If processing is relatively standard and the producers are expert, then what differentiates one tea from another will be varietal and terroir. Those two go hand in hand. Take Anji Baicha for example. It is a local varietal they call ‘White Tea “ or Baicha, and apparently, grows best in this local region. It has a characteristic fragrance that is instantly recognizable and not to be found anywhere…
24 hours without tea
In my haste to leave on a flight to China, in the middle of fretting over whether security would confiscate my thermos of tea I usually carry around and whether they will force me to chug a searing hot Phoenix oolong, I forgot to bring my usual travel size packs of tea. I boarded the plane with no tea in my possession.
By around 5 hours, I had requested no fewer than 6 cups of black tea from the…