It’s time for fresh tea!

Our travels to Japan have yielded some great tea and great tea experiences. Most notably, was a rainy afternoon filled with Tea Gardens and the end of season harvest of Gyokuro.

Gyokuro Shading Methods. Traditional Rice Straw & Modern Black Plastic

Gyokuro is similar to Sencha, Japanese green tea, only it is covered with shade for at least 4 weeks before harvest.

This yields a rich deep green cup that is one of the most prized teas in the world.

There are two kinds of shading methods used today. The traditional rice straw method, and the modern black plastic technique. Any differences? On a rainy day like today, the rain drops through the covering, imparting a touch of it’s flavor. Rice straw enriches the flavor, giving a subtle richness not present in the modern technique. Our Organic Gyokuro is covered with traditional rice straw.

While visiting one tea garden, we were fortunate to receive a lesson on Gyokuro tea picking, and help out for an afternoon!

See our video of tea harvesting here!

Gyokuro is harvested only once a year, and thus the end of May is also the end of the Spring harvest season in Japan. Thus we move into the Tea Factory! Coming soon…

Tea Travels to Japan!

Spring is in full swing! Tea gardens around the world are busy with the grand task of producing some of best teas of the year, and Stone Leaf Teahouse is gearing up for another adventure to the far east! This year, we will be traveling to Japan for a two week jaunt through the jade tea fields and humble tearooms of the world’s most complex and fascinating tea culture. Our mission for this trip is to find great new teas to share with our communities at home and connect with the farmers, producers, artists, and tea lovers of Japan. Using Uji, the birthplace of Japan’s tea culture, as a home base, we will explore central Japan’s tea gardens, research new and exciting developments in tea cultivation, search for beautiful and functional teaware, and learn the secrets of brewing and tasting high quality, delicate green teas. Relationships are best built face to face over a cup of fresh tea and this trip is the best way to connect you to some great people on the other side of the world. Stay tuned for updates from the road, pictures, and tastings!

“Uji tea has a taste infused with Nature’s own essence,
a pity folks only prattle about its color and scent.”
-Baisao
The Old Tea Seller

Reduced hours May 22nd – June 5th

Because of this great adventure, the Teahouse will have slightly reduced hours. We will be closed for the next 3 Tuesdays (May 22nd, 29th and June 5th). We will continue to be open our normal hours from Wednesday through Saturday for the next three weeks (May 23rd-26th, May 30th-June 2nd, and June 6th-9th). We will continue to ship mail orders, but packages will only go out Wednesday through Saturday. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

New Taiwanese Oolongs!

In other news, fresh spring Taiwanese teas are here! We have just received a shipment of fresh spring Li Shan High Mountain Oolong, a wonderfully crisp and refreshing spring Bao Chung, and an exciting new Premium Tie Guan Yin. Stop by next week to try these great new teas!

We leave you with some ruminations on spring tea from the 18th century Japanese Zen poet and wandering tea merchant, Baisao, and we look forward to sharing a fine cup of spring tea with you soon!

A gift of “immortal buds” sent from an old friend
“first spring picking from the Ekkei fields,” he said
Opening the packet, color and fragrance filled the room,
Proud ‘banners and lances’ of outstanding quality.
Clear water dipped at the banks of the Kamo
Well boiled on the stove, just right for new tea.
The first sip revealed an incomparable taste,
Purifying sweetness refreshing the soul.
No need wasting time on ‘butterfly dreams,’
Rising up, utterly cleansed, beyond the world,
I smile, not a single word in my dried-up gut,
Just a ‘wondrous meaning’ beyond all doctrine.
I’ve been poor so long, pinched with hunger,
Now a kind gift to soothe my parched throat,
Dewdrops so sweet they put manna to shame:
The fresh breeze rises round me, lifting me upward.
It doesn’t take seven cups like Master Lu says,
My guests get old Chao-chou’s ‘one-cup tea’;
And whoever can grasp the taste in that cup
Whether stranger or friend, knows my true mind.
Sake fuels the vital spirits, works like courage,
Tea works benevolently, purifying the soul.
Courageous feats that put the world in your debt
Couldn’t match the benefit benevolence brings.
A tea unsurpassed for color, flavor, and scent,
Attributes the Buddhists like to call “dusts,”
But only through them is the true taste known,
They are the Dharma body. Primal suchness.

-Baisao
The Old Tea Seller

Alsi Shan Zin Hsuan Leaves

It is said that the sense of smell has the strongest connection to memory of all our senses.  It is safe to assume, therefore, that it also has the strongest connection to our emotions and sentimentality.  It can bring back long forgotten experiences and transport the mind to far away locations with one deep inhalation.  Tea in general is famous for the wide range of aromas it can produce.  Many teas are world renowned specifically for their delicate, complex, and enchanting smells.  Many teas these days are artificially flavored or scented in an attempt to grab the attention of the consumer and tap into this primitive mental connection.  To the true tea lover, however, nothing can make the synapses fire like the smell of pure, unadulterated tea leaves.  And as far as pure, high quality tea goes, nothing can match the aromas of well crafted Taiwanese oolongs.

Wet Zin Hsuan Leaves

Zin Hsuan Oolong (pronounced Jin Shwan) is only produced in the mountain regions of central Taiwan.  A product of cross breeding by Taiwanese researchers in the 1980s, Zin Hsuan is a fairly new addition to the tea world, but its popularity is ever increasing.  Most of this particular tea’s fame comes from the unique milk smell it can produce.  To those who have never had Zin Hsuan, this might sound a bit strange.  A tea famous for its aromatic similarity to the milk from a cow?  Yes, that’s right, it is beloved because a slight roasting of the leaves imparts this tea with an aroma unmistakably similar to milk.  Often, tea traders will artificially increase this milk smell with food additives in order to play up a teas milk fragrance (nai xiang in Chinese); however, the milkiness of a natural Zin Hsuan should be very subtle.  Despite its subtlety, the nose-brain connection never fails and that nai xiang is unmistakable.  It is hard to describe in words – creamy, fresh, clean, and slightly sweet.  With out having a cup of it under your nose, it is hard to conjure up the smell of milk.  It is not something we normally describe the aroma of much less describe other things as smelling like, but when you stick your nose into a pot filled with already brewed Zin Hsuan leaves, your brain has little trouble making the connection.

The Ali Shan region of Taiwan is famous for its small gauge railway, its wild wasabi, its gorgeous mountain scenery, and its otherworldly sunrises.  It is also renowned for growing teas with smooth, creamy, tropical flavors.  Our 2011 Mei Shan Zin Hsuan and our soon to arrive 2012 winter Ali Shan Zin Hsuan are no exceptions.

                                     
The Ali Shan and Mei Shan, a small town located on the back side of Ali Shan, areas are prime tea growing country.  Steep slopes, dense and lush vegetation, thick humidity and cool evening temperatures make the perfect environment for great tea.  This ideal setting and the Zin Hsuan’s divine gift of aromatic brilliance are a perfect match.  The characteristic creamy Ali Shan flavor combined with the milk fragrance of the Zin Hsuan varietal produces a tea that is rich, captivating aromatic, and full flavored.

As Liao, our Taiwanese supplier,  said when he first described this tea to us, when you “close your eyes and feel the rich and delicate of flower perfume, you will drop in [to] the Fantasy Paradise.”  Fantasy paradise can only begin to describe the rich, tropical flavors and aromas of a fine Zin Hsuan grown in the Ali Shan region.

Here is a very brief video of us exploring the Ali Shan region by motor scooter back in 2009.  Enjoy!

 

To see exactly where these teas are from, visit out new tea atlas, here.

To purchase these, or other oolong teas, click here.