Category: Chinese Tea Culture

A new tea-plant must grow for five years before its leaves can be picked and, at 30 years of age, it will be too old to be productive. The trunk of the old plant must then be cut off to force new stems to grow out of the roots in the coming year. By repeated rehabilitations in this way, a plant may serve for about 100 years.

Produced in Huangshan City, Anhui Province, Yellow Mountain Maofeng Tea is the nonesuch among all types of green tea in China. The raw material is picked in Yellow Mountain and the newly made tea leaves are covered with coats of pekoe, hereby the name “Yellow Mountain Maofeng Tea”. The tea trees are mainly distributed around the Peachblossom Peak (Taohuafeng) which is featured by high altitude, dense forest, short daytime, thick mist and other predominant natural conditions. Top quality tea leaves are obtained by virtue of the moistening of cloud and mist as well as nonexistence of extreme weather.

Lushan Cloud-fog Tea is a sort of top-quality green tea produced in Lushan Mountain, Jiangxi Province. It is named after the production place. Lushan Mountain is featured by high altitude, great seasonal temperature difference, strong irradiation of ultraviolet, could and mist suffusion in half a year, and murmuring spring. This environment offers advantageous growing conditions for tea trees and facilitates the compounding of aromatic substances in them, thus contributing to the top quality of Lushan Cloud-fog Tea.

Serve tea: Serving tea to the guest is a traditional Chinese convention lasting for more than 1000 years. The host must serve the tea respectfully using both hands to hold the tea cup. Those who are dainty usually will put the cup onto a saucer or tea-tray, and, when offering the tea, they will use two hands to hold the saucer or tea-board before the chest while saying softly “Enjoy your tea”. The guest, at the same time, should slightly move his body forward and express gratitude.

Pu’er Tea is a kind of dark tea found only in China’s Yunnan Province. It’s originally produced in the "Six Famous Mountains" in Xishuangbanna and gets its name from Pu’er, a town where most of the tea is processed and sold. Pu’er Tea has a long history. Early in the Tang Dynasty, tea trade between Pu’er and other areas already began.

As a famous breed of green tea in North China, Laoshan tea is produced in Laoshan Mountain in Qingdao, Shandong Province. Being the only mountain over one thousand meters in altitude along China’s coastline, Laoshan Mountain is a time-honored famous Taoist mountain with picturesque scenery and pleasant weather. Tea trees growing here are of long growth period due to the unique weather and favorable entironment. Therefore, the tea leaves nurtured by the excellent natural conditions on the mountain are featured by thickness, mellow savor, abundance in nutrition, and natural fragrance, while the liquor is clear and jade green.

Produced in Qimen County and the neighboring areas close to Yellow Mountain in Anhui Province, China, Keemun black tea is a competitive type of black tea in China. This is attributed to the high yield and excellent quality of tea trees growing in the region thanks for the rich soil and favorable weather. Tea production in Qimen County has a long history which can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty. The county was initially teemed with green tea and then turned to produce black tea in the Qing Dynasty over 100 years ago.

"Yunan Black Tea" is a general name for black tea produced in Yunan. There are two types of Yunan Black Tea: “Yunnan Kungfu Black Tea” and "Yunnan Broken Black Tea". First produced in 1939, "Yunnan Black Congou" is characterized by stout and strong sprouts, golden sharp ends, red infusion color and strong flavor. When it was produced in 1939, 15 tons of Yunnan Black Congou were sold to the UK. As the output increasingly grows, the tea has been exported to over 30 countries and regions in the world, such as Russia and Poland in Eastern Europe, Western Europe and North America.

Tea gift, or “Tea Silver”, is a sort of betrothal gifts. In the Tang Dynasty, tea was an indispensable gift in marriage. It has been over 1300 years since Princess Wencheng brought tea into Tibet in line with to the Han etiquette. Tea was evolved from a trousseau gift into a gift prepared for a man’s proposal of marriage in the Song Dynasty. In the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, “Tea gift” almost stood for marriage, with a maid’s acceptance of tea gift being known as “Drink Tea”. Such concept was retained in the Qing Dynasty, when the saying “A good maid will not accept tea gifts from two families” was prevailing.