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@Hokusai, teas of Chinese origin are much easier to begin with than many others because of a lot of reasons. In the instance of Sri Lanka, the country has been too famous for good mass market tea and it is a very steep curve for the market to learn to pay good money for their alternative qualities. It’ll take consistent and enduring commitment on the side of the producer and on the seller to make true independent quality Sri Lankan teas, such as the Gongfu Green I am promoting, to make meaningful change of perception in the market.
@Manila, take that as part of your learning. Don’t let that discourage you. There are good people in tea in China. You just have to find them.@Ctran, fresh college grads are too green to do anything, esp in China where ppl are not taught independent thinking in education. They are good to follow simple orders only. Ppl who are serious enough to go to grad school in tea are either very focus in specific area or too well connected to be faithful to you, more so when you are working with them remotely. There are also those who are not too honest. I don’t blame them though; in a society where corruption prevails and money and power are justice, morality is but a hermit. In another word, it’s not easy to find a good partner or employee. Like Manila, I paid my dues too.
Searching out great sources and managing them by yourself, however, is the best part of the job, don’t you think?I did not realise there could be so much interest in this. Will discuss that in another video but can’t promise soon. Sorry.
…aiming at the mass market may not be the quality you want to achieve. Having said that though, that is not to say there are not good people there, however rare they are.
I began by visiting a number of farms and producers in Phoenix. If you do not have connections to begin with, visiting tea markets can give you some exposures to pricing, qualities and variety ranges. It would take luck, persistence, vigilance, and a lot of wit to decipher what really goes on — coz a lot of those in those “wholesale” markets are basically merchants of different backgrounds, and a lot claim to be farmers themselves. The bottom line is, those who could make it to setting up a shop in the tea market are not those in the most need for support. Quite importantly, the quality that is carried in these markets aiming at the mass market may not
@Ctran, this is a most admirable ambition. It is not an easy one to achieve though. I have been buying from smaller producers since the beginning of my tea career and there are many aspects that need great efforts in, unless you do not mind bad quality hurting your name, or losing money to various bad practices by the very people whom you want to support.
@Chawang you are definitely hitting the core of the issue: differences in the people.
Most often people easily collectively think of smaller farmers are one kind of suppliers. They are not. They are as varied as personalities, i.e. there are honest, skilled, and good practice people of various backgrounds and limitations, there are also opportunists, shady people some of whom can pretend very well to be, say, high quality traditional tea producers. Whichever group one may belong to, he can be successful, mediocre or a complete failure. Not any different from any other trade in your part of the world, or mine.
In order to contribute to the promotion of small, independent farms, there are a few things that I do and, so far, they have worked for my business:
- Find real quality, consistent producers
- Find at least two for each type of tea you’ll carry
- Establish a personal relationship with them, ie, do care for them as individuals. It is love to other people that you do such business afterall, right?
- Understand that they have great limitations as normal suppliers, and which are they in terms of possibilities of limitation and hinderance of your own business operations
- Devise ways that you can do to compensate for these limitations. If such devise is not possible with any particular one potential, don’t commence working with him yet.
- Understand the quality and market price of similar products available through larger producers. Weight the difference in the small farm and quality marketing pretext
These are the parts concerning the supply side. Operation, marketing, management, and business strategies are other things you’ll have to be good at in trying to gain a foothold in the competitive tea trade.
And then there is the basic necessity of knowing your products. This not only for selling, but in day one when you approach potential suppliers. They are human afterall — they have all the weaknesses of any human and can easily fall for temptations of cheating, despise, and most often, lost of faith.
Clay kyusu has a long history in Japan for making green tea in. Indeed, when Yixing teapot began to take its place as the de facto teaware for connoisseurs, the overwhelming majority of tea in the market was green. Poems and literature have presented them as pairs since the 17th century.
Personally, I think many green teas don’t show their true face unless they are prepared with a properly seasoned Yixing pot. However, for people who prefer sharper tastes the porcelain is a great category of infusion wares.For white teas, I mean true white teas, I prefer porcelain over Yixing, as they are soft as they are, any further rounding of the body seems a bit too much. I’d rather shorten the infusion by using more leaves and higher temp for some briskness. I drink white tea by the gulp, unlike I would fine greens.In choosing the proper Yixing clay for the tea, I’d consider the taste profile of that particular tea rather then what category it belongs to. I’d also consider how I would drink the tea: small cup, medium cup, normal cup, or large cup? This also determine the decantation speed, the pot size, and thus the needed thickness and density and in turn affects the body and texture.If we don’t regard the above factors and confine ourselves to smaller pots and normal spout speed and shorter infusion time, then for softer teas you use a higher density clay and sharper teas a lower one.Another factor that most people overlook when judging a pot is the need for proper seasoning of most genuine pots. Thicker clays need more seasoning than thinner one. Clays blended in more silica need less than those purer ones. Softer teas are affected more obviously when prepared with an under-seasoned pot than sharper ones.The way you pour water into the teapot and the shape/size of the teapot affect the infusion effects and seldom is the case of stuck green tea not having enough room for spreading, when you know what to do.I agree with Hokusai that glass really is not an ideal infusion ware, unless it is really thick.Hello Sara,
1. Yes you can use that (Tianshan) April Mist instead, in case you do not want that jasmine aroma. April Mist is actually a very good choice for its gentleness to not fight with the other ingredients.2. You can use raisin but the TCM effect will not be the same. Tastewise, I think the gentler wolfberries are also more suitable for the job. If you want fruits etc in the jelly, cut some peeled and seeded grapes, peaches, mandarin oranges, cherries etc. However, they do not deliver the kind of TCM complementary effects wolfberries do3. Another great sugar to use other than raw sugar is rock sugar, which sweetness is such that there is no dryness aftertaste as brown sugar or white sugar have. To use rock sugar for the recipe, please dissolve it by simmering in 250 ml of water. Don’t forget to deduct this amount of liquid from the total liquid amount. The good thing about rock sugar over raw is that it can sustain a bit more of boiling and stirring without turning sour.4. Most certainly. Also calculate the total liquid volume when you do. Mind that you do need liquid in steeping the tea and dissolving the konjac powder@sofie1212 you are right, green style oolongs do not mature. They should be consumed fresh. Most Wuyi and Phoenix mature well, except for some fragrant varieties and green styles they are also producing too. Some producers also do not dry their teas well or in wrong ways so they do not mature too. Taiwan also produces oolongs that mature, although a lot of the fresher styles that are popular don’t.
Successful maturing begins with an appropriate quality selection, proper handling, storage and environment. Otherwise, everything else is just waiting. When a tea matures, it’s a wonderful reward.@happyman, even in the case of pu’er, the older the better is a myth. Tea matures to a peak, plateau and then gradually or sharply degenerates. I believe that applies to wines too. It just so happen that different varieties peak and plateau differently. Harshly dried oolongs, such as some of those Wuyi in the market, takes a long time to mature, if they do at all, but even their peak is not very nice. Fine oolongs takes as little as a couple of years to mature, but their peak is very satisfying. The older the better is a sheer myth that many merchants would like their customers to believe.
