Taiping Hou Kui Green Tea, and on Branding, Traceability, and Quality

I recently enjoyed tea with Evan of PluckTea. We brewed up some Taiping Hou Kui, and I took this photograph of the spent leaves, after we brewed several very flavorful infusions from them:



I loved the way the leaves of this tea looked after they had been brewed, and I could not resist photographing them. Evan broke most of the leaves in half before steeping, so they would fit in a small gaiwan; the huge leaves here are thus about half the length that the leaves originally were.

Taiping Hou Kui is a peculiar variety of green tea with exceptionally long leaves, pressed very flat. The leaves pictured here were 2-3 inches in length before being broken. Because they are so flat, it can be hard to intuitively measure out how many of them to brew. I've been struggling with this, as Evan gave me a bit of this tea to take home and enjoy on my own.

More unbranded tea:

I think this was the best batch of this type of green tea that I have tried yet. Unfortunately, Evan had no information on the tea's origins. A friend of his brought the tea back from China, and it did not list any brand or information about its source or how to buy more of it.

I've found that this is often the case with tea bought in China and Taiwan. The whole concept of branding and tracing products is to a large degree Western in origins, and although many Chinese companies and tea producers have embraced this practice (especially since it serves their interests when people like their products and want to buy more), many do not.

A relationship between quality, branding, and traceability?

The whole process of making your products traceable and adding a brand name to them is costly, and does not fit into the way the tea industry often works, with many layers of resellers. A small producer who has no role in the retail end of the tea industry usually must rely on whoever is buying the tea from them to ensure traceability, so they have little agency in encouraging traceability, even though they are the party who stands to benefit most from it.

Branding is a marketing effort and takes considerably time, energy, and financial resources, and traceability of products (with batch numbers, harvest dates, and other info on their origins) requires considerable resources for recordkeeping, as well as demanding a certain organizational know-how and structure which must be present at multiple levels in commerce. I think one can look at branding as a certain simple form of traceability or identifying of products, a first step along the continuum towards more detailed traceability.

One thing I've reflected on in the past is that traceability and brand name recognition has the greatest potential for paying off when the product is high quality. If the product is junk, all the effort will be for nothing, as people will either forget the brand name or form a negative association with it and avoid it in the future.

China, unfortunately, often has a reputation in the U.S. for low quality products. It doesn't surprise me that both branding and traceability of products are less common in China.

What does surprise me is the top-notch quality of some batches of unbranded tea that I try. I've especially noticed this in teas from Taiwan, but I've also encountered it in tea from China. Whenever a tea is top quality, yet offers no identification of its origins (or how to buy more) on its packaging, I see this as a lost business opportunity. Somewhere, some producer put in their work to grow and process some amazing tea. Hopefully, the process of auctions and tastings and competitions will reward them for their hard work, but, I think there is another level, the level of people like me trying their tea and having no clue how to get any more of it, on which there is a lost opportunity.

What do you think?

Have you thought about these issues? And have you tried Taiping hou kui?

Tea Companies: Choosing Which Teas To Sell

This post is oriented towards tea companies, small and large, and is about how to choose which teas to sell. I offer three points of advice:

• When you have a small catalogue, avoid teas too similar to each other.
• Carry a few products that make you stand out.
• Focus first on quality and relevance to your audience.

When you have a small catalogue, avoid teas too similar to each other:

One mistake that I see a lot of companies make is selling teas that are too similar to each other. This sort of thing can happen both with companies with a huge catalogue and those with a very small catalogue. For an example of a company with a small catalogue that has some very similar teas, take Novus Tea. Novus is a high-end brand owned by Bigelow tea, which sells packaged whole-leaf tea in pyramid sachets.

Novus only has 14 offerings, yet there are a couple of their teas and herbal teas that I personally find to be very similar to each other. For a few examples, both their Persian Pomegranate Herbal Tea and Wild Encounter Herb Tea are fruity herbal blends with a red color and sour flavor. Another example is that they sell four distinct pure black teas: a Darjeeling, a South Indian Black Tea, and both a caffeinated and decaf version of a Ceylon tea. I personally think they would do well to reduce one or two of these duplicates, and instead add something not covered, like a Rooibos, an oolong, or an herbal tea with a radically different flavor, like tulsi / holy basil.

As usual, I'm picking on Novus because I like them. I've been consistently impressed by their teas; the only teas of theirs that I am not a fan of are ones that are in a style that I tend to not like...such as the sour herbal blends. It may not make sense for Novus to adjust their catalogue now. If the teas are selling well, they probably already have their loyal fans, and it might do more damage to retire them even if the newer configuration were more optimal. But I find this principle can be very helpful when considering teas to carry in the first place.

Carry a few products that make you stand out:

Although it can be risky from a business perspective to make your entire catalogue consist of "unusual" offerings, carrying a few teas that are hard to find, and are not well-represented in the market in your country, can make you stand out. These offerings can draw in new customers who have never purchased tea from your brand before, because they will be looking for a specific type of tea. They can also keep customers loyal to you, if someone finds they like a particular kind of tea and you are the only company or only one of a few that sells it.

A few examples of this are:

• Upton Tea Imports stands out by offering pure teas from unusual regions, regions whose single-origin teas are not typically available in the west. They also carry a few herbs that are hard to find, like Lemon Myrtle. And they are one of the few companies to sell tea flowers, along with Rishi Tea and the Taste of Tea.
• Rishi Tea stands out as being the only source of fair trade certified teas of certain varieties. Want Fair Trade Yellow tea? Rishi is, to my knowledge, the only source. They are one of a few companies offering fair trade Keemun (see Little Red Cup) and fair trade Dian Hong / Yunnan black tea (also see Arbor Teas, Octavia Tea, and Cha Cha tea, although Rishi still has the most offerings).
• Numi Tea and Republic of Tea are, to my knowledge, the only companies to sell green rooibos in tea bags; both are organic certified.
• Carrying an esoteric offering, like an oolong produced in Japan, Indonesia, or Kenya, or a white tea produced in Taiwan, Tanzania, Bangladesh, or any tea produced in the United States, will instantly set you apart. Keep in mind though, don't carry these just to carry them, make sure you're selling a top-notch tea.

Focus first on quality and relevance to your audience:

You may feel compelled to add a particular tea because it seems interesting, or seems to fill a gap in your catalogue, but remember, these factors are small relative to quality and relevance to your audience. Quality goes without saying: it is never worth compromising your quality standards just because a tea looks or sounds interesting.

Appealing to your audience can be more involved. For example, certain oolong teas from Nepal or Darjeeling may seem interesting and may even be top-notch if prepared properly, but if a particular tea is picky about brewing, and if your customers are primarily used to easy-to-brew Chinese or Taiwanese oolongs, you may disappoint your customers with such a tea. Another such tip would be, if your customers are used to darker, bolder-flavored teas, I'd recommend avoiding silver needle, and instead stocking a more robust white tea like bai mu dan or shou mei, or, if you do want to sell silver needle, locate a particularly robust example of it (Teas Etc's Tanzanian Silver Needle impressed me in this regard).

Top 5 Most-Viewed Pages for Styles of Pure Black Tea on RateTea

This post highlights the top 5 most-viewed pages on RateTea for styles of pure black tea. These styles include both blends defined by their character, like English and Irish breakfast, as well as those defined by their region of origin, like Darjeeling, as well as more specific varieties, like Lapsang Souchong or Golden Monkey. I did not include flavored teas on this list.



The category I'm selecting from is a bit of a hodge-podge, but the results are not at all surprising:

• English Breakfast - The classic style of tea consumed with breakfast in England; strong, but not too strong.


• Darjeeling Black Tea - One of the most well-known of the single origin black teas, widely known for artisan teas.


• Assam - Known as a strong black tea, and also among the best-known of the single-origin teas.


• Lapsang Souchong - The smoky black tea, one of the best-known Chinese varieties of tea.


• Irish Breakfast - The stronger breakfast tea.

The runner-up is Ceylon. Yes, this list is boring. Hey, I can't make every post interesting, right?

The Oxidation of Tea And Classifying Tea As Black, Green, Oolong, Etc.

When I first got into tea, my level of knowledge was a lot more basic than it is now. I had heard the standard adage "black tea is fully oxidized" and its counterpart "green tea is unoxidized". I initially thought that the different classes of tea (black, green, oolong, etc.) were characterized or defined by their levels of oxidation. I was surprised when I found teas that seemed to be exceptions to this pattern. What I found when researching more deeply was that differing levels of oxidation alone does not define or separate the different classes of tea, and that these classes are usually defined by the production process as a whole, which usually, but not always corresponds to certain differences in levels of oxidation.

Reflecting on these exceptions, and wanting to create a better resource on the topic of tea and oxidation, I recently published a new article on RateTea about the oxidation of tea, in which I go into more depth about the level of oxidation among the various tea types.

I would encourage you to take a peek at that article, and if you think it is a worthwhile resource, to consider linking to it when you need a reference on the topic of tea and oxidation. In this post though, I want to delve more into some of the specific teas that inspired me to think in more nuanced ways about oxidation, and ultimately led to that article.

Very green black tea: Darjeeling first flush:

Darjeeling is a black tea, but it often is not fully oxidized. In some cases, it is as green in color (both of leaf and brewed cup) as a number of green teas. Look at the following examples:



Pictured here are, the first two from Upton Tea Imports, Arya Estate First Flush SFTGFOP1, and Thurbo Estate TGBOP Cl/Tip First Flush, then Makaibari Estate Darjeeling 1st Flush from Arbor Teas, and last, Adagio's Darjeeling #1. I featured these teas mainly because of their visual characteristics, although I will say that I've tried the first three and they're all delicious, and they all have a greener character when brewed. The greenest character in a tea presented as a "black tea", however, was, also from Upton, Castleton Estate TGBOP Ch. First Flush; this tea produced a cup lighter in color than a typical Chinese pan-fired green tea, and barely resembled black tea at all, with a very light character and tones of mint.

Very dark green tea:

Although there are plenty of green teas that are more moderate in their color, truly dark green teas, I have found, are rarer than "black" teas which exhibit a highly green character. One particular example stands out, a large-leaf green tea, produced in Thailand from the Assamica cultivar, which I purchased from Upton tea. Here are Upton's pictures of the leaf:



As you can see in the photo, which accurately depicted the tea as I sampled it, this tea was much browner than green in color. You can read my review of this tea for more about my experience with this tea.

The color of the brewed cup was also quite dark, closer to a typical black tea than other green teas. However, there was little about this tea's flavor, aroma, or other characteristics that resembled black tea in any way. I don't have a way of objectively measuring the oxidation level of teas. I wonder if the dark color of this tea were due to oxidation, or were just due to other factors. I honestly don't know what to expect about a tea like this.

Dark white teas:

Darker white teas, like shou mei and bai mu dan (white peony), are fascinating to me because they create problems for some of the older definitions of white tea, as I explore in my post definitions of white tea: raising eyebrows.

But I have found that learning about these white teas has also taught me a lot about the role oxidation plays in tea production, and the way varying production processes impact tea's characteristics through halting or allowing oxidation. For example, the fact that white tea's production does not denature the enzymes responsible for oxidation in the way that the heating does in the case of green tea, enables white tea to oxidize more than green tea, but because the leaves are quickly dried, this process is not allowed to carry out completely. But because larger leaves contain more moisture, the larger-leaf teas oxidize more. This phenomenon also explains why certain teas like moonlight white exhibit a lighter color in years of drought: when the leaves are dry, they dry out completely more quickly during production, thus allowing for less oxidation.

What do you think?

Let me know what you think of the new article on tea and oxidation. I'd appreciate any corrections or additions if you think it can be improved. I'd also like ideas if you have specific articles (including ones you may have written) that you think would make a good addition to my list of further reading at the end of the article. And if and when you think the article is an accurate, comprehensive resource on the topic of the oxidation of tea, I'd like to ask you to link to it as a reference when you mention the oxidation of tea. Thank you in advance!

Top 5 Most-Viewed Styles of Green Tea on RateTea

This week, my top 5 post highlights the most often-viewed pages for styles (varieties) of green tea, on RateTea. This ranking is not what I would expect, although a few entries make sense. One thing that surprises me, however, is that the top four entries are all types of tea originating in Japan. Only one Chinese green tea makes the list, and it is not one of the most well-known ones, although I do think it is a rather interesting one.



The list:

• Matcha - This page being #1 actually makes sense to me. Matcha is something that Americans tend to be pretty interested in, but know little about. There are a lot of websites promoting the health benefits of matcha, but fewer more impartial resources on it. I've also heard the sentiment expressed frequently that people do not know where to buy good matcha, so it would make sense that they'd come to a site like RateTea to read about it. Ironically, it is one of the least-reviewed types of green tea on the site. I hope people at least enjoy the informational content. And I do hope that some people can go on the site and review some more matcha; I'm not a real matcha enthusiast so I'm unlikely to seek it out to review any time soon.


• Gyokuro - Gyokuro is a bit of a high-end specialty product. It gets a lot of views because it is linked to from the articles on L-theanine and matcha; gyokuro is one of the teas highest in theanine and is also the tea that the chemical was originally isolated from.


• Sencha - As it is the most common style of Japanese green tea available in America, it makes sense to me that sencha would make this list.


• Hojicha - One of the "least green" green teas, and also one of my favorites, this roasted green tea has a mellow flavor, but an aroma that I think of being more similar to coffee than any other green tea. I would not have predicted hojicha making this list, but I can see why it is on here, because it is a rather interesting type of tea.


• Anji Bai Cha - Anji bai cha, meaning "Anji white tea" produces a light-colored infusion, but is a green tea if viewed by production method. It is a bit of an esoteric tea, and it gets traffic mainly because it is linked to from the page of L-theanine, because it, together with Gyokuro, is one of the teas highest in theanine.

Lovers of Chinese green teas will be pleased to learn that the runners-up were gunpowder green tea and dragonwell (Lung Ching), followed by mao feng green tea. And, for what it's worth, it's a close race; matcha gets somewhere between two and three times as many views as mao feng. Overall, the different pages on green tea on RateTea seem to get roughly comparable amounts of attention.

Pure Teas vs. Flavored Teas, And Sneaky Blends: Tea Companies Classifying Tea In Different Ways

Lately I've been thinking (and writing) a lot about tea company websites, in the course of my best practices series. In this post, however, I do not want to offer any advice, just make some observations, and also point to one advantage of using RateTea rather than tea company websites to search for teas, an advantage I also highlight in the news item about the redesign of the page for each brand of tea which we launched this past wednesday.

How do different tea companies classify teas?

Most tea companies break their website or print catalog into different sections. Websites usually have a navigation bar in the header or sidebar, with different headings for different types of tea. A common scheme of classification is to have sections or categories for black tea, green tea, white, oolong, and Pu-erh (if the company sells them), and then, usually, to have separate categories for herbals, with rooibos and Yerba mate sometimes getting categories of their own. The following toolbar comes from the header of the Teavana website:



This classification scheme is fairly standard or typical for tea companies. The only thing atypical about Teavana's header is that they draw attention to white teas first. So what happens if you click on one of these items, say, green tea? The following screenshot shows the green tea page on Teavana's website:



This page shows a mixture of pure green teas, such as the Gyokuro Imperial Green Tea or Three Kingdoms Mao Feng Green Tea, and flavored green teas which are blends of tea and other ingredients. Having read over each of these entries in the course of classifying these teas for listing on RateTea, I can say that there is a huge amount of variability in the blends which Teavana lists under "green tea". Some are traditionally-scented single-origin teas like Jasmine tea, or blends of pure tea with a single ingredient, like genmaicha, whereas others are blends of many different ingredients, some of which contain green tea as the main ingredient, and others of which contain green tea only as a second or later ingredient. Many of these blends contain rooibos, some containing green rooibos and others red rooibos.

Sneaky blends: teas in one category may contain other types of tea as well:

Some of the teas Teavana classifies under one category even include teas from other categories. I will call these sneaky blends. For example, at least five of the blends Teavana lists under White Tea contain other types of tea, typically green tea. For this reason, at RateTea, we classify these blends as Miscellaneous Blends, rather than flavored white teas.

I do not intend to single out Teavana here: the phenomenon of sneaky blends is actually relatively common among mainstream tea companies. If you browse RateTea's listings of "Miscellaneous Blends", you will find teas marketed as green teas, white teas, black teas, oolongs, and Pu-erh, from a variety of different companies.

Are these sneaky blends overtly misleading? As much as I think they're sneaky, I don't have a huge problem with them: I don't see any glaring ethical problems here, especially dealing with blends that have many ingredients, and given that Teavana gives the complete ingredient list for all teas, but I do think that the classification scheme used by Teavana and many other companies, in which teas containing green tea can be listed as "white tea", or vice versa, does obscure things a bit for people who really care about what type of tea is going in their blends. The largest point of suspicion here, for me, would be that since typical white tea tends to be a lot more expensive than typical green tea, the inclusion of green tea in blends marketed as white tea could perhaps obscure the cost or value of the blend. But this issue is a small quibble, as flavored teas contain so many ingredients that the total cost of any one ingredient is usually relatively unimportant.

A different approach:

Upton Tea Imports has a completely different approach, one that I personally prefer:



Upton has separate categories in their header for black, white, green, oolong, and Pu-erh, but these headings all take you to listings of mostly pure teas, with a few traditionally-scented teas and traditional blends, like Jasmine tea or genmaicha. Flavored teas, including ones with extracts or flavorings, as well as those blended with other whole ingredients, are relegated to the "Misc. Teas" section, along with herbals. Upton's classification scheme represents a clear focus on pure teas, especially single-origin pure teas.

Yet another approach to classifying teas:

The two classification schemes presented above may seem like opposite ends of a spectrum; however, they can be synthesized, by companies willing to be a bit creative and flexible. Arbor teas takes an interesting, hybrid approach between the two, with a navigation bar in their header that looks superficially like Teavana's, but displaying a drop-down menu from each entry, allowing visitors to navigate to pure or flavored teas (among other searches, like searching only fair-trade teas) from each of the broad categories (black, green, etc.) in a single click:



Arbor Tea's site works quite well; although their approach is rather complex, it allows serious tea-drinkers to easily get to what they're looking for. It may be somewhat busy, but their website strikes me as clean and well-executed, minimizing any risk of confusion.

Moral of the story: different tea companies classify their teas differently.

As I've shown above, different tea companies use completely different (often, mutually inconsistent) schemes for classifying their tea. It is common among mainstream companies to label as one type of tea a blend also containing other types of tea (i.e. a "black tea" including some green tea, or vice versa), making what I call a sneaky blend. Even more common is for companies to lump both pure teas of one type under the broad headings, such as including pure black teas and flavored black teas together under the heading of "black tea".

If you are someone who shops at different tea companies online, and you care about filtering out these sneaky blends, there is one clear solution: use RateTea to locate teas.



RateTea has a consistent classification scheme, separating pure teas from flavored teas, and checking ingredient lists to ensure that anything containing more than one type of tea is put into an appropriate category for blends, rather than allowing things to slide like "flavored white teas" that also contain green tea. Our classification scheme isn't perfect, and we make sometimes arbitrary decisions, especially when it comes to hard-to-classify styles of tea such as moonlight white (see my blog post about the difficulty of defining white tea). But, at a bare minimum, you know that the scheme on RateTea will separate pure teas from flavored teas and blends, and will be internally consistent (minus the occasional error).

What do you think?

Do you have a problem with sneaky blends, or do you think they're fine?

And would the advantages of consistency across different tea companies, and clean separation of pure teas vs. flavored teas, and other types of tea, convince you to use RateTea rather than tea company websites to search for teas? How do you feel about the schemes presented above, used by Teavana, Upton, and Arbor Teas? Do you have another scheme you like better? How do you like RateTea's overall classification scheme?

Why "Styles of Tea"? And Another Thank You

Yesterday we published a new page on RateTea titled Why Style? What Exactly Is A Style Of Tea?. Lately I've published a ton of new articles on RateTea, and I think they are all quite good, but this one in particular I would like to encourage people to read it. I use the phrase styles of tea frequently on this blog as well as on RateTea. As the article explains, I have some very carefully thought out reasons for the use of this term, a term which is not a universally accepted standard within the tea industry (although a number of companies and bloggers do use it, sometimes in different ways).



The above picture illustrates what I think of as different "styles of tea"; p.s. exactly two of these are not tea...can you tell which two?

I also want to give yet another thank-you to Tony Gebely of World of Tea and Chicago Tea Garden for this one; although I had reasoned through my choice of the word style long before I began talking to Tony about the matter, it was a series of conversations I had with Tony that helped me to more clearly articulate exactly why I like using this term, and that made me decide it was worth writing about this choice.

What do you think?

Do you understand my rationale behind using the term style? Do you ever use this word to refer to tea? Do you use the word differently from, or similarly to how I use it or how we use it on RateTea? Do you have any interest in using this word more, after reading the RateTea article?

Definitions of White Tea: Raising Eyebrows

This post was inspired by a series of conversations that I had with Tony Gebely of Chicago Tea Garden and World of Tea.

Perhaps this is the mathematician in me speaking, but I believe definitions are important. Without clear, agreed-upon definitions, dialogues, conversations, buying and selling, advertisement, and a variety of other business activities and everyday activities can become problematic. In some cases, such as in the case of white tea, definitions are not straightforward.

Definitions for a class of objects become problematic not in "typical" examples of their class, but in the atypical ones. One such problematic tea is pictured here:



This is shou mei(寿眉, longevity eyebrows) tea, purchased from Ten Ren tea. I chose this particular batch of shou mei to picture because it is the darkest in color that I have ever sampled. It looks like it may be closer to gong mei (tribute eyebrows), an even darker tea that is similar in style, and rarely available in the U.S. as it is considered low-grade.

The aroma of the dry leaf of this tea is suggestive of autumn leaves, so much so that it reminds me of playing in leaf piles in fall as a child. When brewed, this aroma becomes even stronger, and it has a dark brown color, a rich, caramel-like sweetness, and an almost tannic sort of astringency. In overall character, it is a lot more like a darker oolong than most white teas, but it shares many qualities of aroma in common with white teas; lighter shou mei can be very similar to darker examples of white peony / bai mu dan.

Is shou mei a white tea?

In order to keep this post as objective as possible, I have so far avoided the claim that shou mei "is" a white tea. Some individuals, tea companies, and other sources classify it as a white tea, but there are definitions floating around, such as two I reference below, under which it would not be classified as a white tea. However, I want to start by noting an observation: I have never seen any company selling shou mei tea and classifying it as anything other than a white tea. The companies which use definitions of white tea that would exclude shou mei do not sell shou mei. If you know of an exception to this rule, let me know, but I could not find one.

This observation certainly raises eyebrows.

Now, let's explore a couple authoritative sources who would not classify shou mei as a white tea:

Tea Association of the USA:

The Tea Association of the USA defines a number of tea-related terms in their Glossary of Terms: Industry Definitions. Although not the be-all and end-all tea authority, this organization's official definition definitely carries some degree of weight. Their definition of white tea is as follows:

Proposed New Definition
The Tea Association of the USA has proposed a new definition.
In order for White Tea to be so termed it should be:

• Processed in accordance with the strict harvesting and processing guidelines originally established in Fujian Province, China
• Made from finely plucked tender shoots (buds) of Camellia sinensis, which are fired or steamed and then dried.
• There should be no withering, fermentation (oxidation) or rolling of the buds.
• The liquor of White Tea is very pale yellow in color, and mild tasting in the cup.

Now, I am going to shift to my own subjective opinions. I do not like this definition. I think it is problematic for several reasons. There is one glaring inconsistency which I point out below, but this can be easily fixed or set aside separate from the rest of the points. Besides this, the main reason I object to this definition is that I see it as too narrow, leaving many teas, including traditional Chinese white teas like shou mei, such that they could not be included in this definition.

Here are some things I dislike about this definition:

• "strict harvesting and processing guidelines" -- why give one particular method of producing tea preference over others? This comes across as possibly stifling innovation by labelling experimental processing methods as "not true white tea". I want to encourage and promote diversity in tea culture, traditions, and production, which includes both the embracing of diverse traditions, as well as the facilitation of developing new traditions. This aspect of the definition has the opposite effect.
• The definition refers to the liquor of the cup and the flavor...which are highly variable, depend on brewing methods, and are to some degree subjective, and the definition given is very constraining. Even white peony or bai mu dan, which nearly everyone agrees is a white tea, has a widely variable color and flavor. I think that in general, a good definition for a broad class of teas (like white tea, black tea, green tea, etc.) does not refer to color or flavor at all.
• This definition is internally inconsistent, depending on how you interpret words..."no withering" and "no oxidation" would actually exclude all white teas. In most usage that I've seen, "withering" refers to the normal drying process used to produce all white tea. And all white teas, including silver needle, are a tiny bit more oxidized than green teas, because they are allowed to dry naturally rather than being heated to stop all oxidation, as green teas are. This is why green teas have a more vibrant green color than white teas. The definition refers to white teas being "fired or steamed and then dried", but this specification sounds more like the processing of green tea, and this part of the definition would include green teas made from tips or leaf buds.
• (This is my biggest criticism of the definition) The "plucked tender shoots (buds)" part of the definition would leave a number of teas, such as shou mei, without a clear way of being classified as any type of tea other than just "tea".

I'm not even a member of this Tea Association, and I have no standing or authority to do so, but I vote no on this definition! Send it back to the drawing board and come back with a new definition!

Harney and Sons Guide to Tea:

Another source that carries some degree of authority is the Harney and Sons Guide to Tea; written by Michael Harney (of Harney and Sons), a major and well-respected figure in the tea community. This book has a wealth of information about tea, is well-written, and is accessible to newcomers in the tea world. How does this book define white tea? Although the book does not set out a clear definition of white tea in one place, the book talks as if there is a well-accepted definition, and from various quotes we can piece together what this definition might be. Both of these quotes are from page 19 of the book:

White tea buds are plucked and "withered" or "air dried"...

Consisting only of buds, white teas...

This remark seems to be going even further down the line of the "white tea must consist of tender shoot and leaf buds" definition that I have seen in a number of sources. "Consisting only of buds" would exclude certain teas that nearly everyone would agree is a white tea, including white peony / bai mu dan. In fact, this fact highlights an inconsistency in this book, for later, Michael Harney goes on to write a section on mai mu dan, in which he unambiguously writes from a place that Bai Mu Tan is a white tea, yet he acknowledges (p, 28):

...Bai Mu Dan also includes some mature tea leaves.

To be more accurate, there are some white teas, such as silver needle, which consist only of buds, just as there are some black teas, like Yunnan Golden Buds (dianhong jinya/滇紅金芽) which do as well. But this attribute does not define or characterize white teas as a whole.

Perhaps I am an odd sort of person, having studied so much mathematics that I want things to be logically consistent. But I do care about consistency, and I would like to encourage as many people as possible to question their definitions, and embrace definitions that do not have these sorts of problems. Perhaps the problem with Michael Harney's book is that it never clearly defines white tea, because I suspect, given Michael Harney's level of knowledge, that if he sat down and thought about this matter, he would be able to come up with a definition that did not have any of these contradictions or drawbacks.

How to define classes of teas?

So I don't claim to have all the answers, but I personally believe that a good definition for a class of tea (black, green, white, oolong, yellow, etc.) is:

• Consistent.
• Simple.
• Based on production process, not particular cultivar, not appearance or color of the cup or leaf, and certainly not flavor.
• General or flexible enough to encompass diverse traditions, to encourage innovation within the category (including styles of white tea that may not have been invented yet), and to leave out as few "problem teas" as possible.

I'm not proposing any definitions here. You can read what I have on RateTea's page on white tea. I don't claim to like my own definition; if you check the site frequently, you'll know that that page has changed and evolved as I've researched this topic. I even go back and forth on some teas...is Xue Ya (Snow Buds) a white tea or green tea? What about moonlight white (which I've seen classified as a white tea, black tea, green tea, or Pu-erh). But one thing is for sure...shou mei is a white tea, in my world.

Back to shou mei:

Why do I think this tea, so dark in color, is a white tea? The simple answer is that the production process is more similar to other white teas than to anything else: the leaves are plucked, allowed to wither naturally, and dried. There is a clear continuum of flavor and aroma from shou mei to bai mu dan to bai hao yinzhen (silver needle) and, at least to my palate, it is clear that these teas belong to the same class.

Perhaps a stronger argument is that classifying shou mei in any other category becomes more problematic. It's clearly not a black tea, there is no bruising and full oxidation process, even though it is more oxidized, and although it's dark in color, it does not remotely resemble any black teas in aroma. It also does not closely resemble green tea...it's not immediately heated the way green teas are, and it tends to retain no more green color than other white teas, and its aroma and flavor have almost none of the characteristic qualities of typical green teas. It's oolong-like in character, and shares the partial-oxidation with these teas, but there is little else that that would qualify it as an oolong. If forced into one of these categories, I can see it being treated as a green tea or oolong tea, but I think most people would agree that this wasn't a very accurate classification.

And because shou mei is not made primarily out of tips or leaf buds, a definition of white tea cannot be limited to "tippy" teas.

What do you think?

I would encourage you to propose your own definition of white tea. I don't really know how to define it, and I'd like to refine and improve on the definition I have on RateTea. The purpose of this post is mainly to step on some toes and provoke some discussion, but also to invite criticism of my own definitions and articles with the goal of refining my own definitions.

And...if you're one of those people who likes the narrower definitions of white tea, limiting it to only include teas with a large portion of tips / leaf buds, could you please answer my question: how the heck would you classify shou mei?

Gyokuro: How Does It Make You Feel?

This morning I am drinking gyokuro, or to be more specific, Organic Gyokuro from Upton Tea, which is incidentally made in China. This tea is interesting for me on several levels. For one, it's a Japanese style of tea, made in China. I'm certainly no gyokuro expert, and I can't really testify to its authenticity or being true to the style, but I will say that I think this is a pretty good tea. But in this post, I don't want to focus on the way this tea tastes, or the question of whether China can produce high-quality gyokuro, but rather, the way this style of tea makes me feel.

How does it make you feel?

I actually love questions like "How does it make you feel?", and I have an amusing story about it. When I was at Oberlin college, I had a math professor, Robert Young, who taught Linear Algebra (a subject I initially found both hard and boring) and he somehow made it seem poetic and dramatic. It got better when I took Advanced Calculus from the same professor. He would write a theorem on the board, and then stop and ask, in a very loud voice: "So, how does this make you feel?" On some level, it was hilarious...some people approach mathematics as a dry subject, logical, precise, emotionless. But to many mathematicians, it is not like this...it is more like art, poetry, or music...full of passion and emotion. Some theorems seem strange, often utterly ridiculous. Others seem really cool or exciting. Often, the exciting ones are ones that outline deep or useful connections between seemingly disparate branches of math or mathematical structures, so in a sense, our emotions can guide us towards deeper discoveries and understanding.

In mathematics, I found that asking the question: "How does this make me feel?" allowed me to tap into this hidden mental ability of intuition that I had...allowing me to guide my logic. I started seeing the logic as superfluous, the icing on the cake, or perhaps just a path through a jungle of symbols and equations, whereas underlying everything was a core idea, a sort of spiritual truth or destination, and it was emotion and intuition that allowed me to distill the essence of the truth, and find that path through the jungle.

Back to tea:

So, in short, I find that asking how something makes me feel is often a path to insight or truth. Why is this important with tea? Tea is something that we drink, it's a mixture of chemicals that we put in our body, and it affects our mind and body both through its chemistry and through the mental processes set in motion by our experience of drinking it. And it's important for us to reflect on how tea makes us feel because it may make us feel better, and it may make us feel worse. This feeling may depend on what tea we are drinking, and what state our bodies and minds are in to begin with.

It is important to ask this question because asking it allows us to take care of our bodies by giving our bodies what they need and avoiding things that may be harmful or stressful.

On Gyokuro:

Gyokuro is an interesting style of tea because it is one that I did not particularly like at first. I initially found it to be too vegetal for my tastes. But I paid attention to the way I felt after drinking it and I realized that I enjoy the way it makes me feel. It just seems to make me feel good, in a sort of centering way, a little bit like meditation does. I think this slowly started making me like it a bit more. I think I now like it at least as much as other styles of green tea, if not slightly more. I think this process of tasting and sampling, followed by reflection on how we feel is actually part of the process of forming acquired tastes.

What affects how gyokuro makes one feel? I have read in numerous sources that gyokuro is high in caffeine among teas, although I have not found a single source I truly trust on this matter, so as far as I'm concerned, this observation is still speculative. I have seen reliable sources, however, which say that gyokuro has about twice as much L-theanine as typical for tea. Theanine is not well understood, but it is known to interact with caffeine as well as to play some role in promoting relaxation. Does this explain gyokuro's positive, centering effects? Possibly. But it's hard to say for sure. All I can say with certainty is that I can try individual teas and find which ones I enjoy more...both in terms of their flavor and their effect on my mind and body.

How about you?

Do you gain insight into your life by asking yourself how various things make you feel, physically, or emotionally? Do you like gyokuro...the way it tastes, or the way it makes you feel? What teas make you feel the best?

Yunnan Gold: More Expensive. Better?

This weekend I attended World Tea East, and it was wonderful. I hope to write more about this event soon, but for now, I've been catching up on more routine tasks, including reading blog posts that I was behind on well before attending the expo.

One recent blog post that struck me as notable was Lahikmajoe's post you pay more for appearance. If you haven't yet read this, I recommend at least glancing at it, as it will make this post make more sense. This post talks about the appearance of tippy Assam teas. A comment on the post then brings up Yunnan Gold or Golden Yunnan teas, a tippy type of Dian Hong or Yunnan Red, the style of black tea produced in China's Yunnan Province. In the spirit of this subject, and in case you don't know where Yunnan province is, here is a map of China with the province colored in a rich golden color:



When I first started sampling and researching Yunnan teas, I was under the impression that all tips were golden in black teas, and that the golden color corresponded in a fairly straightforward way to the portion of buds. According to the post above and the conversation it references, this correspondence is not so simple. I had seen tippy Assam with golden tips as well, and I had read that the Yunnan Pure Gold teas were made exclusively of tips. But if you are a Yunnan enthusiast, as I am becoming (the more of these teas I try, the more this becomes one of my favorite styles), or if you are experienced with trying a wide range of tippy black teas, you will likely know from experience that the golden color does not always correspond perfectly to the portion of tips, nor to the character or quality of the tea.

But it does seem to correspond fairly well to price, which begs the question:

Does Golden = Better?

I was curious to see if I had been roped into the idea of golden = better, so I looked back to my recent ratings and reviews on RateTea to find some Yunnan Gold teas that I had tried recently. The three teas I most recently sampled, starting with the most recent, were Adagio's Yunnan Gold, Life in Teacup's Yunnan Golden Bud, and Rishi Tea's Golden Yunnan. These links will take you to my reviews.

Keep in mind, these companies also sell other Yunnan teas (Rishi has a less golden and more golden one), so I'm not necessarily comparing teas of similar grades. But that's the point. These three teas are pictured from left to right, Adagio's, then Life in Teacup's, then Rishi's:



These photos were not taken side-by-side. Although the lighting and composition of these photographs is obviously different, and it's hard to get an exact comparison of the way the leaf looked, I will say that having seen all of these teas up-close, Rishi's looks the least golden of them, as the picture suggests, and the other two teas are similar in color and appearance.

Interestingly, Rishi's got the highest rating from me. The other two I gave identical ratings. In my review, I noted when trying Adagio's that I think I prefer the darker teas somewhat.

How do they compare by price?

Rishi's is $4.00 an ounce, or $14.75 a quarter pound. Adagio's is 1.5 ounces for $12. Life in Teacup's is $7.99 an ounce. It looks pretty clear...golden is more expensive. And at least from my limited sample size, I do not necessarily prefer the golden color, and at this point, I do not think it is worth paying for. This impression may change as I sample more teas and/or as my palate develops, but for now, I'm thinking it's at least possible that this golden color is more for show than anything else, and does not adequately reflect higher quality as manifested in the flavor and aroma of the brewed tea.

What do you think? I'd be curious to hear your opinions and experiences on this matter.

RSS Feeds of Tea Reviews: My Reviews and Others

On my last post Shaia who reviews teas at Teaviews remarked that she enjoys when I post reviews on this blog because she doesn't check RateTea as often as blogs.

I definitely put a lot more effort into RateTea than I do into this blog, as it was in the beginning, is now, and shall be forever. So I wanted to draw some attention to features on RateTea that would be of interest to people who enjoy reading tea reviews:

Review Feeds:

RateTea has a series of RSS feeds for reviews. There's an old news item about RSS feeds on RateTea.com. As a quick summary:

• For people who enjoy reading lots of reviews, there is a master feed for the site. The amount of reviews here is currently manageable but if the site grows much more it could quickly become unmanageable!


• Each user or reviewer has a feed. You can read all my latest reviews in my review feed.


• There are also feeds on the pages for each style of tea and each brand or tea company. You can thus subscribe to feeds of reviews of teas from your favorite company (or if you work for a company, watch people reviewing your own products!) as well as subscribing to feeds of styles of tea that you enjoy, down to a very high level of specificity. For example, you could subscribe to all oolong tea or green tea reviews, or limit yourself to something more specialized, like only kukicha reviews, or only reviews of dancong oolong.

These feeds can be subscribed to like a blog, and will send you all new reviews rolling in, according to whichever feed you subscribed to. Enjoy!

Tea and Orchids

This post was inspired by a post by Verna L. Hamilton, Worth the Wait - Tea and Orchids.

I find the pairing between tea and orchids to be rather interesting and rich, with more connections than I initially realized. Something about the orchid aroma is particularly evocative. The scent of orchids is light and delicate, but at the same time it somehow grabs the attention. It can even at times be intoxicating.

I have a long familiarity with the fragrance of orchids. My first memory of them is the orchid room at Longwood Gardens, a botanical garden in Kennett Square, PA. Now, I often work from my laptop in Saxby's coffee shop in Newark, Delaware. The owner's wife is an orchid enthusiast and the shop is filled with a diversity of beautiful orchids, such as those pictured here:



The orchids in the above photograph are not particularly fragrant. Many have no detectable scent. However, one orchid in the shop is so strongly aromatic that I often notice it when I'm sitting quite far from it:



Flowers like the one pictured above are the source of the familiar "orchid" fragrance, which closely relates to the aroma of many types of tea.

Distinct "Orchid" Fragrances in Tea:

Many cultivars of tea plant and styles of tea, such as qi lan, have been developed over years to imitate the fragrance of orchids. I must say, some of them are quite convincing, and the ones that do not resemble actual orchids are often still often very pleasing.

There are a number of distinct "orchid aromas" associated with various teas. Gingko Seto of Life in Teacup has a fascinating blog post, meng ding snow orchid, in which she explains about the orchid aroma associated with certain green teas.

I find many of the greener oolongs, including some Tie Guan Yin and some Taiwanese oolongs such as Dong Ding, often resemble orchids to some degree in their aroma. It was so pronounced that once at a dance, I danced with someone wearing orchid perfume and the first thought that popped into my head was...this person smells like that tea I drank earlier today, could she possibly be wearing tea-scented perfume? But I realized in a second that this was probably not the case: more likely it was an orchid fragrance, and the tea had been imitating the orchid, not the other way around.

The orchid aroma associated with orchid-like greener oolongs is certainly very different from the orchid aroma of the "orchid" green teas. Yet another tea with a different sort of orchid aroma was the Mt. Wu Dong Honey Orchid Dancong Oolong I recently tried, courtesy of Life in Teacup. This tea was orchid-like, but was a much darker oolong, distinct from both the greener oolongs and green teas.

I personally find the green oolongs to resemble actual orchids much more closely than green teas or dark oolongs like dancong or a dark qi lan. However, I find all of these types of "orchid tea" to be quite delightful.

How do you perceive the fragrance of orchids, and what has been your experience with "orchid" teas?

Honest Naming Schemes for Tea: Style & Region

Verity Fisher of joie : de : tea just shared a blog post "So...What would YOU call it?" that got me thinking about how you name tea. This post also links back to an older post which poses similar questions about naming sencha. The big question raised in these posts that I'd like to focus on is the question of whether or not it's okay (in the sense of legitimate or honest) to call something sencha if it's not from Japan. This question could be posed for a number of different types of tea, but I think sencha is a particularly key example.

Sencha is a style of tea, not wedded to any particular region:

Unlike Keemun or Pu-erh, which are both named after particular counties in China, sencha is a neutral, simple name which refers to the style of tea, not its region of production. Sencha is produced throughout Japan, in all the major regions of Japan in which tea is grown. Teas in the style of sencha are now produced in a number of other countries: mostly China, but also Vietnam, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, and even small amounts in Australia and Brazil. Sencha is a Japanese style of tea, but it's not necessarily Japanese tea.

Is it honest to market non-Japanese sencha as sencha?

I believe that it is fine to call sencha from countries other than Japan by the name sencha, if the origin of the tea is clearly identified. If, on the other hand, you simply sell sencha, there is an implicit assumption that the tea is from Japan because sencha is a Japanese style and is most frequently identified with Japan and not China or any other country. Is this sort of practice outright dishonest? Perhaps not, but it is a lie of omission. I also think it is more than a bit shady if a company boldly labels tea as "Sencha" and then places a small "Origin: China" or some other country in small print, discreetly, on the back of the label. I have seen this frequently.

What is worse is tea sold as "Japanese sencha" which actually originates elsewhere. Businesses may be able to cover their metaphorical legal rear end by the claim that they mean "Japanese-style sencha", but I think this practice has overstepped ethical bounds even if it is still within legal bounds (and my intuition is that they may be exposing themselves legally as well).

How does RateTea handle this?

RateTea sets out to clearly separate style and region, not just for sencha but for all teas. As an example, we list sencha as a style of tea, and identify, when possible, the region of origin of each individual tea. And if you really only want to look at Japanese teas, you can use the filtering options on the search, or you can start from our page on Japan as a tea-growing region and either list the sencha's from there or hone your search down to a specific prefecture first.

Chinese tea is delicious, and there's nothing wrong with sencha produced in China or elsewhere. And there's nothing wrong with labelling it as sencha: it is just important to clearly and boldly identify where it originates so that there is no possibility of confusion.

More on Brewing Temperature

I see a lot of figures on brewing temperature. I was reading a post on tea happiness about brewing temperature, and that post referenced an older post about brewing temperature on World of Tea. Another page I found is TeaSource's page on Preparing Tea. I found myself wanting to quibble a bit with some of the advice presented on these pages (and virtually everywhere). I of course maintain RateTea's page on Brewing Tea.

My main quibble is that I think people overemphasize exact temperatures, and underestimate personal taste preferences, experimentation, and the process of learning. I also think, at least compared to what I like, which is likely not what you like, is that I have found people tend to chronically under-estimate optimal brewing temperatures. On average, I like steeping it hot, although there's one exception that I'll mention below.



Yes, I have used a beverage thermometer to check my temperatures. But you do not need one if you just want to drink tea or brew it for others! The only reason that I bought (and use) this thermometer is so that I can get an objective read on temperature for sharing with others when I write reviews or post on this blog on on other sites.

Some Observations I've Made about Brewing Temperature:

Figures are given in Fahrenheit; a useful tool in case you're curious may be this Fahrenheit to Celsius Converter.

• The temperature of the vessel you're pouring into is important in determining the brewing temperature: if you don't warm it up ahead of time, the water will immediately cool down as it enters the vessel.
• Looking at the bubbles forming on the bottom of the pot or kettle can be a reliable way to assess temperature, but only after you've gotten to know each pot. I have two similar-looking Revereware pots, and one of them forms bubbles at a lower temperature than the other; I don't have a good understanding of why. This caused me to brew some green teas with water that was too hot, the first few times I used this pot to heat water. The bubble formation also depends on how I'm heating the pot--I had to relearn the bubbles as I moved and went from a gas to electric stove.
• I find that people tend to underestimate the temperatures required for brewing tea properly, at least, according to my own tastes. I find that this is particularly true of white tea, which I tend to find less sensitive to high temperatures than green tea, but also true of green and oolong tea, and some Darjeeling black tea.
• Green teas I find to be most sensitive to brewing temperatures, and, along with Darjeeling oolongs, the only teas that will ever be outright unpleasant if brewed with water that is too hot. But even then, there are some green teas that are drinkable when brewed with boiling water. One thing that I have read about that I have found rings true in my own experience is that Gyokuro demands lower-temperature water than other green tea. But I find that even with green teas, people's estimates for optimal temperatures seem to be on the low side. I think 160F for a typical green tea is too low, unless you want a very mild cup. 180F is the target I shoot for, but 160 for Gyokuro.
• A lot of oolongs don't taste good to me unless you brew them with boiling or near-boiling water. A lot of sites recommend 190 or a range of 190-200. I think 190 is too low. This has even been true for me of many greener oolongs. Most oolongs, when I brew them at 190, strike me as bland. An exception are Darjeeling oolongs, which I find typically demand a lower temperature, often to the point of being unpleasant or even undrinkable if they're brewed with boiling water. With a Darjeeling oolong I aim for 160-180F for starters.

What happens when the temperature is "wrong" or "off"?

This varies hugely based on both the type of tea and the individual tea. Trends I've noticed:

• Pan-fired green teas often become extremely harsh: bitter, sour, and astringent, if brewed with water that is too hot. The most sensitive teas in this arena have been the ones with a smoky aroma (strong or slight), such as chun mee or gunpowder. Of all the things that can go wrong based on brewing temperature, this one is the worst, as it often renders the cup undrinkable to me.
• Steamed green teas often look different if brewed with water that is too hot. They often obtain an unpleasant "overcooked vegetable" aroma. In my opinion, compared to the pan-fired teas, they are more drinkable when they go wrong in this manner, but some can still be unpleasant or undrinkable.
• Darjeeling oolongs become both harsh and obtain the overcooked vegetable aroma if brewed with water that is too hot. These teas can become highly undrinkable.
• Black and oolong tea brewed with water that is too cool often seems very bland and with a weak, flat aroma. However, it's never undrinkable, just bland.
• Some white tea can obtain the "overcooked vegetable" aroma if brewed with water that is too hot, but some can also be too bland if brewed with water that is too cool.
• A few teas, including green, white, and some oolongs, lose some complexity to their aroma when the water is too hot, even if they do not acquire any unpleasant characteristics. I find that the teas for which this is the case are a tiny minority of the teas that are out there. More often, though, complexity is lost if the water is too cool--the reason to avoid hot water usually is that it results in unpleasant characteristics into the aroma or flavor that you would rather avoid.

What do you think? What are your experiences with brewing temperature? How do they agree with, or deviate from, the mainstream advice you find floating around out there?

Brewing Darjeeling Oolongs

I've been fascinated by the concept of Darjeeling Oolong from the first time I heard of it. In general, I like the idea of separating the style of a tea (as defined by its production process) from the region of production, and this separation is a key driving philosophy behind how I've designed RateTea.

RateTea's listings of oolongs are not a good indicator of the total quantity of global production of teas from different regions, but it is a coarse indicator of the visibility of these varieties of tea in the western world. Ranking the number of teas listed from various regions we see China and Taiwan leading the way, and India is a follow-up, with all but one tea, a lone Nilgiri oolong, being produced in Darjeeling. Darjeeling is emerging as a major oolong-producer, at least, among artisan teas.

But I've found that these teas can be very difficult to brew properly.

How to brew Darjeeling Oolong:

I've heard a lot of critical comments about Darjeeling Oolong, and in fact, I've issued a number of them myself. I have tried a handful now, possibly because I seek them out, out of curiosity, and more often than not, I'm disappointed. But I have made one key observation:

Darjeeling oolongs are best brewed with water significantly below boiling point, as one would brew a green or white tea.

I've found this to be true even of some of the surprisingly dark oolongs, but especially true of the lighter ones, which seem to make up most of what comes out of the Darjeeling region. Why? Unlike some green teas, I find that Darjeeling oolongs rarely become bitter, sour, or astringent. However, I find they often acquire an unpleasant vegetal aroma, like overcooked broccoli, if steeped with water that is too hot. Even when brewed properly though, they are still highly vegetal, but at least, for my tastes, I strongly prefer them when brewed with a lower water temperature.

How about you?

Does this post resonate with your experiences and your tastes? Do you find Darjeeling oolongs to be picky about brewing temperature, and to require lower temperatures than Chinese or Taiwanese oolongs (which can often handle boiling water just fine, even if they are best brewed with water a little below boiling).

Less-Known Teas: Grab Attention With Tea from Unusual Regions & of Unusual Varieties

A discussion on the LeafBox Forums, which is unfortunately no longer available, titled "What do you want from an online tea seller?" got me thinking. When writing my reply, I realized that one thing that draws me to an online retailer of tea (or any tea retailer for that matter) is when the company sells tea from unusual regions, or interesting-looking varieties of tea that I am able to verify are legitimate named varieties of tea, but that I have not heard of.

Unusual Regions:

One such company is Shanti Tea; I have yet to try anything from this company, but their offerings look interesting. Besides selling single-region and single-estate teas from a number of well-known regions, Shanti Tea has some unusual offerings, including tea from Jalpaiguri, India (a district in West Bengal that borders Darjeeling), a green tea from Shandong, China, and even a tea (not an herbal tea) from Guatemala.

I also have noticed that I tend to love green teas from Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. Upton Tea Imports sells a few teas from Thailand and Laos, but these constitute a tiny portion of their offerings.

Unusual Varieties of Tea:

It is no secret that I am a huge fan of the se chung oolongs, including Mao Xie, Ben Shan, Qi Lan, Fo Shou, and Huang Jin Gui. It is so easy to find Tie Guan Yin--to the point that I virtually ignore it when I see a Tie Guan Yin offered by a tea company--it doesn't get my attention. Any of the se chung oolongs immediately grab my attention because they are hard to find, and from my experience, even though they are regarded as "less desirable" than Tie Guan yin, they are generally only sold by companies that have a distinct focus on high-quality Chinese oolongs. Part of this is because they aren't well-known...so they have no value when dropped as a buzzword.

I also think there are other teas like this. I've generally had good experiences with various styles of Chinese green teas that are not well-known as well. I also like Yunnan greens, which again, seem to take a back burner to Pu-erh and even to Dian Hong (Yunnan red) like Yunnan Gold.

The same goes for scented and flavored teas. Most tea companies sell an Earl Grey and a Jasmine, but it's harder to find Osmanthus-scented tea (which I absolutely love). Also, some of the unusual blends, including plants and flavorings I've never heard of, can grab my attention, such as Teatulia's blend of black tea with the Neem tree. Another example would be Chicago Tea Garden's pu-erhs, which include several scented pu-erhs that stand out among the typical offerings.

Break out of the pattern:

Perhaps most tea drinkers aren't like me...and perhaps some tea companies need to cater to the masses by carrying mainstream and widely-known teas that everyone is looking for. But I know that I appreciate it when tea companies offer something genuinely unusual and different. Perhaps if more people sought out to experiment with trying tea from new varieties and regions, it could create a strong impetus for all tea companies to diversify.

Dragon Well: Style or Region of Tea?

Again I am inspired by one of the posts from Gingko at Life in Teacup: Discussion on Long Jing (2).

Is Dragon well (Lung Ching / Long Jing) just a style of tea or is it wedded to a particular region, like Pu-erh? (Pu-erh is named after a county; technically, the style of Pu-erh could be called hei cha--"black" tea, or post-fermented tea). I think it is ultimately good for tea producers and for the interest of sustainability and promoting and preserving local tea cultures to distinguish the notion of style and region in order to allow the non-controversial marketing, distribution, sampling, and purchase of teas of one style produced in many different regions.

Dragon Well originated in Zhejiang province, whose location is shown on the map below: (public domain image from Wikipedia, thanks to Joowwww).



But, as Gingko and many others have pointed out, you can find tea labeled as Dragon well from other provinces as well. Also, within Zhejiang, dragon well is produced in many different areas. According to Gingko's post, the tea produced in Hangzhou has been considered more desirable over the years.

What is "authentic"?

I think it can be problematic to say that a tea of one style produced in a different region is not "authentic". If the name of a tea refers to the style and not the region, such a label is incorrect. Is Vietnamese Sencha not sencha? What about Tie Guan Yin from Nantou? Or Ceylon Young Hyson? These are all examples I've tried...and I picked them because I all think they are outstanding teas...and they are all radically different from their counterparts from the original regions that produced these styles.

I love tasting how the aroma and flavor varies across different regions, even for tea produced according to the same or similar processes. I think that being able to make these comparisons is good both for preserving local tea traditions and for encouraging the creation of new ones. I also think that it improves people's sophistication...fitting in with the whole premise of the slow food movement, something I have been becoming more a fan of lately.

I think the ideal way to handle these things is to draw attention to where each style originated, but, except in the cases where the name refers directly to a region (such as Pu-erh) to refrain from judgments or value-statements like "authentic" or "fake". A term like "original" is a lot more descriptive. The naming scheme for some Chinese teas already incorporates both style and region. For example, mao feng green tea is grown in different regions; Huang shan mao feng is mao feng from yellow mountain in Anhui, whereas Wuyi mao feng is tea produced in the same style from the Wuyi mountains, and Ilam mao feng is produced in Ilam, Nepal.

How do Shoppers React to Accusations of "Fake" Teas?

Everyone is different, so I can't predict others' responses, but I can at least share how I react. When I read writing on a tea company website that makes disparaging comments about teas from other provinces, my first reaction is skepticism. One question immediately pops into my head: "Why do these people have a bone to pick?"

It is obvious that the vendors of tea from the original region feel threatened by similar products from other regions. But why respond with negativity? Negativity shows weakness and a lack of confidence. If they want to make their product stand out, though, they can do so by one simple method: push for accurate labelling of place of production. If a certain region is superior, and labelling is accurate, people will soon realize this and the producers in this region will be secure. Throwing around disparaging comments about teas being "fake" just because they originated in a different region communicates that the seller feels threatened--which communicates that, deep down, they are worried that their product might not be superior as they claim. Why send this message? All it will do is make fewer people want to buy the product.

I think a more positive response is that which Gingko has taken--put more information out there about the tea. I also think that, by questioning the notion that Hangzhou Dragon Well is necessarily superior, and pointing out that many tasters cannot correctly identify the region of production, Gingko demonstrates a critical mind--which immediately cuts through the B.S. and talking up of their product that some tea companies are guilty of. At least as far as I'm concerned, this makes me feel more comfortable buying a product.

So why talk up your product? Just put accurate info out there and it'll speak for itself!

Ten of China's Underappreciated Teas

Inspired by a recent post on the Life in Teacup blog, China's Famous Teas Top 10 - Money and Power?, I decided to create my own Top 10 Chinese teas list. There are lots of different "China Famous Teas" (中国名茶) or "Ten Great Chinese Teas" (中国十大名茶) lists floating around out there...interesting analysis on Wikipedia of which teas appear on how many of these lists, by the way.

But this is a different sort of Top 10...most of these teas would not make it onto any of these lists. This is a list of everyday teas for everyday people...including many inexpensive teas, some considered as "low-grade" teas. And yet, in my opinion, all these teas offer exceptional value and are often surprisingly high in quality relative to their price, especially if you can locate the right source / vendor. This list is rather arbitrary...I may wake up tomorrow and realize I omitted an important tea, or I may discover a new tea in a few weeks that belongs here...but I just wanted to get this post out there:

1. Shou Mei (寿眉) - meaning "Longevity Eyebrows", this is often considered a "low" or inexpensive grade of white tea. It is dark in flavor and more oolong-like. It is my personal favorite style of white tea.


2. Chun Mee (珍眉) - meaning "Precious Eyebrows". The highest grade of young hyson tea, this is nonetheless an inexpensive green tea. It has a tangy flavor which, while undesired by some, is much appreciated by others.


3. Gunpowder Tea (珠茶) - A green tea rolled tightly into small pellets, with a strong smoky quality. Although it ranges widely in price, there are good gunpowder teas that are available for an incredibly low price. To give you an idea of how low, I once bought some very good gunpowder in NYC's Chinatown for $7/pound. The top grades of gunpowder are still very affordable.


4. Se Chung (色种) Oolong - Often overshadowed by Tie Guan Yin, Se Chung is not one particular variety, but rather, a family of oolongs from Anxi county, where Tie Guan Yin also originated. The Se Chung oolongs include Huang Jin Gui, Mao Xie, Benshan, and Qilan, among others. Many of them offer outstanding value. I was almost tempted to break this category up and list more of the individual varieties of se chung oolongs, but I only did this for one.


5. Qi lan(奇兰) Oolong - One of the Se Chung oolongs, I broke this one out into its own category because it seems most different from the others and also most distinct from other oolongs, and also because it a varietal grown both in Anxi and the Wuyi mountains. Dark, heavily oxidized forms of this oolong, from Wuyi, are very sweet and mild, fruity, floral, nutty. The greener forms, more common in Anxi, are orchid-like in fragrance, but with their own distinct twist, rather unlike Tie Guan Yin. Something about this varietal is atypical for me in that I tend to like bitter teas and dislike sweet ones, but I enjoy this one greatly. I also find that among the se chung varietals, this one tends to offer one of the most intense floral experiences for a one of the most reasonable prices.


6. Young Sheng (Green or "raw") Pu-Erh - While aged pu-erh often fetches a high price, young sheng pu-erh tends to be very inexpensive. If you like strong teas, you might actually prefer the younger cakes of sheng pu-erh to aged ones--they have considerably more bitterness (which I like very much) and can be astonishingly complex in aroma relative to their price.


7. Lapsang Souchong (拉普山小種) - This black tea is dried over pine fires; the pine smoke imparts a strong and unique smoky aroma, whereas the tea itself is mellow in flavor. People tend to have strong opinions on this one; a favorite of many, others avoid it like the plague.


8. Keemun (祁门) - While Keemun can reach into the most expensive and highly regarded teas, especially Keemun Hao Ya and Keemun Mao Feng, and Keemun actually makes some of the lists of China Famous Teas, there are nevertheless many outstanding Keemuns available for reasonable prices. I added Keemun to this list because I think the Keemuns that do not bear the Hao Ya and Mao Feng labels often are dismissed as inferior quality, and to some degree, Keemuns from Hubei (rather than Anhui, the true origin of Keemuns) are also sometimes dismissed...but Keemuns are incredibly diverse and I think many of the lower-priced ones are outstanding teas, worthy of more attention and appreciation.


9. Jasmine Tea - Not a pure tea, but with a long history, this tea is usually made from a pouchong / baozhong base tea scented with Jasmine flowers...often described as perfumey, this is another love-it-or-leave-it tea.


10. Rose-scented Tea - I initially resisted including a second scented tea in this list, but I think China's traditionally-scented floral teas are really outstanding, and, for the most part, put western flavored and blended teas to shame. Both green and black teas are frequently scented with rose, and the result is highly floral, but can hardly be said to resemble Jasmine tea at all. Rose is a powerful, surprisingly sharp aroma, holding its own with (and often dominating) even strong black teas. It also blends well with the floral element in some of the higher-quality black teas.

I would encourage other people to make up their own "Top 10" lists. Gingko of Life in Teacup pointed out that there is a (potentially ugly) money and power side to the official top 10 lists. By taking things into our own hands and creating our own lists, especially when we do our best to draw attention to under-appreciated teas, we help combat the forces of entrenched interests, and encourage diversity in the world of tea.

Four Herbal Teas You May Not Know About

From my garden in Delaware:

It's late march here in Delaware, and we've had lots of wet, warm weather, interspersed by a frost here and there, but that's not enough to discourage the numerous plants in the mint family adapted to humid temperate climates: these plants have been growing vigorously and will soon have enough leaves to make the first batches of herbal tea of the year. I took a few pictures of the new foliage of perennial herbs that I use for herbal tea.

These are only a few of the many herbs in my garden; I thought to highlight these as they're all a little outside of the mainstream things that you typically find for sale as herbal teas. They're all easy to grow and, in my opinion they're all outstanding--people who haven't tried them are missing out!

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Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) is a plant in the mint family that makes a delicious tea. Its aroma is lemony, similar in many respects to lemongrass but gentler. Not only is this a very pleasing herb, but there is also some evidence it has antibacterial, antiviral, and stress-reducing properties.

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Monarda sp. (wild bergamot, Oswego tea, bee-balm) are aptly named. These plants, native to North America, have colorful flowers that attract bees, and the leaves make an outstanding herbal tea that closely resembles the aroma of the unrelated bergamot orange used in Earl Grey tea. They are useful for infusion on their own, mixing with other herbs, or blending with black tea to make something that resembles Earl Grey tea.

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Orange mint (Mentha citrata or Mentha x piperita L. var. citrata) is a cultivar of peppermint, which is a hybrid mint of spearmint and water mint. It has been bred for a citrus-like aroma, and while it looks a lot like peppermint, the similarity ends there.

I find this mint to make an outstanding herbal tea with a rich aroma; it also makes a very welcome addition to mint tea blends, adding considerable depth and complexity. Its strength makes it hold its own in blends with black teas. It is also more basil-like in aroma and I find makes a useful substitute for basil in the early spring and late fall when temperatures are too cold to have basil outdoors.

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I also tried planting something new:

Pineapple sage (Salvia elegans) is a plant native to high-elevation scrub forests in the mountains of Mexico and Guatemala. Its bright red, tubular flowers attract hummingbirds. The leaves make a sweet, aromatic tea strongly suggesting of pineapple; there is evidence from studies on mice that the herb may have antidepressant and anti-anxiety properties.

This herb is an annual in cold temperate climates, but it can take some cold. I'm hoping it's not too early to plant here in Delaware; I bought it from a local nursery that has been growing it outdoors in an unheated greenhouse, and those high altitudes in Mexico can get pretty cold. I planted it in a warm, dry part of the garden, close to the building in order to simulate its natural habitat more closely...we'll see how it does!