Saturday, June 13, 2009

Oriental Beuaty Production May Be Impacted By Weather

Recent news from XinZhu, the production region of Oriental Beauty, a highly fermented Oolong from Taiwan, suggested possible decrease in this year’s production. High temperature and lack of rain are all contributing factors to this year’s low production.

Oriental Beauty, also called Bai Hao Oolong or Champagne Oolong, is made of young leaves and buds that just been bitten by tea insects. Oriental Beauty is much more close to black tea than other Oolong teas.

Tea Lovers at TeaHub

www.teahub.com

Sunday, June 07, 2009

Making Tie Guan Yin Cold Brewed Iced Tea

Another hot day today! I decided to make some iced tea for the hot day. I was in a mood for Tie Guan Yin and wanted something very simple. 5 minutes + 3 hr wait later, I am drinking my cold brewed Tie Guan Yin iced tea.

Here is how I did it:
Step 1: I measured 4g Moderately Roasted Tie Guan Yin and added it to an empty water bottle.
Step 2: I poured in 1L bottled water, and let the water bottle cooled off in refrigerator for 3 hours
Step 3: Time to enjoy! If you are like me, you can drink with the tea leaves in. Otherwise, drain the leaves before drinking it.

Linda

www.teahub.com

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Reading Long Jing Tea Leaves

A friend of mine showed me a photo of Long Jing he found on the internet the other day. After carefully examining the photo, we both agreed that it was a faked Long Jing. The so called Long Jing was actually made from Zhu Ye Qing of Si Chuan. We posted a blog back in 2004 warning people about faked Long Jing from Si Chuan. Below are photos of the most common faked Long Jing on the market. The one on the left is Wu Niu Zao from Wen Zhou, Zhe Jiang, and the one on the right is Zhu Ye Qing from Si Chuan.

Both Wu Niu Zao and Zhu Ye Qing are early harvest teas. Because that early harvest Long Jing demand much higher prices and only have limited productions, some illegal business people chose to fake Long Jing with Wu Niu Zao and Zhu Ye Qing in pursue of maximum profits. Real Long Jing teas have beautiful straight, flat leaves with none or very few hairs. Faked Long Jing, on the other hand, have fluffier leaves, some even covered with hairs. Leaves of faked Long Jing from Zhu Ye Qing are smaller than real ones. Leaves of faked Long Jing from Wu Niu Zao are bigger than real ones. We have more info regarding authentic West Lake Long Jing on our site.

What's in your cup?

Linda