blog sale - yixing teapots and some tea

Similar to the previous blog sales - 

If interested, please contact me at gingkoheight @ g m ail . com before January 14, 2014.  I will try to get all packages prepared before Jan. 20.

Shipping is $4 (tea only) or $7 (teapots) flat for US, shipping to be estimated for other countries.

Shipping could be combined with Life in Teacup orders. 

All prices are lower than market prices and not correlated with our web store prices. Some of the items may be offered in Life in Teacup web store in the future, and the prices will be higher.




1. Purple clay teapot, made by Yixing Factory #1, in 1992 or 1993, by Chen Huifen. $. There are 5 available for this blog sale. There will be some more available in future in our web store.

The volume is 80-85ml. It has single-hole strainer. The shape of spout is a type of fast and fluent pouring. In early 1990s, oolong was trendy in Korea (and puerh started getting trendy). So I would guess that's how this teapot shape was selected for the Ceramic Arts Festival.

I don't remember seeing this style in the Factory #1 catalogs (I only have a few incomplete versions that I plan to show in future blogs). It's probably modified from some gourd style teapots. I've been calling these teapot "mantou　馒头　(bun)" style, unofficially, but it does share some similarities with some mantou style teapots in history :-D

These teapots were custom order by some Korean tea merchant for the third Yixing Ceramic Arts Festival (which took place in 1993 1992 correction: it's 1992, not 1993). The clay and firing are great. Craftsmanship is pretty good - better than the average level of craftsmanship for regular styles (such as shui ping) in Factory #1 at that period, I think. Water seal is not good. Lid fit looks fine from the appearance. I've selected all these teapots that have relatively good lid fit and don't have major flaws.

I've found these teapots interesting because I think their current price is pretty good (and I believe they are more affordable now than future). Besides, I sort of like teapots made for special events. The bottom seal says "The Third Ceramic Arts Festival Souvenir" and there is a lovely Korean character. It seems one of the characters in Korean word "teapot" (not sure of it, I just did a google translation).

More pictures are available here. The stainless steel strainer showed in the Please doesn't come with each teapot. Please let me know if you need one and I will manage to send one along with the teapot. But if you are in a big city, it's possible to get better strainers than this one.





2. Black clay teapot. Same shape as the previous one, by the same author, from Yixing Factory #1 during the same period. There is one available, with some minor appearance flaws, no function flaws. $.

Volume is 100ml. Single-hole strainer. 

More photos can be seen here. 

The surface flaws include a little dent on the surface (could be seen in the above photo right in the front) due to "sand explosion" - a sand grain was melted and "exploded", leaving behind a tiny dent. Besides, there is some uneven color of the clay (especially on the lid, but overall not very obvious). This could be seen in other photos. The white color on the lid is not dust, but uneven color. Both flaws happen mostly when the clay is authentic and firing temperature is high (both are features of Factory #1). But after all they are flaws. We all prefer good clay and good firing, without flaws.

I wouldn't mind keeping this one for myself. Please let me know if you would prefer to get a relatively perfect teapot from the same batch, as I'm getting some more of these teapots.

I've found this teapot interesting because it's a "brother" of the previous teapot. This one was also made for export, but not specifically for the Ceramic Arts Festival. The bottom seal is the author's name "Huifeng studio".


It looks like the above #1 and #2 are made with the same shaper (the semi-manual yixing teapots have a type of iron shapers for the craftswoman to sculpt the teapot body and spout). Their shapes overall look highly similar. The purple clay teapot (#1) is slightly smaller than the black clay teapot (#2) in volume. But interestingly, their weights are almost exactly the same. So it seems the volume difference is due to the varied degrees of shrinkage of their clays.

3. Yixing "shibo" set. There is one available. $.

Volume is 120ml (usable volume, not volume to the rim). It's the best for large leaf tea (oolong, puerh with whole leaves, etc.), as small debris could escape under the lid.



More pictures are available here.


The clay texture is very good and very similar to this and this.


This type of tea set seems more and more popular in China these days. This one is my favorite of all "yixing shibos" that I've seen. I like it very much, but I'm not sure if it could get popular in America. In China, few tea drinkers saw shiboridashi before, hence this style looks very novel and unique. But many American tea drinkers have already owned shibos from Japan and Europe. I very much enjoy using shibo-ish and hobin-ish tea ware for various types of Chinese teas, such as this, this and this. As much as I like this set, it didn't hit me as a "novel" style.


What I like about this specific one is that it reflects a sense of humor from its creator. The bottom seal is "China, Yixing" made very similar to the seals on those Facotry #1 teapot. And there is a number stamped under the lid. As many of you know, some Factory #1 shui ping teapots have a number stamped under the lid (said to be the number of each QC worker), usually a single-digit number. However, the number stamped under the lid of this "shibo" is 88, same number on every teapot this person made and not a QC number. I didn't have to ask her why - 88 is a very good number in China, often seen as a number of fortune.





4. Yan cha set, 15g 2013 Shui Xian and 15g 2013 Rou Gui. There are 5 sets available for this blog sale. $ each set of 30g.

Since dry tea of most yan cha look similar, I will be lazy and omit taking pictures.

Both tea are high mountain tea from central Wuyi region (zheng yan　正岩). The Shui Xian is from trees planted in early 1970s. Both are the relatively heavy roast type, but not the "tasting like fire" kind of heavy roast.



 5. Liu Bao produced by Guang Wu 广梧　(this is the same company that produced Guang Ya　广雅 puerh tea). There are 5 packs available for this blog sale. $ each pack of 15g.

This is mainly for people who are curious about Liu Bao (and probably those who are interested in examining it under microscope). I don't think everybody will like it, although the tea looks really pretty for a fermented tea. "Pretty" including "golden flowers" on the tea leaves, so it may not even be pretty in everybody's eyes. The tea leaves have rudimentary tiny golden flowers (smaller than those found in fu brick and not as many, not sure if it's exactly the same species, very possibly it is).

The tea offered here is one of the three promotion products that Guang Wu issued this year, as this is the first year that Guang Wu Liu Bao has been in the market. All three promotion products are quite inexpensive (especially compared with other Guang Wu products and products of Guang Ya), yet they look very nice (I haven't drunk a lot of them yet, so most judgment so far is based on appearance). The tea offered here is #1 and 1st tier in the promotion series. I think these are truly promotion products as they are really good deals. This #1 was out of stock in most places in no time. For selfish reasons, I almost wish liu bao doesn't get too popular too soon, so that they will offer more promotion products like these ones in future years :-p

It looks like this picture. The photo is from one of the sales agents, and is on the #3 of the promotion series. The tea offered in the blog sale is #1 of the promotion series, with more refined leaves and more golden buds. But the overall style is similar. It's not a "sheng" liu bao like this one. It's not the commonly seen style of Liu Bao either. Instead, it's a light-fermented liu bao with relatively whole leaves. The producer claims the tea is made with the traditional "double steam" technique. But since this technique almost disappeared in the last several decades, many tea drinkers feel there isn't enough knowledge base to judge it. But it's an interesting tea anyway. (That being said, the tea still has a basement-like smell and ideally should be aired out for a while before use.)

Free stuff:


* Small porcelain cup (40-45ml)

* Yixing teacups of red clay, di cao qing or jiang po ni, limited to 1 cup per person. There are few cups of each type. Please let me know your preferred type. The di cao qing and jiang po ni are made of same clay type as used for some teapots at Life in Teacup web store (the firing outcome will be slightly different each time, due to the size and shape).





* tea ware wrapper, similar to this one:

* Yixing red tea - if you are interested in tasting the red tea from the hometown of teapots. This is the most popular "teapot-seasoning" tea in yixing.

blog sale - part 2

Part 1 is here.

If interested, please contact me at gingkoheight @ g m ail . com before August 24, 2013. 

Shipping is $4 flat for US, $7 flat for Canada, shipping to be estimated for other countries.

Shipping could be combined with Life in Teacup orders.

I aim at sending out all packages in two weeks. 


All prices are lower than market prices and not correlated with our web store prices. 


All pictures can be clicked to enlarge.


6. Tian Jian (Heaven Tip) Hei Cha sample set. $5 for each set of 3 samples.

I've planned to write more about hei cha, especially my favorite types, Fu brick and Heaven Tip. But before I could write more, here is a blog post from Walker Tea Review with a discussion that I participated in. There is also great contribution from Bill Waddington and Jason Walker himself.

** Something to note here is, this discussion was from more than a year ago, and my tea views have been changing through new experience and conversations with other tea people. When I reviewed this blog discussion, two big changes I've noticed about myself is, (1) thanks to a few great tea people, liu bao is no longer "tasteless" to me; (2) I'm currently reshaping my view about whether I believe puerh belongs to hei cha category - previously I thought no, and now I'm leaning toward yes. These are topics irrelevant to Tian Jian, and I will discuss them more in future blog posts.

There are 3 samples included. Each sample is 15g.

Heave Tip tea, especially newer ones, could be more or less smoky. It's different from the smokiness of some sheng puerh or other teas. But people who like traditional smoky style Lapsang Souchong may find it easier to enjoy Heaven Tip.

With time being, the tea would get milder and less smoky. This could be seen either as an improvement or as degeneration, depending on drinkers' preferences. Some people drink this tea in gongfu style. Traditionally this tea is brewed in a way very similar to so-called "western style" with a big teapot and mixed with milk. Although many varieties of hei cha are good for boiling in water, this tea is usually brewed in hot water instead of being boiled in water.

Of the 3 samples, (3) is the most smoky and (2) is the least smoky. (1) is closer to the "benchmark" taste for most seasoned drinkers of Heaven Tip. 

(1) Bai Sha Xi (this is one of the most famous brands, especially for Fu brick and Heaven Tip) 2012.

(2) Yi Ju Chang (this is a smaller brand) 2008.

(3) Yi Ju Chang wild tea farmer style, 2009. "Farmer style" is in contrast to "factory made". Hei cha involves complex fermentation process. So generally factory processed tea is regarded as of more reliable quality. Farmer style could be of various quality levels, usually either better than factory style or nearly a failure. Well made farmer style has prettier tea leaves than factory style. As for taste, it will largely depend on personal preference.

End of item #6.





7. Yunnan black tea samples. $2 each sample of 10g. Each 2012 version has 5 samples available. Each 2013 version has 10 samples available.
** Note that these teas are NOT suitable for people who give black tea only one infusion. One infusion would embody probably only 1/7 value of the tea, or less. Even mediocre Yunnan black tea deserves 3 infusions or more. For these teas, I would recommend at least 5 infusions and ideally more infusions (leaf/water ratio, infusion time and number of infusions correlated with each other), and hottest boiling water, as always.

There are 4 types of samples. All are equally priced.
(1) 2013 Fengqing Gold Bud
(2) 2012 Fengqing Gold Bud
(3) 2013 Fengqing "pine needle" black tea (not really pine needle, but pine needle shaped tea leaves)
(4) 2012 Fengqing "pine needle" black tea

(2) and (1) are of the same type from different years. So are (3) and (4).

All these teas are from one of my favorite tea producers, Da Dian (a few of their puerh products are available in Life in Teacup now, and some of the 2013 black tea might be put in the web store depending on the amount available).

Mr. Wu (the owner of Da Dian, and usually I just call him Da Dian) likes to give people surprises. He produced the 2012 versions of black teas, sold them, and didn't say anything special until this year. Then this year, when 2013 version came out, he made the announcement that his black teas generally taste better after resting for several month to a couple of years (but notice that he didn't say "the older, the better"), due to his choice of processing method that sacrifice some immediate aroma but benefits future aroma builds-up. I personally think he is very right on this. That's why I'm putting all these 4 teas together and I would be interested in learning what other people think of them.

So far I like the gold bud better. But it seems most of my tea friends like the "pine needle" better. It's worth mentioning that the "pine needles" were made from tea bushes planted in 1940s, very closed to the start time of Yunnan black (as introduced in this blog post).

Here are Da Dian's photos for these teas. 2012 versions look quite similar to 2013 versions.
Gold bud:

"pine needle":

End of item #7.



8. shu puerh sample set. 10 sample sets available.
8a. $8 for each set of 3 samples, or
8b. $4 for sample (2) and (3) only.

15g per sample.

The samples include:

(1) 2009 Chang Tai Wei Rong Hao Wuliang Mountain ancient tree shu. (Original cake is 357g.)
I think this tea would be recorded on history of shu puerh. I'm not sure if I'm the first one who've introduced this tea to western drinkers. If so, I'm honored.

(2)  2007 Chang Tai Wuliang Mountain shu brick. Directed by Taiwan Jing Mei Tang. (Original brick is 250g.)
This is a decent shu with a very good price. For this sample set, since I've included (1), I felt I should include this (2) as well, because these two teas have exactly the same Chinese name, from the same factory, yet they are not even remotely similar to each other. Generally speaking, (1) is of much higher level. Chang Tai is a very confusing producer, yet they made some very good tea. So I think it's less confusing if I could just put these confusing teas side by side.

(3) 2006 Jing Mei Tang small brick. (Original brick is 100g.) Directed by Huang Chuanfang of Jing Mei Tang.
This is a very nice shu with a good price. Since I've included (2) in this sample set, I felt I should include this (3) as well, because there is a lot of confusion about the name Jing Mei Tang. Most fans of Jing Mei Tang are actually fans of its "creator", Huang Chuanfang (HCF). But one thing to note here is, Jing Mei Tang is NOT the same as Taiwan Jing Mei Tang. The latter one is also a nice organization with Wu-shing Books (publisher of The Art of Tea) behind it. But HCF is not involved in Taiwan Jing Mei Tang. Instead, HCF current owns Kunming Jing Mei Tang, which is a different organization from the "old" Jing Mei Tang before 2007. But HCF's most famous products are from the "old" Jing Mei Tang era. This little brick is an example. It's not made of any fancy leaf materials and embodies the great technique of shu making.

Overall the Jing Mei Tang stories may sound very confusing. So I think it's less confusing if I could just put this 2007 Taiwan Jing Mei Tang and 2006 HCF Jing Mei Tang bricks side by side. 

End of item #8.



9. 2013 Huang Shan Mao Feng. $3 per 10g sample.

This is not a first day harvest, but a first week harvest. It's from the semi-wild Huang Shan Mao Feng producer. It's from about 700m elevation, which is already considered very high elevation for green teas. Generally speaking, this tea is not at the level of the 1400m Huang Shan Mao Feng we have each year. But this is not a comparison of producer quality. The other tea is a first day harvest and from higher elevation, so naturally of higher quality.

End of item #9.



10. Anhui green tea sample set. $10 per set of 3 samples. Each sample is 8g. There are 4 sample sets available.
The samples include:
(1) Tian Hua Gu Jian. It's somewhat similar to White Plum Peak green tea.
(2) Er Zu Zen Tea (Zen Patriarch's tea).
(3) Yu Xi Cui Lan (Mountain West Green Orchid). It's somewhat similar to Tong Cheng Small Orchid.

End of item #10.



11. Southern Fujian Sezhong oolong sample set. $16 per set of 4 samples. Each sample is 10g. Two additional free samples come with the set. There are a total of 10 sample sets available.

All 4 sample are from Mr. Liu, a Xiamen based teacher who also produces tea. He specializes in southern Fujian oolong from historical tea plantations (several of them were abandoned for reasons discussed in another blog post, and resurrected by Mr. Liu) with eco-friendly cultivation. The (2), (3) and (4) samples here are all from previously abandoned historical tea plantations resurrected by Mr. Liu.

These teas are not intentionally aged, but released when the producer thought they were well rested. 

All these teas are from Southern Fujian. They are more or less similar to Wuyi (Northern Fujian) teas but not exactly the same.

The sample sets include:
(1) 2010 Southern Fujian sezhong oolong. Cultivar unknown. The tea was collected from a traditional tea area where pesticide was reserved for Tie Guan Yin. Since sezhong isn't sold as expensive as Tie Guan Yin, it doesn't "deserve" the pesticide. That's why Mr. Liu selected high quality sezhong from this area.

(2) 2010 Shui Xian. Hundred-year-old bushes.

(3) 2011 Yong Chun Fo Shou (Buddha hands). Hundred-year-old bushes. Wuyi Fo Shou was introduced from Southern Fujian, but of slightly different style both in terms of cultivar and in processing. But Wuyi Fo Shou and Yong Chun Fo Shou share a lot of similarities.

(4) 2011 Tianma Mountain Mao Xie (hairy crab). Fifty-year-old bushes. Mao Xie is considered a very inexpensive varietal of Fujian oolong. Therefore, nowadays high quality Mao Xie is rarely seen. This tea is from Tianma Mountain of 1000m elevation. This is one of the few high-grade Mao Xie I've seen in years. This tea is made because the producer doesn't rely on tea production for a living and doesn't have to consider "cost and benefit" from making this tea.

Going free with the above sample sets are two more southern Fujian sezhong oolong from my favorite Tie Guan Yin producer. One is traditional light roast style Huang Jin Gui (golden osthanthus) and traditional roasted Mao Xie (hairy crab). These two teas are produced in plantations of nearly 900m elevation. Huang Jin Gui is from 2012, and Mao Xie is from 2009. The producer has discontinued these two teas because the plantations are too far away from major roads, inconvenient to harvest, and complicated to process in the traditional way. With increasing labor costs in recent years and low market price of sezhong oolong, it's not cost-effective to make these teas. The producer aims at going back to these teas after a few years when they are more financially stable. I got these teas at quite low price that doesn't match their quality at all. I wouldn't feel comfortable to either sell them for higher prices or lower prices. So they will go free with the sample set.


End of item #11



12. CNNP 2002 loose shu sample Y671. $2.5 for each sample of 10g. This tea tastes very clean and decent. But not super interesting.

End of item #12





Free stuff:

* Guevara shu. 10g. 10 samples are available.

This is the tea discussed here. For shu beginners, I would always recommend some least expensive tea of decent quality. Most of such shu are from large factories, as mentioned in a previous discussion. But this tea is an exception. Generally for beginners' shu, I often recommend recent year 7572, 7262 and a couple of other Dayi shu. But then very often new tea drinkers would still go ahead and get some unknown source shu that's even cheaper but rather bad representative of shu. Or some new tea drinkers would go ahead and get some expensive shu and then wonder what the point is. So instead of recommending teas that may not be available to new tea drinkers, I thought it's more convenient to put some recommended shu in their hands.

I think this tea is roughly of 7572 level. It won't be a fancy experience for seasoned shu drinkers, but overall of decent quality.


* Di Cao Qing small cups. Limited to 1 cup per person.

These are the smallest size yixing teacups very commonly seen. But they are made of much better clay than most of the teacups of this size in the market. These cups are "public relation" cups from the producer. They didn't cost me much. But marking them at few dollars each would undervalue them. So I would rather give them for free. They could serve as "specimen" for decent quality Di Cao Qing.

This one is also made by Xu Peng, whose Di Cao Qing teapots and other teapots are available at Life in Teacup. The clay used in the teacup is pretty much the same as that used for the teapots (color tone could be different due to variation of kilns and the shape and thickness of each vessel that respond slightly differently to kiln conditions; texture is generally the same).


* Taiwan oolong tea pumpkin seeds. 200g pack. It's made of melon seeds flavored with oolong tea, salt and some food flavoring. I got it as a gift but I'm not good at eating pumpkin seeds. Skills are required to eat these seeds. This is available to US addressees only due to its weight. It looks somewhat similar to this one, but the one showed below is a green tea pumpkin seeds product.

* Cut cubes of Fu brick samples. But please read this post and see the warnings before considering it.



End.

Jin Jun Mei (金骏眉) 1:6

I sampled quite a few Jin Jun Mei products in the past year. Most of them are very enjoyable. Here are two of them. I single out these two because I think it's interesting to find out how they are so similar in certain ways and different in some other ways. 1:6 is about their prices, the second's price is six times as much as the first one - not that the first is inexpensive :-p I have to say I love to sample Jin Jun Mei but always hesitate to buy it.

Jin Jun Mei is a fancy type of Lapsang Souchong. It was created in 2005 by Jiang Yuanxun (heir of a historical Lapsang Souchong family business) and his colleagues. I am sure they have some "secret formula" for the processing of this tea. But my simplified understanding is, Jin Jun Mei uses fine leaf buds of Souchong tea trees, whereas most traditional style red teas use bigger leaves as raw materials. The name of Jin Jun Mei can be interpreted as Golden Handsome Brow, indicating the rich golden tips of this tea. Besides, the character Jun in its name comes from the name of one of the creators of this tea.

Of the two teas I have here, the first one is a Wuyi Jin Jun Mei, produced in Wuyi but out of Tongmuguan, the original producing region of Lapsang Souchong. The second one is Tongmuguan Jin Jun Mei.

The two teas look quite similar.

Wuyi Jin Jun Mei

Tongmuguan Jin Jun Mei

I always think, it's often impossible to judge similar but different teas based on physical appearance. These two, I think, are another set of examples. If taking a closer look of the dry leaves and judging by the amount of "golden tips", I think the first one looks prettier than the second one, yet the second one is the expensive one.

Wuyi Jin Jun Mei

Tongmuguan Jin Jun Mei

The color differences of above two photos are mostly likely due to light intensity. The dry leaf colors of the two teas are almost the same.

Only after tasting them, I kind of understood why the second one is more expensive than the first one. I "kind of" understand it, in market sense. But I have to say, personally I like the first one much better. The first one tastes very creamy and chocolaty. I enjoyed it very much and even kept its empty bag for a longer while to inhale its chocolaty aroma. The second one is enjoyable, but of brighter aroma and quite floral. I think the dark toned, chocolaty aroma is more common in traditional higher end lapsang souchong, while the floral aroma is not something commonly seen in Fujian red tea. So my understanding is, because it's generally harder to achieve floral aroma in a lapsang souchong, and because the floral aroma is more in line with the "mainstream" preference, the second Jin Jun Mei is a lot more expensive than the first one.

This floral Jin Jun Mei still tastes quite pleasant to me. But I once had another floral Jin Jun Mei earlier that I couldn't bear with. I guess sometimes the overwhelming floral flavor in red tea can drive me crazy, as I described in this post about another red tea and its floral flavor. But this is just my taste preference. I always feel glad when finding out I prefer a less expensive tea to a more expensive one. It feels like finding a deal :-D

Overall I like Jin Jun Mei, but it's not a tea that blows me away. I thought of including Jin Jun Mei in Concept Tea, but hesitated to do so. The tea is wonderful and it does involve some innovative techniques. But the concept behind Jin Jun Mei phenomenon, in my opinion, is more of a marketing concept than a technical concept. I am not saying Jin Jun Mei's fame is entirely based on marketing strategies. What I mean is, it created a new niche in the market.

Just several years ago, in China, very few people were willing to pay a lot of money for a red tea. Therefore there was little incentive for producers to make red tea with the fine leaf buds, using meticulous protocol. But in the past several years, Jin Jun Mei has dramatically changed Chinese red tea market. In fact, Jin Jun Mei is a market miracle. In few years after it was created, the tea has become the most wanted red tea in Chinese market (or, at least "most wanted" among rich people), and is sold for up to thousands of dollars a pound, or even more. I am still wondering how they did it - how the producers of Jin Jun Mei managed to sell it for so much money. Besides, Jin Jun Mei indirectly caused price rise of other red teas in China. I think, even the dramatic price rise of Yunnan red tea is somewhat related to the Jin Jun Mei phenomenon. In addition, Jin Jun Mei has inspired a new wave of red tea products. There has been "Jin Jun Mei style" red tea developed in Sichuan, Anhui and other tea producing provinces. Many of them don't aim at simply copying Jin Jun Mei, but making red tea at a new level, a level of very fine processing and very high price.

purple beauty (Zi Juan, 紫娟) and anthocyanin

This tea is quite novel to me. I would otherwise put it into the category of Concept Tea. But I didn't, because I don't like its taste. But it's just me. I know some other people like it very much, and this tea is quite expensive as a red tea from Yunnan. Ha! Doesn't it feel good once you are sure you don't like an expensive tea and don't have to buy it in the future! :D

The tea is made from a newly discovered mutant varietal whose young leaves and buds are of purplish color.  Here is a photo from a producer of this tea, comparing tea leaves of this mutant varietal and normal tea leaves. Instead of having a lot of chlorophyll as most plant leaves do, these leaves have large amount of anthocyanin, a pigment often found in colorful flowers of plants as well as some fruits. Anthocyanin in oolong leaves contributes to the floral and fruity flavors of oolong.

Dry leaves: beautiful...

Liquor color: beautiful... 

Taste: floral... too floral, all floral... Normally I even like floral taste, but this is too much for me, too much floral flavor and not enough other tea flavors. After a few infusions, I decided I couldn't bear with this tea. Later, a friend visited. After treating him with a few other teas, I steeped the left over leaves from my pot and ask him to taste it. He loves it!

Probably this tea can work well when blended with some other tea to give its floral flavor. But I won't have enough tea leaves to try.

I also got a puerh sample made of this kind of purple leaves. Will try it later!

A little more thought about anthocyanin - a few weeks ago, a tea friend and I discussed a little on the cultivars of Sun Moon Lake red tea. I've got two versions of this tea, one is made from small leaf cultivar, and one is made from red jade cultivar (#18 cultivar). The latter one has become a hotshot in recent years and is a lot more expensive than the small-leaf cultivar. But for some reason, I like small leaf cultivar much better. I don't dislike red jade. But the floral taste of red jade doesn't blow me away. In fact, I don't quite understand myself. I usually love floral taste, such as what's found in Tie Guan Yin and some Taiwan High Mountain Oolong. But for some reason, I dislike Purple Beauty and am not too crazy about red jade. So I wonder if my taste preferences are largely due to the amount and forms of anthocyanins found in these teas.

updated Tea Harvest Calendar

Recently I did some updating on a Tea Harvest Calendar I made a few years ago. From time to time, people send me questions about harvest times of teas. In fact, I am not sure how to make a harvest calendar that's easy to read and inclusive of important tea information. Still, I am afraid I get stuck in between - the current harvest calendar is not easy to read, and it seems forever impossible to be inclusive. But this is the best I can do so far.

In addition, I am not exactly sure why people would like to see a harvest schedule (but indeed many people would like to). Most teas we can't get within the few weeks after harvest. And most teas are not in the best state within weeks after harvest - even for fresh-tasting green teas like Long Jing, old tea farmers would say, the tea starts to taste the best after 1-3 months of careful storage. But as a curious person myself, I can surely understand people's curiosity about tea harvest schedule. Besides, during those winter months, it's always nice to have a harvest schedule so that you would feel there are things to look forward to, especially if you are a green tea lover :D

Another potential challenge of a tea harvest schedule is, up to now, the accessible varieties of Chinese green teas in foreign market are still quite limited (many famous green teas have very small annual production and are of limited amount even in Chinese market) - what's the point including teas that most people cannot get access to? Some of those teas are still on my wish list, and some of them I don't get hold of every year. But I guess one reason to include them on the harvest schedule is, so that we have something to dream of :D The great diversity of today's US specialty tea market may not be something one could dream of 10 years ago. In the years to come, there will surely be more and more varieties and products of quality.

So here is the tea harvest schedule. The image can be clicked to enlarge. A web version is posted here:
http://www.lifeinteacup.com/harvest-calendar

I am sure there is a lot of negligence. I will keep working on it. Feedback and critiques will be highly appreciated.

___________________________________________

Introduction

Throughout the year, the relative positions of the sun and the earth can be expressed by 24 solar terms. Dates marking these 24 solar terms stay almost the same year by year on the international calendar. The 24 solar term marks directed a lot of agricultural activities in traditional society of China, including tea cultivation. On this Tea Harvest Calendar, the harvest dates of various teas are sorted in temporal order based on the solar terms they belong to.

More information about the 24 solar terms can be found on this webpage of Hong Kong government:

http://www.hko.gov.hk/gts/time/24solarterms.htm

(Name translations of the solar terms are slightly different between this Tea Harvest Calendar and above webpage.)

Tea harvest dates vary slightly from year to year. The system of solar terms helps us understand how tea harvest is connected to climatic patterns.

This Tea Harvest Calendar includes names of the 24 solar terms in English and Chinese, their dates on the international calendar, and harvest times of some well-known Chinese teas. Additional notes are made about climatic changes and traditional agricultural events of some solar terms.

Part 1.

Part 2.

Part 3.

Sources of information:

1.     Tea farmers, who are, of course, the best sources of anything pertaining to tea.

2.     中国茶谱 － Wan Xiaochun et al. (2007) The Book of Chinese Tea. China Forestry Publishing House, Beijing.

3.     中国茶经 － Chen Zongmao et al. (1992) The Tea Classic of China. Shanghai Cultural Publishing House, Shanghai.

4.     中国茶叶大辞典 － Chen Zongmao et al. (2000) The Encyclopedia of Chinese Tea. China Light Industries Publishing House, Beijing.

5.     中国名茶图谱 － Shi Haigen et al. (2007) The Atlas of Chinese Famous Teas. Shanghai Cultural Publishing House, Shanghai.

6.     品茶图鉴 － Chen Zongmao, Yu Yongming, Liang Guobiao & Zhou Zhixiu (2009) An Atlas for Tea Tasting. Yellow Mountain Press, Hefei.

7.     中国乌龙茶 － Gong Zhi (2004) China Oolong Tea. Zhejiang Photography Press, Hangzhou.

8.     中国红茶 － Gong Zhi (2005) China Red Tea. Zhejiang Photography Press, Hangzhou.

9.     茶文化学 － Liu Qinjin et al. (2000) Studies on Tea Culture. China Agriculture Publishing House, Beijing.

why red tea (红茶) is called black tea

As many people know, "black tea" in western tea terminology is assigned to the tea genre that's called "red tea" by Chinese people. In China, there is a "black tea" (Hei Cha) category which is somewhat similar to modern shu puerh. Why is Chinese "red tea" called "black tea" in the Western Hemisphere? This has to do with the history of tea trade.

Following historical study is from the book China Oolong by Gong Zhi, one of the most renowned tea scholars in China. I found this interpretation very plausible.

By the time I heard of this book, it was already out of shelf of most bookstores. It's a book adored by tea drinkers, especially oolong lovers, but it's not a best seller that one can find anywhere.

I was very grateful to have found full text of this book on the internet. Mr. Gong, the author, has authorized his young colleagues in Wuyi to publish all contents of this book on a few major Chinese tea social websites, without asking for anything in return. It's a fortune for many tea drinkers to get access to this book.

So here is my interpretation of Mr. Gong's study in his book.

According to historical records, Wuyi Oolong was the first Chinese tea exported to Europe in the 16th century. Large export of Wuyi tea started from the 17th century. For a long time, Bohea (pronunciation of Wuyi in the local dialect) was used as the name for Chinese tea. The name "oolong" is from Wuyi. In both domestic market and international market, Wuyi Tea was also called Wuyi Oolong. Therefore, the term Oolong Tea has been commonly used in the international market since the 17th century. The word "oolong" in Chinese means "black dragon". Oolong Tea is "black dragon tea". In the international market, people used "Black Tea", the shorter form of Oolong Tea, to refer to the oxidized tea from Wuyi. So when the term "Black Tea" was first used by Europeans, it referred to oolong tea, not red tea.

Before mid 20th century, both in China and in the international market, tea was categorized in two types, Green Tea and Red Tea, simply based on color of tea liquor. Therefore, oolong tea was regarded as a type of red tea. Even today, I know some Chinese northerners who are still confused about the tea types. They thought traditional Tie Guan Yin was a red tea and modern style Tie Guan Yin was a green tea, because in the traditional tea houses before mid 20th century, oolong was categorized as red tea.

With increasing tea export, more and more other tea products joined the tea export in the 17th century and following centuries. Some of these other products were oolong, and some were red tea. All of them were called "black tea". By this time, the "black tea" in the international market would be either oolong or red tea. Bohea became a term restrictively used for upscale oolong from Wuyi.

Later on, with large amount of Indian and Ceylon red tea entering the international market and with decreased tea export from China, international tea market started to be dominated by red tea, which would be commonly called "black tea". Therefore, today, the term "black tea" in English refers to what Chinese call red tea.

I've found Mr. Gong's study very interesting. Even in English style tea drinking, many "black teas" aren't really black in color. So I had ever wondered where the name "black tea" was from!

sipping tea in a war time

What is it like? I don't know. But when sipping a great Dian Hong (Yunnan red/black tea), I often let my mind travel through history back to 1938.

Starting from 1937, wave after wave of refugees fled from occupied northern China to the Southwestern provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan, leaving behind them everything of their previous life. It seems to me a miracle that once settled in Kunming, central city of Yunnan, people immediately picked up their tea drinking routine, and the tea houses in Kunming boomed.

The "official" Japanese occupation in China last eight years (1937-1945). But the military invasion actually started long before that and can be traced back to 1931 or even earlier. During the war, hundreds of millions of people died. Numerous temples from Tang, Song and even earlier dynasties were demolished. Many precious ancient books were bundled and sold for pennies by the measurement of "height of walk stick". Culture was ruined and elegant life styles were lost. Yet people had their tea, in war or in peace, in tea houses or in their bombarded homes, at weddings or funerals. For thousands of years, drinking tea is part of people's life. Even in a war time when everything was ruined, where there was tea, life was going on.

Life was not just going on. Life thrived. The best universities in China retreated to the Southwest around 1938 and stayed there till the end of the war in 1945. With extremely limited resources, for eight years, scholars and students lived in poverty and under frequent military air attacks from Japanese army. Yet they neither stopped their academic activities nor stopped drinking tea. The tea houses of Kunming were filled with students and professors, many of them would become the best contemporary writers, scientists, scholars or educators of China in the coming decades. Chen Ning Yang, the Nobel Prize winner of 1957, spent his war time in Kunming. His close friend, Huang Kun, wrote later, "Without hot water supply in our dorm on campus, we had our routine discussions on physics topics in the tea house... We stayed in the tea house every day between dinner and bed time." Up till today, some of my favorite writers are those who spent their war time in Kunming. Some of my favorite Chinese essays are about life and tea houses of Kunming during the war.

During the war time, people not only drank tea, they also create tea. To me, Yunnan red tea is always special, not only because of its unique bold flavor, but also because it's a tea that was created during the war time in 1939. In 1937, Feng Shaoqiu, the creator of Yunnan red tea, was forced by the war to leave Keemun, where he had made great contribution to the processing procedure of modern day Keemun red tea. When most major tea producing regions in China fell to Japanese occupation, Chinese tea professionals started to look for new potential regions for tea production. In Yunnan, they found great soil and best tea tree varietals for red tea. When Feng started his work to build a tea factory in Fengqing, Yunnan, he had almost nothing, no constructional materials, no skill workers and no equipment. The entire country was in war, and all kinds of resources were in short. But miraculously Feng and his colleagues managed to build up a small factory and produced 15 tons of red tea in 1939. The 15 tons was tiny amount compared with today's tea production. But from then on, Yunnan red tea was sold to the Western Hemisphere, first by way of Hong Kong and then by way of Burma. Trade of Yunnan red tea greatly contributed to the national income in early 1940s when China's economy was largely devastated by the war.

No, I am not missing the war. It's one of the most devastating things that can happen to a society. But when I look back into history, I am in awe how much people achieved in war time, beyond survival. I believe what is not destroyed by the war, can live stronger than ever.

War kills, ruins, destroys. But war didn't diminish tea. It only caused another tea variety to be invented. Such connection always makes me think Dian Hong is a tea full of life.

Four keemuns, 3 reds and 1 green

Most Chinese teas have 4-character names. I suspect it has to do with the acoustic aesthetics of Chinese culture. The currently found earliest recorded Chinese poems have four characters in each sentence. And throughout the history, there are popular styles of rhyme essays in 4-character-per-sentence format. The four teas here all have 4-character names:
Qi Men (Keemun) Hong Cha (Red Tea) - 祁門紅茶 or 祁門工夫
Qi Men Xiang Luo (Aromatic Spiral) - 祁紅香螺
Qi Men Mao Feng (Mao Feng as in Huang Shan Mao Feng) - 祁門毛峰
Qi Men Cui Mei (Emerald Brow) - 祁門翠眉

In the traditional nomenclature of Chinese teas, one popular way of naming a tea is putting its production region (often in 2-character format) in the front and then another two characters describing the tea. Above four names all follow this format. All the four names start with Qi Men (Keemun in English), which is their production regions, and is why I put them together here - they are all from the same region of Anhui province.

The second and the third are both red tea and therefore can be called with the first name, Qi Men Red Tea. However, they are given more specific names in order to describe their unique features. The second one has a leaf shape similar to Bi Luo Chun and therefore has "spiral" in its name. And the third has a leaf shape similar to Mao Feng tea (not really that similar though, I think).

The last one is a green tea, which is reflected in its name by "emerald". The leaves have rich silver tips, and hence the word "brow" in its name.

Keemun Red Tea. Keemun Aroma - the aroma from a typical Keemun Red Tea, is the benchmark I use to determine my personal preferences on many black/red teas. Although it's somewhat unique in Keemun, other red teas may have hints of it too.

Keemun Aromatic Spiral. It's a relatively new variety, invented in 1997. It's made from very young leaves and harvest time is much earlier than that for traditional Keemun red tea. Here is my tea log about this tea on Steepster.

Keemun Mao Feng. It's made from younger leaves too compared with the traditional Keemun. Similar to the Keemun Aromatic Spiral, this tea is very tolerant to long infusions. I think this tea has more "Keemun Aroma" than the Keemun Spiral, however, the Keemun Spiral has more floral, fruity aroma.

Keemun Emerald Brow.  This is one of the most beautiful-looking green teas I've seen. It looks similar to the more famous Jin Zhai Emerald Brow. The flavor is light but long lasting. I enjoy it very much. I don't know how this tea can ever stand out among the numerous great green teas of Anhui province. But I would love to have it more often for its beautiful leaves.