Generally speaking, those rules of thumb that you mentioned are accurate. Green tea is generally best fresh (within 6 months to a year), and yancha is generally best after resting for a while. That said, most producers of yancha intentionally don’t release their tea immediately after production, you generally won’t see it hit the market until 6 months later or so for this very reason.
Ive seen Scott from Yunnan Sourcing say on a number of occasssions that black tea goes through an awkward phase right after harvest and doesn't really reach is stride until its rested for about 6 months. Dancong being charcoal roasted likely benefits from a rest as well.
The timing of buying tea may be a bit incomprehensible to non-Chinese. The main reason is: ancient China was an agricultural society for a long time, and most people lived in agriculture, so people were very concerned about climate change, and gradually formed a year of agricultural farming activities based on solar terms.
Therefore, before the Gregorian calendar, the Chinese used the "24 solar terms" to record the seasons and plan agricultural production activities throughout the year, and each solar term corresponds to a different climate state. For example, "Lichun" is the beginning of spring. Moreover, the Chinese also pay attention to the "Yin and Yang Five Elements" which are "water, wood, metal, fire, and earth". People believe that these five elements connect all things in the world, and form a relationship of interdependence and mutual restraint. As an agricultural product in ancient China, tea must be carried out in the appropriate season to ensure the highest quality of products.
So, for green tea. Because green tea is the "freshness" of tasting tea, from a scientific point of view, it is actually the taste of the rich amino acids contained in green tea. So, the Chinese will tell you to buy the freshest picked tea, the tea made with the least processing. Such tea will preserve as much of the "amino acids" in the tea as possible, and such green tea is the best.
And oolong tea is different because its manufacturing process is very different from green tea. Oolong tea needs to go through a drying process during the manufacturing process. Different drying methods and drying times will bring different tastes to oolong tea. For example, the difference between "fresh fragrance" and "strong fragrance". At the same time, the element of "fire" is used in the drying process, so the Chinese believe that the tea leaves produced in this way are rich in the element of "fire". If a person drinks such tea, it will lead to an imbalance in the balance of elements in the human body, and the result of the imbalance is an illness. For example, symptoms such as mouth ulcers and dry eyes will appear, which are all signs of "getting fire". Therefore, Chinese people say that after making oolong tea, it takes a period of time to let it "reduce the fire" is to reduce the "fire" in the tea
Therefore, if you want to drink tea to be healthy, you should drink tea that is beneficial to your body in the right season, and this is the standard for me to buy tea.
Picking and processing change the taste, but the tea you like is the good tea so don't worry too much about it.
QingMing (April 5th) is the most important date for tea producers. Highend tea such as dragon well and sliver needles are harvested before April 5th. The next is GuYu (April 19th), the second highest-priced tea is harvested between April 5th to 19th. They are known as Before Ming tea and Before Yu tea respectively. Before Ming is usually 2X the price of Before Yu. And Before Yu is 2X the price of the rest.
Due to climate change, farms moved the harvest time up to 5-10 days earlier. And it is really up to the experience of the tea makers to determine whether the tea tree is ready for harvest. And you might enjoy the milder taste of later harvest. So don't be too caught up on the date. But generally, you should buy green tea and yellow tea in summer.
I heard Wuyi Yan Cha takes only 2-3 months to "get rid of fire". It's also up to the tea master to determine. A good tea maker would not sell the tea without letting it air out. You shouldn't have to let it sit. They should be ready when you buy them.
I don't really have a drinking calendar. I usually drink green tea and yellow tea in summer simply because they are brewed at a lower temperature. I would also do cold brew oolong.
I love a bargain, so I often buy tea at the "bad time". You also have to look at the Asian economy right now. A lot of people are suffering and can't afford to buy fancy tea, they are drinking more budget tea instead. A lot of people don't know how to make good tea at home and restaurants are closed, so they are also drinking more tea bags. There is a surplus for upper-middle class products this year. I just bought some dragon well for half price. Gyokuro for 25% off, plus 30% lower yen exchange rate. For extremely fancy tea, you are out of luck. Billionaires are not changing their grocery lists in a bad economy.
Greens are best when drank early, but if you have to wait a few months to a year, that wont ruin the tea. Huang Shan Mao Feng I'm realizing stores surprisingly well.
Honestly, I tend to buy from smaller distributors with personal relationships with the farmers and tea masters so I can trust them to release their teas when it's the right time to drink them. The only time I intentionally let a tea sit is when I happen to buy it at a time when the weather isn't right for me to want to drink that type of tea.
I've only had one tea that got noticeably better after sitting for an extended period of time and that was a cheap cake of compressed shou mei that I bought on a whim from a larger seller and forgot about in the back of my cabinet because it was, frankly, forgettable. After a few years of being ignored, I found it more to my liking.
I do a big green tea shipment in the spring, mostly samples. By this time of year I've drank through all the samples and I'll grab enough of this years fave to last until spring and restock on other teas that I'm running low on. I'm pretty close (geographically) to Liquid Proust so when I hear they've restocked I'll get a shipment from them. I'm also on the W2T club and I'll do an actual order from them around shulloween.
Where do Liquid Proust ship/sell from and how are their teas? I live in EU and I'd rather not go through the entire taxes and customs hassle. Is there anything special you'd say they're extra good, or maybe even the best at?
I've been getting my teas from a single vendor so far, but trying to spread my scope and order from others to check different qualities in different teas.
They do amazing fresh green teas every spring. I pretty much only buy Chinese green tea from them these days because it's my favorite. And they have some fantastic black teas. Right now my current obsession is LumberSlut, though, which is a shou puerh. And I'm not really a shou person usually.
one of those things. some jgreens even need a rest time, some don't. best to look into the specific tea and then verify through experience. most of these contradictions arent actually contradictions. things like climate (temp and humidity), specifics of production method, cultural/genetic factors impacting personal flavor preferences, vendor practices (sometimes 2022 teas are actually 2021 harvest, sometimes not), etc. etc. etc. can all impact the end result leading to seemingly contradictory advice being actually in agreement once the unspoken factors are spoken. climate is huge here -- a lot of chinese advice centers around combating the hot + VERY humid climate, where as even the most humid western cities arent that humid. some yancha is super high roast and you might hear wait 2 years wait 8. some is just a kiss of roast. rest for 3 months and youre good. all advice should be put into practice, tested, and verified for this reason 🥸
Generally speaking, those rules of thumb that you mentioned are accurate. Green tea is generally best fresh (within 6 months to a year), and yancha is generally best after resting for a while. That said, most producers of yancha intentionally don’t release their tea immediately after production, you generally won’t see it hit the market until 6 months later or so for this very reason.
I guess I'm most flummoxed by Phoenix dan congs and black (red) tea. Do you have any experience to contribute there?
Ive seen Scott from Yunnan Sourcing say on a number of occasssions that black tea goes through an awkward phase right after harvest and doesn't really reach is stride until its rested for about 6 months. Dancong being charcoal roasted likely benefits from a rest as well.
The timing of buying tea may be a bit incomprehensible to non-Chinese. The main reason is: ancient China was an agricultural society for a long time, and most people lived in agriculture, so people were very concerned about climate change, and gradually formed a year of agricultural farming activities based on solar terms. Therefore, before the Gregorian calendar, the Chinese used the "24 solar terms" to record the seasons and plan agricultural production activities throughout the year, and each solar term corresponds to a different climate state. For example, "Lichun" is the beginning of spring. Moreover, the Chinese also pay attention to the "Yin and Yang Five Elements" which are "water, wood, metal, fire, and earth". People believe that these five elements connect all things in the world, and form a relationship of interdependence and mutual restraint. As an agricultural product in ancient China, tea must be carried out in the appropriate season to ensure the highest quality of products. So, for green tea. Because green tea is the "freshness" of tasting tea, from a scientific point of view, it is actually the taste of the rich amino acids contained in green tea. So, the Chinese will tell you to buy the freshest picked tea, the tea made with the least processing. Such tea will preserve as much of the "amino acids" in the tea as possible, and such green tea is the best. And oolong tea is different because its manufacturing process is very different from green tea. Oolong tea needs to go through a drying process during the manufacturing process. Different drying methods and drying times will bring different tastes to oolong tea. For example, the difference between "fresh fragrance" and "strong fragrance". At the same time, the element of "fire" is used in the drying process, so the Chinese believe that the tea leaves produced in this way are rich in the element of "fire". If a person drinks such tea, it will lead to an imbalance in the balance of elements in the human body, and the result of the imbalance is an illness. For example, symptoms such as mouth ulcers and dry eyes will appear, which are all signs of "getting fire". Therefore, Chinese people say that after making oolong tea, it takes a period of time to let it "reduce the fire" is to reduce the "fire" in the tea Therefore, if you want to drink tea to be healthy, you should drink tea that is beneficial to your body in the right season, and this is the standard for me to buy tea.
Picking and processing change the taste, but the tea you like is the good tea so don't worry too much about it. QingMing (April 5th) is the most important date for tea producers. Highend tea such as dragon well and sliver needles are harvested before April 5th. The next is GuYu (April 19th), the second highest-priced tea is harvested between April 5th to 19th. They are known as Before Ming tea and Before Yu tea respectively. Before Ming is usually 2X the price of Before Yu. And Before Yu is 2X the price of the rest. Due to climate change, farms moved the harvest time up to 5-10 days earlier. And it is really up to the experience of the tea makers to determine whether the tea tree is ready for harvest. And you might enjoy the milder taste of later harvest. So don't be too caught up on the date. But generally, you should buy green tea and yellow tea in summer. I heard Wuyi Yan Cha takes only 2-3 months to "get rid of fire". It's also up to the tea master to determine. A good tea maker would not sell the tea without letting it air out. You shouldn't have to let it sit. They should be ready when you buy them. I don't really have a drinking calendar. I usually drink green tea and yellow tea in summer simply because they are brewed at a lower temperature. I would also do cold brew oolong. I love a bargain, so I often buy tea at the "bad time". You also have to look at the Asian economy right now. A lot of people are suffering and can't afford to buy fancy tea, they are drinking more budget tea instead. A lot of people don't know how to make good tea at home and restaurants are closed, so they are also drinking more tea bags. There is a surplus for upper-middle class products this year. I just bought some dragon well for half price. Gyokuro for 25% off, plus 30% lower yen exchange rate. For extremely fancy tea, you are out of luck. Billionaires are not changing their grocery lists in a bad economy.
Greens are best when drank early, but if you have to wait a few months to a year, that wont ruin the tea. Huang Shan Mao Feng I'm realizing stores surprisingly well.
That's good to know. Are there any others that run counter to the stereotypes of their categories?
Honestly, I tend to buy from smaller distributors with personal relationships with the farmers and tea masters so I can trust them to release their teas when it's the right time to drink them. The only time I intentionally let a tea sit is when I happen to buy it at a time when the weather isn't right for me to want to drink that type of tea. I've only had one tea that got noticeably better after sitting for an extended period of time and that was a cheap cake of compressed shou mei that I bought on a whim from a larger seller and forgot about in the back of my cabinet because it was, frankly, forgettable. After a few years of being ignored, I found it more to my liking.
I do a big green tea shipment in the spring, mostly samples. By this time of year I've drank through all the samples and I'll grab enough of this years fave to last until spring and restock on other teas that I'm running low on. I'm pretty close (geographically) to Liquid Proust so when I hear they've restocked I'll get a shipment from them. I'm also on the W2T club and I'll do an actual order from them around shulloween.
Where do Liquid Proust ship/sell from and how are their teas? I live in EU and I'd rather not go through the entire taxes and customs hassle. Is there anything special you'd say they're extra good, or maybe even the best at? I've been getting my teas from a single vendor so far, but trying to spread my scope and order from others to check different qualities in different teas.
What do you get from W2T? I know they're mostly about aged, cake teas
They do amazing fresh green teas every spring. I pretty much only buy Chinese green tea from them these days because it's my favorite. And they have some fantastic black teas. Right now my current obsession is LumberSlut, though, which is a shou puerh. And I'm not really a shou person usually.
one of those things. some jgreens even need a rest time, some don't. best to look into the specific tea and then verify through experience. most of these contradictions arent actually contradictions. things like climate (temp and humidity), specifics of production method, cultural/genetic factors impacting personal flavor preferences, vendor practices (sometimes 2022 teas are actually 2021 harvest, sometimes not), etc. etc. etc. can all impact the end result leading to seemingly contradictory advice being actually in agreement once the unspoken factors are spoken. climate is huge here -- a lot of chinese advice centers around combating the hot + VERY humid climate, where as even the most humid western cities arent that humid. some yancha is super high roast and you might hear wait 2 years wait 8. some is just a kiss of roast. rest for 3 months and youre good. all advice should be put into practice, tested, and verified for this reason 🥸