Teance Fine Teas Blog

Oolong Tea

6 Posts Back Home

Make your best pot of tea. Start with the right teapot.

Know Your Tea

The “teapot” as a concept is seemingly a simple device, but each individual teapot has a unique functionality directly related to its material composition and vessel form. When choosing a teapot for use or purchase there are a few factors to consider. Tune in to Facebook live for Teance Tea Lab  with Trevor on Wednesday 9/12 at 10am for more information. MATERIAL COMPOSITION GLAZED CERAMIC Does not add, take away, or adjust the flavors of the tea. Has a high retention for the water temperature. This means the hot water put in the glazed ceramic vessel will not lose its heat very fast. Ideal for most teas and herbal teas. The most neutral material of the three. UNGLAZED CERAMIC OR STONEWARE Yixing ware is a typical example. Water temperature retention is similar to glazed wares This material is porous. These porous wares will season with usage. This means the tea…

Keep Reading

How to Steep Tea without Instructions

Know Your Tea

You just found an old bag of tea, or your friend gifted you some special tea, but there are no steeping instructions. Do not fret, steeping without instructions is easy if you know what to look for. IDENTIFY THE CATEGORY OF TEA: What kind of tea do you have? Green, oolong, red, etc. Different categories of tea require different water temperatures. If the leaves are green and small, you are looking at green tea. If the leaves are covered in small white hairs, then it is a white tea. If the leaves are green and big or rolled, you have a light oolong. Dark, big and/or rolled leaves are likely charcoal roasted oolongs. Small, dark leaves are red/black tea leaves. (Pu-erh tea and herbal teas will be addressed in another post.) Try your best to categorize in order to find a water temperature to start with: Green- 160^F White- 180^F…

Keep Reading

The art of judging award-winning tea

Tea Life

How are award-winning teas selected? Surprisingly for most people, tea competitions are fun and exciting. Judges typically consist of tea farmers, tea shop owners, and tea scholars. These experts are known for refraining from drinking alcohol and coffee, smoking, eating spicy food, or anything else which could taint their palate. Gathered around a large table, with tasting spoons in hand, the group obnoxiously slurps down countless sips of the same type of tea, crafted by different artisans. Traditionally these teas are oolongs. With greater expertise and experience required for production, oolongs are said to be the “connoisseur’s tea,” containing the most complexity and fragrance. Judges debate taste, aroma, appearances of leaf, and quality of infusions. After several hours of heated debate, with judges literally shouting and screaming at one another, a consensus on which teas deserve which grades is finally reached. Judges award 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place honors. Unlike…

Keep Reading

Competing as a Tea Buyer

Tea Adventures

Truthfully, it is getting harder and harder to compete as a tea buyer. The demand in Asia, particularly in China, commands very high volumes, even for out of control high prices. For me to buy these teas directly from high-caliber farms year after year, without enough of a wider audience in the US, is a difficult feat. There is not such a high end tea culture in the US, we are in the niche of a niche. We have been investing in educating about teas for years, and in the meantime, most teas in the US market are still hardly worth the dish wash water. For our tea tea connoisseurs, I am happy to invest in these difficult, strenuous buying trips, but we all have to help spread this culture of tea, for our own sakes, so we can keep buying at this level. A bit more critical mass needs to…

Keep Reading

It’s Hard to Say Which is your Favorite

Tea Adventures

It’s hard to say which is your favorite kid, and so, which is my favorite tea? I love the specialness of each and every artisan tea region I buy from, but if I had to choose one, it has to be Phoenix Mountain oolongs. There is simply no other tea that tasted like it, and no other environment nor trees like these.
This photo of the tea pickers harvesting on top of the old Ya Sai tree (I think, the old ones look very similar) is a photo from Mr. Wei, who is just over 30 years old, and whose goal in life is to surpass his past masters in tea making skills and innovation. Live long and prosper so we can continue to enjoy these fabulous Phoenix teas!

Keep Reading

The life force on these arbor type Camellia Sinensis are strong-…

Single Origin Teas

The life force on these arbor type Camellia Sinensis are strong- the roots dig into the rocks and secure themselves as the finger like groves reach upward. One of the original, 700 year old trees, the Song Zong, was chopped up by a madman a couple of years ago, but is regrowing nicely. All around, I noticed just how much giant rock is actually under the thin layer of soil, washed away from the heavy rain. Though Wuyi teas are known as Yancha or Rock teas due to the 10cm layer of soil floating above rocks, the Phoenix teas here appear to be growing in almost the same conditions, on rocks. This character was rarely pointed out, and despite being one of the two most expensive oolongs in China (and therefore the world). Mr. Wei said one of the teas he makes in ultra small quantity is called ‘the Lightening Tree’, and fetches 62,000 RMB per Jin, almost exactly $10,000 USD per lb! Feeling privileged to be having these teas from top of this mountain in our selection every year; the creme of the crop, as they say, from the very first day of harvest, reserved for us despite fierce competition. Friendship and appreciation goes a long way.

Keep Reading
Navigate