The second annual Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG) Tea Festival happened this past weekend (4 and 5 November 2017) in Burlington, Ontario and we were happy to be there, having a great time and sipping tea with everyone who was there! We met with a bunch of our friends in the tea industry and made some new one. As an online boutique, we love festivals because it gives us a ...

As a tea lover, you have probably heard of different types of tea, especially the popular ones like black tea or green tea. For the advanced tea enthusiasts, it seems to be quite basic to know that there are 6 tea categories: green tea, white tea, yellow tea, oolong tea, black tea, dark tea. But what do these tea categories really mean? What ...

Wuyi Yancha or rock tea is a collective name for the oolong teas that comes from the Wuyi region. Located in the north of Fujian Province, China, the Wuyi area is famous for its unique geography – The Danxia Landform. This undulating and sometimes spiky landscape makes for phenomenal scenery but what’s more, it also creates an incredible environment for tea ...

This is a little quiz I saw online couple of days ago. I found it quite interesting and shared it with the tea community through social media. The question is simple, based on the two pictures of  Wuyi Yancha  (rock tea) below same cultivar, can you tell which tea is better? And feel free to take a guess about the cultivar as well.

Tea A or Tea B?

Of course, the ...

Today is Mr. Zhang Tianfu’s 107th birthday. It’s a name that is rarely mentioned in the western tea world, but almost every Chinese tea person knows him. Some people call him the modern tea sage and that is not an exaggeration. Every time you sip a cup of delicious oolong, you should think of this man. That cup of tea exists because of his massive contribution.

For more than 80 years, he ...

Our tea trip was not a typical sourcing trip. We don’t need to go to China to source tea. With over 20 years of experience with farmers and producers all over China and the connections of our tea consultant Jianli Wu, we know who is making good tea and we can find it and have it sent to us. We embark on tea trips to deepen our knowledge of tea processing and to share the ...

Tie Guan Yin is so popular that for many, it was their introduction to oolong teas, and it is one of the most famous Chinese teas. You might know this tea under the names such as Ti Kuan Yin (Cantonese pronunciation), Iron Goddess of Mercy (direct English translations), and other forms. Rising from a well-known local oolong tea to become a ...

My experience with good tea, and I mean pinnacle tea – top notch stuff, usually goes one of two ways. The first and more obvious reaction is one of amazement after the first sip. The other, more subtle reaction, is that there’s ‘nothing special’ about the tea when having it. The taste is great but it doesn’t knock you off your feet… until you go back to other teas in ...

Affected by the coffee culture in North America, individual farmers are often preferred by tea drinkers. However, I think big factories and companies that are guided and even driven by a true love for tea are better for the healthy development of China’s tea industry.

Fenghuang Dan Cong has been gaining its fame rapidly in recent years. However, it has traditionally ...

This post was inspired by one of the tastings we had in Menghai, Yunnan Province. A friend of ours brought over a few teas for us to try, and one of them was the very famous Laobanzhang. Laobanzhang is the name of a village deep in the Bulang mountains. The pu’er from that region is renowned for its powerful flavour – relatively more bitter and astringent. This rich content gives it ...

Testing a Hypothesis

One thing we were to eager to do during this visit to Yunnan was to experiment with sheng pu’er process. We want to put some controls around the different processes and taste the differences over time.

The way to process sheng pu’er now is wither (wei diao), kill green (sha qing), rolling (rou nian), and sundry (shai gan). Our questions lie in the ...

An Interesting Twist of Fate

The story of Yunnan Pu’er reminds me of an old Chinese saying, “Thirty years on the east coast, thirty years on the west coast.” This is a tongue in cheek way of saying how unpredictable life and peoples situations can be. The story of Pu’er demonstrates this as an ironic twist of fate lead to the proverbial grasshopper prospering the most for doing ...

Hekai, located in the Bulang Mountains, is one of the biggest ancient tea gardens planted by humans. Almost one third of the Hekai area is covered by tea trees between 200 and 400 years old.

As pu’er became a hot topic for tea lovers all over the globe, pu’er made from ancient tea trees became more highly sought out. This lead to an inundation of buzz ...

 Teapot Shopping

Today, we went to the other side of Guzhu Mountains – Yixing, Jiangsu province. The first thing that comes to most people’s mind when talking about Yixing is Zisha Teapots.

Zisha, directly translated means purple clay, however even an experienced Zisha teapot maker cannot predict final color of the pot from the raw color of the clay. It has to be tested through ...

Constant Innovation in Chinese Tea

Xiamu Shan is located in the Changxing/Anji area. Strictly speaking, it’s an area for Zi Sun tea, however, the trend of Anji Bai Cha in the nation pushes the local tea farmer to increase the growing of the bai cha cultivar.

The producer we visited showed us a few new teas they have for this year besides their traditional green tea: ...

A Glimpse of Royal Tea Garden in Tang Dynasty

This visit was a Museum / shrine to Lu Yu and to the Emperial Tea Garden from the Tang Dynasty. The museum had a modest admission fee but the experience of seeing how tea was processed during the Tang Dynasty and the beauty and splendor of the architecture made this stop a beautiful choice.

This series of statues ...

A Beautiful Region

Bi Luo Chun is grown in an amazing beautiful part of the planet. The four seasons are clearly defined, yet there are no extremes. The tea bushes grow in a bio-diverse environment among fruit trees such as loquat, orange, peach, apricot and plum. Locals only use rabbit buttons as fertilizer because this improves the quality of loquat, which is a major source of income ...

Morning “Brake”

Despite finishing quite late the night before, we were up around 6 am the next day. After breakfast, we got back to work ‘sifting’ the tea, a manual process where imperfect leaves are removed from the tea. This step is time consuming and hence expensive, but it’s not just to improve the appearance of the tea, it also improves the flavour. For these teas, the ...

Up the Mountain

As you can imagine, tea making is hard work. Starting with some morning exercise climbing the mountain. This leg of the journey saw Zhen and Jianli in Dengchong village in Anhui Province, a well known locale for yellow tea. Mr. Li is our friend and guide and his dedication to the authentic process for creating Yellow Tea sets him apart. Yellow tea, you see, is ...

2006 Shu Pu’er – Side by Side Tasting

We tasted a 2006 Lao Cha Tou from a friend alongside another 2006 pu’er from a bing. It became pretty obvious that the 2006 Lao Cha Tou was, unfortunately, a fake. It wasn’t terrible or anything, it just wasn’t what it claimed to be. It wasn’t 10 years old. Having these teas side by side really exposed the age gap. This is something we see ...

Ma Lian Dao is a tea lovers’ paradise! Think West Edmonton Mall or Mall of America meets tea! And not just tea. Teapots, tea pets and much more. We had a great time there chatting with tea vendors and sampling all sorts of teas. Click the map below to see some of the places we went.

There have already been a few reports of snow and freezing rain in several of the tea areas. I got this video from a friend showing snow on the tea bushes (sorry for the quality). No one is really sure how much this will affect this year’s tea, on one hand tea is fairly robust and a certain amount of stress can make magic in the right hands. On the other hand, the tea really isn’t used ...

Spring is here and I have headed off to China to meet with Jianli Wu, my mom, to find our tea selection for 2016. I’m looking forward to meeting our tea producers and some of our long time friends and of course I’m looking forward to trying a lot of new teas! Here’s a quick trip outline. Beijing – I’m meeting my mom here and we’ll be checking out the tea market at Ma Lian Dao ...

According to a Chinese saying there are seven necessities for everyday life: firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea. There are also seven things that are considered graceful to do for those that lead a noble life: zither, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, wine and tea. Tea is the only thing in Chinese culture that can be as simple and common as a little component of daily ...

What are the naming conventions for Chinese tea?

Despite the new tea names that are given by the inventors or the brands, there are some rules about how Chinese teas are named. Generally speaking, white tea is named based on the grade – bud/leaves ratio. Green, black and dark teas usually have the region in their names, for example Anji Bai Cha (Anji is a place in Zhejiang Province), ...

Brewing a perfect cup of tea can be quite challenging. The amount of loose tea leaves, the temperature of the brewing water, the selection of teaware, the way to pour the water, etc. Almost every aspect of the whole process affects the flavour and the taste of the liquor. Among all the aspects of brewing, tea water temperature is the easiest one – either 100°C or around 90°C, at least ...

What could be nicer to have on a hot summer day than some delicious ice cream? I say, hot tea! Here’s why I’m not crazy.

If you enjoy gardening, you know that the trees and the plants can survive the harsh winter, especially in cold places like Ottawa, this is because their roots are deep in the warm ground. As the sun comes to the north in the spring, ...

This post jumps in front of my blog schedule because of the little stories I have heard and experiences I have had recently. Some are disturbing, and I chose to remain silent initially, but I can no longer do so. Some are encouraging, and I want to share them. My vision for ZhenTea has always been clear, and our journey helps to confirm that vision as well as adjust our approach. I am ...

The story of Jin Jun Mei began with an interesting talk between Mr. Jiang Yuan Xun and two tea businessmen from Beijing. They all realized that, unlike all other tea types, there was not a single high end black tea in the market. All the black teas are made with mature leaves. What would it taste like if the black tea is made with buds only? Inspired to produce a top grade black tea, Mr. ...

Xi Hu Long Jing, also known as Dragon Well, is one of the most famous Chinese teas in the world. Emperor Qianlong visited Jiangnan area six times during his reign, and four of those visits he managed to find time to spend in Hangzhou to enjoy this tea. He also planted 18 royal Long Jing trees in front of Hugong Temple. This simple act by the emperor pulled Xi Hu Long Jing into the ...

Having just returned from Coffee and Tea Festival NYC, we celebrated our debut in America with an extremely rare Pu’er – Bai Nian Song Pin. Before rushing to show the pictures and tasting notes, let me introduce Song Pin properly. To do that I’ll cover the tea producer’s history and ultimate demise, which resulted in much counterfeiting and mimicry and finally ...

If you are a Chinese green tea lover, you are probably very familiar with the word “Mingqian”, which refers to a tea picked before Qing Ming. And in the tea world this is nearly synonymous with a better quality green tea, but is this a steadfast truth? It is helpful to understand what Qing Ming is in order to answer this question.

Qing Ming, one of 24 Chinese solar terms, is also a ...

It seems a little overdone to talk about the basics of Chinese tea, the origin of tea, the six types of tea and so on, but when I hear people talking about Anji Bai Cha as if it were a white tea, I realize that it’s actually not a bad idea at all. There is still a lot of confusion out there. In fact, my original draft for this blog post was much longer and still felt it needed a lot ...

Another special day has arrived on the Chinese calendar – Jing Zhe 惊蛰. The character 惊 (jing) means to surprise, or more accurately, to startle, while 蛰 (zhe) refers to insects that live underground. What startles insects in the ground? Thunder. From today on, thunder will becomes more common with accompanying rains, while during late fall and winter, it’s rarely ever heard. ...

Despite how much we love the concept of organic, we disagree with the over-simplified impression that “organic guarantees safety” which seems to be so prevalent in the consumer market lately. That’s why we do not label our eligible tea certified organic, at least for now.

When asked “do you have organic teas”, my answer is always simple and firm – we do have organic ...

Happy Chinese New Year! It is really exciting when New Year land on one of the solar terms and this year, Yu Shui did just that. Yu Shui literally translates as ‘the rains’, which is indicative of the characteristic climate of this period, at least in some places. The temperature begins to rise, the snow starts to melt, and rainfall starts to increase.  In old ...

In Chinese culture, drinking tea is more than sipping a warm beverage, it’s a way to reconnect, appreciate and immerse one’s self in nature. As a culture that sought harmony with nature rather than conquest over nature, “traditional Chinese medicine” was discovered. Traditional Chinese medicine does more than just provide relief for symptoms that ail us, it is actually a ...

Today in an online tea community, I heard for the first time that shu (cooked) pu’er cannot age. I was really surprised by this because I had always understood almost all tea changes with age, especially including pu’er. After some reading and consulting, I think I finally figured out what is meant by “shu pu’er cannot age”. I think the more precise statement would be that shu ...