Why tea people get so excited at this time of year
Fashionistas are abuzz in the lead up to fashion week. Sporting fanatics start twitching a few weeks before season kick-off, wine lovers salivate in summer in anticipation of new vintages and snow bunnies start rugging up as temperatures drop up in expectation of the first snow fall.
Tea connoisseurs experience something similar as the tea harvest season rolls around each year.
The tea season
High quality tea has a specific time of the year when it is at its most desirable. Understanding tea seasonality helps you know what to expect in terms of flavour, appearance and also price. It will also help you understand why tea lovers starting getting noticeably enthusiastic from April to July.
At this time of year we are keeping in close touch with our network of tea masters to check in on what the weather is doing and how the harvest is shaping up. In the same way that weather plays a significant role in the quality of a wine vintage, the tea harvest season is nature dependant too.
Some teas need to be plucked only on sunny days while other teas are plucked regardless of conditions during a set window, for example pre-Qing Ming Chinese teas are only ever picked in the week leading up to 5 April (it’s based on the lunar calendar and Chinese tradition).
You can expect to invest much more in teas that are harvested only once a year. Short plucking windows means there is only a very limited amount of tea for the farmer to produce, and once it’s plucked that’s it for the year.
These types of single harvest teas will generally have far superior flavour than tea picked during longer plucking windows or than tea that is in flush throughout the year and they are among some of the most extraordinary you will ever taste. Chinese green teas, Indian first flush Darjeelings and Japanese Shincha are all good examples.
Seasonal sourcing
We source the teas for our collection seasonally. This means that each year, we review the regional conditions and in partnership with our tea masters, we sample and evaluate the choicest examples from the area as well as more unusual or innovative teas that the tea master may have developed to take advantage of seasonal peculiarities. Sometimes this experimentation works astonishingly well (and is the test of the true skill of a tea craftsman), while other times it can fall flat.
We are not tied to, contracted by or reliant one particular garden and that is the beauty of seasonal, small-batch selection. Instead, we pick the best of the best at the appropriate point during the year. For you, this means a trusted and interesting collection for you to explore year on year. We might have been overwhelming impressed with the teas from one tea master or garden last season, but because of harvest conditions and the weather patterns during the last 12 months, we might not include anything from that region or producer this year. We make note of which seasons had the best conditions in the lead up to harvest in different parts of the world, and zero in on these areas as we evaluate what will be included in the collection.
From time to time we also hold teas back to age them and most seasons we’ll release something into the collection from a previous season which is drinking beautifully or expressing interesting characters after being rested. In the next few weeks, we will be announcing our line-up of 2016-released teas to our VIPs, and they will then be launched to the market after VIPs have had an opportunity to secure their picks.
What happens when in the tea world
Every season harvests can run differently but here's a quick summary of what generally happens in different pockets of the tea world. Different retailers bring teas to market at different times. Some will introduce new season harvest teas as quickly as possible, others might wait to purchase from the broader season before releasing new teas to market (often to save passing on expensive multiple shipping costs to their customers).
March
Yunnan - bud-pluck green and black tea
Western China - premium green and yellow teas flush
Fujian – bud only white tea
April
Various regions - Pre-Qing Ming designation green teas
Fujian – Keemun, Lapsang Souchong, Jin Jin Mei and Anxi oolongs begin
May
Large leaf tea production
Non-bud white tea production
Base tea for jasmine tea is made and stored until the jasmine harvest in summer
June
Most spring harvest teas have hit the international marketplace
March
Himalayas - 1st flush black tea
April
First flush blacks
May
Summer flush
June
Summer flush
July
Third flush
April
Ichibancha
Shincha harvest may begin
May
Ichibancha
Sencha and Gyokruo begin
June
Nibancha – second flush
July
Nibancha – second flush
August
Nibancha – second flush
September/October
Yonbancha – fourth flush
March
Nuwara Eliya + Kandy - premium flushes
April
First flush
May
Second flush teas
June
Uva – premium flush
July
Monsoon flush
August
Monsoon flush
September/October
Early Autumnal flush
March
Central Taiwan - early spring semiball oolongs
April
Low elevation gardens – spring pluck for leafy oolongs
May
Summer tea mid elevation plucking
June
Summer tea high elevation production
July
Various - standard grade oolong
August
Autumn tea
September/October
Autumn tea
March
Darjeeling + Assam - 1st flush black teas
April
Nilgiris – spring tea
May
Darjeeling and Assam - second flush
June
Second flush
July
Monsoon Flush
August
Monsoon Flush
September/October
Autumnal Flush
April
Ujeon first pluck
May
Sejak second pluck
June
Joongjak third pluck
July
Daejak forth pluck
Annual
Year round production
Annual
Year round production
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