At Flowinversetea, we label our products with their origin and fresh leaf grade to ensure transparency regarding the source and quality of our raw materials.
Why Discuss Tree Varieties and Fresh Leaves
In the wine industry, grape varieties have a profound impact, with names like "Merlot" or "Chardonnay" being well-known. Similarly, in coffee, varieties like Geisha and Bourbon are famous. Just as these raw materials influence the final product's flavor and presentation, tea tree varieties have a similar effect on tea. Different tea tree varieties not only differ in appearance but also affect the tea-making process. Some varieties are better suited for certain types of tea than others.
As you taste the different products from Flowinversetea, we hope you can appreciate the diverse gifts of nature each tea tree offers. A tea leaf undergoes over seven or eight processes from fresh leaf to finished tea before it reaches you. When you brew it using the proper method, you're not just enjoying a cup of tea; you're experiencing a year’s growth of a specific tea tree variety and the tea master's understanding of it.
This article introduces some common tree varieties in Enshi and their fresh-leaves grades.
Tree Varieties
On every product page of Flowinversetea, you can check the "varieties" section to see the tree variety of the tea. If you want to know more about a specific variety or share your thoughts, don't hesitate to contact us or join our community.
Enshi-Taizi
This is the earliest local variety in Enshi, known as the indigenous group variety. It is asexual and initially grew freely in the mountains, with each household taking leaves to drink on their own, no business happening. Now, it is propagated through cuttings but still not on a large scale, resulting in uneven bud and leaf consistency. This variety is mainly used to make the famous local green tea we are selling, Enshi Jade Dew. The tea from this variety is durable, aromatic, and often has a variable flavor, sometimes even tasting like seaweed, or with little bitterness. Due to its varied colors, production requires significant manual selection, making it less common in the market.
Japanese Gyokuro
One thing to mention is that Enshi Jade Dew is often mistaken for a variant of Japanese Gyokuro. Historically, Enshi Jade Dew is an ancestor of Japanese Sencha and Gyokuro in its production technique, but over the years, their cultivation and tea-making techniques have diverged. Even without discussing their completely tea-making techniques, it’s evident from the tree varieties alone that they are entirely different teas now.
For more information on the differences between Enshi Jade Dew and Japanese Gyokuro, check our related articles.
Enshi-Longjing Variety
Currently, the most prevalent tea tree variety in China. Originally from Hangzhou, it was introduced to Enshi as part of poverty alleviation efforts. In Hangzhou, Longjing trees are used to make Longjing, Que She, and Lian Xin teas. With large-scale cultivation in Enshi, a commercial relationship has developed, with fresh leaves being shipped from Enshi to Hangzhou to make the well-known Wuyi Mountain tea, offering new flavors.
Longjing #43 is considered the most suitable variety for making Enshi Jade Dew, as it produces a tea with a fresh, mellow taste and delicate aroma. At Flowinversetea, you can try Jade Dew starting from $5.99
Enshi-ZheNong Variety
Another standard large-scale tea tree variety, considered the second-best for making Enshi Jade Dew. Its fresh leaves are darker green, almost emerald. While it has the most beautiful appearance, with long and neat leaves, the tea made from it usually has a slightly bitter taste, making it less popular than Longjing #43.
E Cha
A new variety cultivated in Enshi in recent years, specifically for making Enshi Jade Dew. Its flavor is still unstable, but the Enshi Jade Dew made from it has a unique floral fragrance.
Maoba-taizi
A native tea tree in Lichuan, Enshi, initially covered about 100 square meters, and now expanded through asexual reproduction. It is mainly used to make the most expensive Lichuan black tea.
Zhongcha #108
This variety was developed from "Longjing-variety" cuttings. It sprouts early and has excellent tea-making qualities, representing the third generation of tea tree varieties and a typical high-end West Lake Longjing tea. In Lichuan, Enshi, Zhongcha #108 is commonly used to make Lichuan black tea for all grades.
Fresh Leaf Grades
Even within the same region or farm, the raw materials for coffee beans and wine grapes are graded based on quality. Similarly, in tea, the quality of fresh leaves determines the tea's quality, while tea-making techniques shape the appearance and internal qualities of the tea. Generally, high-quality fresh leaves are essential for producing premium tea with distinctive qualities.
Narrowly defined, fresh leaf picking refers to the standard of buds and leaves picked from the new shoots of the tea tree. A tea tree shoot typically produces five to six buds, which are graded based on their condition, ranging from the bud tip, one bud and one leaf, one bud and two leaves, and so on. Usually, the further down the scale, the lower the price of the fresh leaves.
At Flowinversetea, to ensure the farmers' income, we sell high-grade fresh leaves, generally ranging from bud tips to one bud and one leaf, and one bud and two leaves.
You could check the grade info from our product info page, like for Black Tea Grades
These grades are marked in the product information's "grade" section on our site. The highest grade is the bud tip, which is rare, requiring 60,000 to 70,000 buds to produce 500 grams of dry tea.
These three grades of fresh leaves are considered the best in the Chinese tea industry and are often called Pre-Ming tea and Pre-rain tea. They are named after the dates on the lunar calendar with Qingming between (usually between April 4th-6th) and Grain Rain (usually between April 19th-21st). Typically, Pre-Ming tea is considered better than Pre-Rain. At Flowinversetea, we only offer Pre-Ming spring tea. If you're interested in picking times, you can check the "harvest time" in the product information.
Thus, we usually go to Enshi every March to start collecting the first batch of spring tea, staying in the tea gardens for about half a month to a month. We will leave before mid-April as farmers have completed work on high-grade fresh leaves we requested. From then until winter, tea leaves continue to grow but are no longer part of our spring tea procurement.
These later tea leaves are considered medium to low-quality fresh leaves, generally used for large-scale wholesale and bulk black and green tea.
However, in some cases, unique processing techniques can bring out new flavors, elevating the tea to new heights. For example, the old green tea in black tea is made by cutting off the entire new shoot at one bud and five leaves, while the famous matcha is made from single leaves picked at one bud and five to six leaves.
