) have flavor and aroma that is superior to that of green teas plucked during the summer months (standard teas). Japanese sencha, too, manufactured from leaf  plucked in early May will have a sweetness and a delicacy that is lacking in sencha manufactured in the summer.  While seasonal variations in tea reveal different flavor and aroma qualities, tea drinkers often find that they have personal taste preferences from one season over another.

Spring plucked tea implies ‘freshness’ and freshness is important with green, yellow, and white teas, and some oolongs. ( The notion of ‘fresh’ tea or ‘young’ tea does not apply to all classes of tea. Many Chinese oolongs are aged to enhanced flavor, and other teas ( like matcha, for example ) are best when ‘mellowed’ for several months before drinking. Sheng Pu-erh tea can be drunk young, but is traditionally stored for years to develop rich, deep flavors. Many black teas will hold well for several years and a bit of aging can soften their astringent edges. So knowing when a certain tea was harvested is a gauge to evaluating the tea.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, the spring tea harvest begins at different times in different countries and regions of each country. In the locations where tea has a dormant period, bud-break ( the re-awakening of the tea bushes after winter hibernation ) is triggered by seasonal weather changes.

Following below is an approximate timeline of tea harvesting dates in China, India, Japan, Korea, Sri Lanka and Taiwan based on a normal weather cycle. Of course, these dates are always subject to the whims of nature and the seasonal/unseasonal weather patterns and conditions that affect all farms and agricultural crops. Cold weather will delay plucking, and unseasonably warm weather can speed up leaf growth and the pace of plucking and manufacture by as much as a week or two.

Hopefully, this timeline will help our customers gauge when the 2013 version of their favorite teas might be arriving to our tea shop.

  Tea Harvesting Timeline

• FEBRUARY
  

China: production of green and black tea ( dian hong ) begins in some regions of Yunnan Province

Sri Lanka: The quality season for the Southern Coast districts is February, and in the Central Highland districts of Nuwara Eliya and Kandy it is February and March.

• MARCH
  

China: weather permitting, the arrival of early spring in mid-late March begins the plucking season for some premium green and yellow teas. In Sichuan Province, Mengding Mt. Huang Ya and Zhu Ye Qing can be plucked beginning in mid-March. In eastern China’s Fujian Province, production of bud-plucked Yin Zhen white tea is from mid-March to the end of March. The earliest plucks of  Xi Hu Region Longjing tea ( Zhejiang Province ) and tiny Bi Lo Chun ( Jiangsu Province ) begin to appear at this time as well. In Yunnan Province in western  China, leafy green teas and tender bud green teas are often available for sale by mid-March.

India: the Darjeeling and Assam regions in the north begin plucking
1st flush black teas in mid- March.

Nepal: Eastern Nepal begins plucking1st flush black tea in mid-March.

Taiwan: early spring semiball-rolled oolong production begins in central Taiwan.

• APRIL
  

China: April is the busiest time in eastern China for premium green teas from Anhui Province ( Huang Shan Mao Feng; Lu An Guapian; Tai Ping Hou Kui; etc ); Jiangxi Province ( Lu Shan; Ming Mei ), Sichuan Province ( Gan Lu )  and Zhejiang Province ( Longjing;  Long Ding, etc.). The 1st Fenghuang Dan Congs are plucked beginning in early-to-mid April. Certain black teas are produced in mid-April: Yingde # 9; Bai Lin Gong Fu; Yixing Congou; Panyang Congou ( Golden Monkey ). The leaf  and bud materials for Pu-erh are plucked from old tea trees in parts of Yunnan Province from April to July.

NOTE: the spring season in China is divided up into 4 periods of time, and the harvest dates of the most anticipated green teas, such as Longjing, are associated with certain dates on the agricultural calendar. This is the breakdown for the production time based on a perfect weather season:

1. pre-Qing Ming or Ming Qian tea ( leaf plucked before April 5th )
2. Before the Rains or Yu Qian tea ( leaf plucked before April 20th )
3. Spring tea or Gu Yu tea ( leaf pucked before May 6th )
4. Late spring or Li Xia ( leaf plucked before May 21st )

India: spring tea from the Nilgiris are manufactured in April/May.

Japan: limited early production of the first new tea of the new uear – Shincha – may begin in late April as well as first plucked Sencha (Ichibancha) teas.

Korea: the first of the season green - Ujeon – is plucked just before Koku ( the first grain rain and the sixth seasonal division), around April 20th.

Taiwan: spring pluck Baozhong comes to market towards the middle April. Production of jade oolongs from lower elevation tea gardens begins.

• MAY
  

China: production of Lapsang Souchong begins in northern Fujian Province in early May: in southern Fujian semiball -rolled ‘green’ oolongs from the Anxi region ( Tieguanyin and SeZhong varietals: Ben Shan; Huang Jin Gui; Mao Xie; Tou Tian Xiang ) begin to appear in mid-May. Black teas such as Keemun Hao Ya A and Keemun Mao Feng from Anhui Province come to market, too. The base tea for jasmine tea ( zao pei ) is made and stored until the fresh flower blossoms arrive in the summer. Production of leafy  Bai Mu Dan; Gong Mei; and Shou Mei white teas begins and ends in May.

India: 2nd flush teas begin to be plucked in Darjeeling and Assam.

Japan: production of Sencha begins and or continues in various regions throughout May. Gyokuro tea production can begin in mid May and continue into early June depending on the location of the tea gardens.

Korea: production of Sejak occurs during Ipha ( the start of summer- around May 6th ); plucking of Jungjak follows during Soman ( full grains season around May 21st ).

Taiwan:  production of high-mountain gao shan begins in the higher elevation tea gardens. Plucking may continue into early June.

• JUNE
  

China: light roast Wu Yi Shan oolongs ( Da Hong Pao, Jun Zi Lan, Rou Gui, Shui Jin Gui, Shui Xian, etc.) are manufactured in early June
( sometimes late May ). Traditional charcoal roast Wu Yi Shan oolongs ( heavy roast ) appear about the end of June or early July.

Sri Lanka: the Uva district of the Eastern Highlands produces its quality season teas from June-September.

Taiwan: manufacture of Bai Hao oolong begins in early June.

• OCTOBER / NOVEMBER

China / Fujian Province: October production of Tieguanyin and local Se Zhong varietals

China / Guangdong Province: November (winter) production of dan congs

Taiwan: November (winter) production of high mountain gao shan

• JANUARY

India: frost teas ( black  tea ) from the Nilgiri region of southern India are manufactured from December thru March.

Sri Lanka: West Highlands quality season in the Dimbula region is January thru March.

Drink Your Tea Like a Local

We are often asked what is the best way to enjoy green, oolong, Pu-erh (and other Hei Cha), and white teas. Many tea drinkers wish to expand their range of tea drinking, and the usual questions are milk or not? and sweetener or not?

We are thrilled that many are beginning to understand that there is a preferred way to drink most tea. In truth, some teas are manufactured with the intention that milk /sugar will be added while other teas are meant to be drunk plain. It is good to learn to discriminate between the milk-teas and the non-milk teas. Habitually adding milk/sugar to any and every tea because that is what you are used to doing will be sure to disappoint.

But this is not how many go about preparing a cup of tea (neither is it for a cup of coffee). In all of our years selling tea we have heard just about every variation on how people like to drink their tea. Sometimes the reasoning is not clear to us behind why they do what they do, and we wonder if it is not the variety of add-in options that is confusing the issue. Remember the scene in the movie LA Story where the Steve Martin character orders a particularly confusing cup of coffee: I”ll have a half-double decaffeinated half-caff with a twist of lemon?” Huh?

For instance, we have been told:
” I drink black tea plain but I add almond milk to green tea.”
” I add honey to green tea and sugar to black tea.”
” I add non-dairy creamer to black tea and 2% milk to green tea.”
” It depends on my mood.”
” If I have left it in the teapot too long I add milk.”

And so it goes. We always wonder why so many add so much to their tea, and why some teas are given different add-in’s than others. For in truth, premium tea such as we sell is a far cry from the sharp, astringent blends one finds in packages of supermarket tea. It really only needs simple preparation to be truly delicious.

• Do these add-in’s really give some tea a better taste or is a dash of this and a bit of that added by habit and from the taste of ‘familiarity’ that these products add to the core beverage?
• Or do these add-ins help to cover up the taste of tea that was carelessly steeped?
• Or is it simply because most Western tea drinkers drink black tea and adding milk and sugar is how we grew up thinking it should be done. Because, of course, any good Brit will tell you emphatically that yes, that is how it should be done.

For example, I recently happened to catch a few minutes of the 1943 movie “Lassie Come Home” that features child-star Roddy McDowell and a 10-year-old Elizabeth Taylor. In the story, Lassie treks from Scotland back home to England to be with her young owner. Along the way she rests for a bit in the care of an elderly Scottish couple. As the kindly woman gives Lassie the last of the milk in the house, her husband points out to her that she will have no milk for her morning tea. The woman says: “Well, I hear tell that in America now they drink their tea without milk.” He chuckles and replies: “That’s just because they don’t know any better.”

Was this movie referring to a trend towards green tea drinking that had caught on in a small way in America in the 1930′s and 1940′s or was it just dialogue? One may never know, but it does underscore the absoluteness of adding milk to black tea for that gentleman.

It is true that Westerners are historically black tea drinkers. Chinese black tea and dark oolong (most likely these teas were not quite as we know them today) were the types of tea that first filled the larders of European households from the 17th century onward. And to properly drink this exotic beverage, handled tea cups, large tea pots and the numerous other tea wares and tea tools were devised to suit the Western sense of table-wares and decorum. This in turn gave Americans and Europeans a way to fuel their ever-growing desire to drink more tea in fancier and nicer ways.

photo courtesy of the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto, Canada

The use of black tea consumed with milk/sugar (which was the European way with all temperance beverages and which fulfilled their voracious sweet tooth, as well) continued in America and Europe – and still continues today. Which means that most of us grew up drinking black tea steeped in a large pot (or from a teabag ) served with milk/sugar.

So, this familiar way of drinking tea leads some to suspect that the answer to how to drink certain other teas can be broken down simply as: “yes on milk /sugar for black tea and hold on both for all the others.”  While this approach might work some of the time it is a bit simplistic.

Since we always like our customers to look at the large picture, this is how we look at the answer to the milk/sugar question.

First, think about which tea producing country made the tea in question. The methods of tea manufacture are different in every tea producing country, and the types of tea that each country produces is based historically on one of two purposes.

• is the tea produced:1. as a product for local consumption and 2. as an export commodity?
• or is the tea produced: 1. as an export commodity and 2. as a product for local consumption?
  

1.  China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan have the longest histories of tea production. Historically, tea production was begun and perfected in each of these countries with the intention of pleasing their local populations of tea drinkers. Over time, these countries exported their tea to other places, but the tea that was exported (with a few exceptions such as border tea and trade-route tea, and teas drunk by forest-dwelling ethnic groups in southwest China) was essentially the same tea that was being drunk in these countries. The important thing to think about here is that all of the tea made in Asia (which includes all of the six classes of tea: green, yellow, white, oolong, black and dark tea or Hei Cha) is manufactured to be drunk plain. These teas were and still are manufactured to please the local tea drinking preferences first, and as an export product second.

2. India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, and the collective countries of Africa, Indonesia and South America are all relatively new tea producing countries. The commercial tea industries in all of these countries were begun by foreigners, primarily the English and Scottish, in the 19th century to fill their home markets with strong, dark style black tea that was to their liking. Which means that these teas are manufactured to be drunk with the addition of milk and sugar, and so were made to stand up to this dilution without losing flavor or character.

With the exception of 1st Flush Darjeeling and some Nepal black teas which are light, fruity and tastier when drunk black, teas from the above mentioned tea producing countries will be most delicious with the addition of milk/sugar and less agreeable when drunk plain. English-style black teas are usually small in size, even when whole leaf, and tend to be quick steeping and astringent.

In contrast, Chinese black teas are smooth, and complex and elegantly perfect to drink plain. These teas are whole-leaf teas of varying sizes that yield very little astringency in the cup. Their subtle flavors and aromas are masked by the addition of milk/sugar.

So in a nutshell, if you know where a tea was made you will know how it is meant to be drunk.You may still prefer to drink your tea with a bit of this and a splash of that, but before you begin adding milk/sugar as always, taste the tea first. When in doubt as to what to do, remember that any tea will taste best when you ‘drink your tea like a local.’

2012 spring competition-grade Taiwan high mountain oolong

We have just received three luscious 2012 spring high mountain gao shans from Taiwan. For lovers of these very hard-to-find teas, we have distinguished selections from Alishan, and Shan Lin Xi tea districts. And, for the first time, we have a super-delicious, authentic, pure and natural Milk Oolong  from the Jin Xuan cultivar. (Read more about milk oolong on our website www.teatrekker.com).

Our Alishan and the Jin Xuan are grown and processed on a tea farm owned by a third generation tea grower and a tea master. The farm was awarded very high honors at the Alishan Village Farmer’s Association tea championship in May. This is one of three prestigious competitions that are conducted by the National Agriculture Council and sponsored by the Taiwan government in various tea growing regions.

This is how their tea placed:

• 2nd Place for 2012 spring Alishan tea
• 1st Place for 2012 spring Jin Xuan tea

To be clear, our teas are not from the competition winning batches of tea, but are from competition-grade batches tea processed in the same manner by the same tea farm for the spring competition. (Competition-grade teas are made with the utmost care and with more  attention to detail over the usual production methods because they will be entered into the competition). So these teas are in the top tier of deliciousness, so lucky us, lucky you!

Why not just sell the winning teas? Because the winners of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place awards sell the remainder of the batch of award winning tea to collectors and wealthy tea fanatics for very, very high prices. And those who understand the market in Taiwan for high quality gao shan know that this can mean many hundreds of dollars….spent in an instant by wealthy tea collectors, businessmen, and corporations.

However, all of the tea from the award winning tea farms is highly desirable in that year and in future years to come, so we are THRILLED to have these extraordinary teas from this farm for the pleasure of our gao shan customers.

How the competition works.

To enter the competition, tea is submitted in batches of 12 kilos per for judging. As many batches as desired may be entered.

Several thousand entries vie for placement in these competitions, which are conducted for the spring harvest and again for the winter harvest. This particular competition is for semiball-rolled teas produced exclusively in the Alishan tea district. The fresh leaf must be plucked from tea bushes that are grown on local tea farms, and the leaf must be processed by local tea makers.

Each competing tea farm and tea factory will make tea many batches of tea over the course of several days prior to the start of the competition. The methodology will be the same for each batch of tea they produce, but each batch will be slightly different one to another, as the tea made each day can never be exactly the same as the tea made the day before or after.

Businessmen and customers, as well as the tea makers themselves, can select their favorite batch of tea and enter it into the competition. Most tea farms will have several batches of tea entered on their behalf.

The Agriculture Council forms a panel of knowledgeable tea specialists to evaluate all of the tea that has been entered. Judges scrutinize the tea to see how it conforms to the norm for its regional type in both appearance and flavor. This means evaluating:

• the size of each ball of tea
• the shape and the tightness of the roll
• the color of dry leaf
• the aroma of the dry leaf
• the color and clarity of the tea liquor
• the aroma of the liquor
• the initial taste and returning flavor of the liquor
• the appearance of the tea leaves after steeping

For the teas that make it through the preliminary stages (more than 50% of the tea entered does not make it beyond this point) each tea is judged thusly:

• 20% is based on the appearance of the dry leaf
• 20% is based on the appearance of the tea liquor
• 20% is based on the aroma of the tea and the wet leaf
• 30% is based on taste
• 10% is based on the appearance of the wet leaf after steeping

( FYI…this criteria is the same that we here at Tea Trekker use to evaluate each and every tea we are considering purchasing. We learned to conduct comparative tasting from our colleagues in China years ago. We always learn so when we taste and compare a series of similar teas from the same region).

First, second and third places  awards will have only one winner. Fourth place and up (upwards to seventh place ) will be awarded to multiple winners.

The top three teas will each be packed in special container and sealed with a stamp signifying the award and the win. The winning tea are sold at auction where there will be high and fast demand to purchase these teas as well as all of the remaining tea from that producer in that season.

For those who wish to have their own comparison gao shan tasting, we have some remaining stock of 2011 winter gao shans from Alishan and Shan Lin Xi. With only two plucks a year – winter and spring – each season brings its own qualities to the tea and there is much debate about which is more flavorful and more aromatic. All tea lovers look for and appreciate different characteristics in the cup, so compare and discover which you prefer!

For more details, please visit our Taiwan gao shan oolong page or Taiwan oolong page at www.teatrekker.com

It’s Hairy Crab Season

It’s the end of October and the fall oolong harvest for tea such as Hairy Crab  ( Mao Xie ) is underway in Fujian Province, China. Hairy Crab is a semiball-rolled, modern-style, greenish oolong made in the villages around Anxi in southern Fujian. It is plucked from its namesake tea bush cultivar, and  is similar  to several in flavor and aroma other oolongs made in this region from their specific tea bush cultivars -Ben Shan, Huang Jin Gui, Tieguanyin and Tou Tian Xiang.

But ask a shopper at a city wet market such as in Shanghai or Hong Kong about the seasonal Hairy Crab and they are likely to point to baskets of fresh crabs that have  begun arriving at the market.  The season  for this  seafood delicacy – Eriocher sinensis or mitten crab, known as ‘ Duaza ha’ in the local Shanghai dialect – has just begun, and availability continues until early February. Fall is when the crabs are fattest and the meat is sweetest. Unlike the Hairy crab oolong which is produced in one specific region of small villages, most of these namesake crabs are the product of freshwater aquaculture ( as are many frogs, turtles and eels in China ) in several locations along the Yangtze river in eastern China. Cooking preparations vary, but many believe that simply steaming the crabs and dipping the meat in ginger, vinegar and soy sauce is the best way to enjoy the sweet white flesh. Hairy Crabs are expensive – as much as $26.00 per crab, depending on where they were raised, so tasting the goodness of the crab meat is of paramount importance.

I can only make and educated guess as to why the tea and the crabs share a common name. Pictorially – and in a highly- imaginative kind of way, these army- grey-green, wrinkly little crabs with their oddly constructed bodies, pointy angles and jutting out arms and legs – do bear conceptional similarity to the irregular shape and color of the Hairy Crab tea leaves.

Hairy Crab oolong

As expected, the fall season is filling the markets with a new infusion of both tea and crabs. Our Hairy Crab oolong is from the 2011 spring season, and is fantastically  aromatic and rich in the cup. The fall version of this tea is more full-bodied and less sweet tasting, perhaps a more well-balanced counterpoint to the taste of the cooked crab. Coincidentally, both of these Chinese specialties carry the word ‘sinensis’ ( meaning from China or of China ) in their taxonomic name.

Change of Season: Time for Oolongs

For many tea drinkers the arrival of a new season means a change in daily tea drinking preferences. As fall advances, seasonal changes bring a moody metamorphosis to our New England weather – it can be sunny and golden one minute, then grey and slightly sinister in feeling the next. Bright fall colors are beginning to give way to more somber tomes of light and dark  grey, and a walk in the woodlands revel exposed rock walls, tree roots and fairy houses where summer foliage once thrived.

As the earth turns away from the sun seasonal changes affect all living things – plants, animals and humans, too. As creatures of our environment we respond to the shortened hours of daylight and increasingly cold days by craving different foods and beverages. If we listen to the wisdom of bodies and our inner self, we will find the right balance of sustenance and nurture to keep us in good health and in good spirits during the dark days ahead.

For me, the fresh-tasting, buttery or minerally-crisp green and white teas which gave me so much pleasure during the summer months appeal to me only for morning tea now. In the afternoon and evening, I crave bolder flavors and teas with richer mouth-feel, stronger flavors and more substance in the cup. So I reach for green-style oolongs in the early afternoon and dark oolongs later, when the afternoon light begins to fade and the winds bring a brisk chill to the air. The charcoal-roasted taste of traditional dark oolongs is so satisfying then; it provides a wonderful boost to sagging energy levels. When fall slips into winter, I will leave behind the green-style oolongs behind and settle-in for a rotation of dark oolongs and add some of my favorite Pu-erhs for evening drinking.

The pace of life seems to quicken as the days bring us deeper into fall, and I like to imagine that everyone is, like the squirrels, busy ‘gathering their nuts’ for the shortened days and long nights ahead. Certainly our store has become quite active as regular tea customers are joined by seasonal tea drinkers ready to replenish their cupboards with fresh tea and new tastes.

Fall is the perfect time for tea enthusiasts to replenish supplies of oolongs, or to consider a purchase of oolong this these remain uncharted territory for you. Our shipments of green-style oolongs,  yan cha and dang congs have all arrived in the last 10 days weeks, so our inventory is plentiful in choice and quantity. New selections of Pu-erh will be arriving in early November.

Click on the pictoral links below to view all of the delicious teas that we have for you!