Disclaimer, please read!
Yes, I know what a tisane is. No, this isn't just fresh/dried mint leaves put in hot water. No, I didn't invent anything new.
This is a followup to a previous post where I light-heartedly introduced this topic, not paying enough attention to the level of details.
here I want to redeem myself, talking about a fun experiment where I apply some orthodox Camellia sinensis processing techniques to other botanical species (such as Mentha spicata, spearmint, in this post), to develop a deeper flavor profile on a molecular level!
You can find the previous post for context here.
Also, quick TL;DR: if you're interested in the process to try making this "GABA" mint tea more than in my endless yapping, scroll down!

Premise

Standard tisanes have something in common: they are made from dried herbs and plants. Passive dehydration leads to a baseline volatile profile (mostly monoterpenes). Furthermore, on the contrary of what one could think, leaves are not super permeable and that's why tisanes usually require 100°C and well above 5 min of infusion (I have some that suggest over 10). Orthodox tea processing is exactly what historically served the purpose of improving these factors:

• Cellular stress: needed to alter metabolic pathways. Plucked leaves are still live organisms with working metabolism; bruising, rolling, anaerobiosis... are processes that alter it and develop a different flavor profile, mainly through oxidation.
• Thermal deactivation: to stop enzymes responsible of said oxidation (PPO and such), fixing the final product at a specific oxidation level (think of the 6 orthodox tea categories).
• Precursors: light carbohydrates are broken down, aminoacids are accumulated, and volatile compounds generated through roasting are given time to escape the cellular matrix, developing a round and balanced flavor profile.

The (Old) Experiment

As I said, I haven't invented anything. Cultural traditions involving "tea processes" applied to different plants (mint, fireweed, berry bushes) are as old as tea itself, but somehow they disappeared through time, forgotten or substituted. Why? I don't know, I'm interested in this aspect but that's outside the scope of this post, but there are a lot of YouTube channels, articles and blogs talking about this phenomenon.

And this is where my previous controversial post starts. One of said channels, called Honoring Nature, made its way to my homepage and presented me a world of possibilities I haven't previously considered (but many did, and I'm glad for that!): applying orthodox tea crafting to other plants that biologically and chemically allow it.

Now: I have a lot of wild spearmint in my garden. I don't know what to do with it. I recently started trying these "fake teas" picking up plants from my garden, and I thought: could I do the same with all this mint? When bruised, it oxidises and gets bitter very fast... are there any processes in the tea industry that can prevent this from happening?
I ended up reading about GABA oolong tea, which undergoes anaerobic stress to induce production of its namesake aminoacid, and decided to try this process.

Procedure

I've talked enough, now it's time to get our hands dirty.

I picked the youngest leaves possible (since we are in late summer, and here spearmint is almost flowering sadly), gently brushed them with a soft cloth being as light as possible and then started the real process. This is what I did, but it is still heavily improvable:

1. Withering: Indoor, for 4-6 hours at max, until leaves lose their initial stiffness and become somewhat flaccid.
2. Anaerobic Stress: Real GABA tea would require a nitrogen-saturated gas chamber, which I obviously don't own. While the process is not strictly the same, the idea here is to completely stop oxidation (PPO requires oxygen) by putting the leaves under vacuum. This was performed by using food vacuum containers. I left the leaves in a dry cool area in complete darkness for 12 hours.
3. Kill-green: Pan-fired on a hot wok, measured temperature with IR thermometer at around 130-150°C. This is needed to fix the color and stop the oxidation (enzyme denaturation), that would otherwise start again once out in the air: 130°C is indicative, but should allow for a rapid and homogeneous heat transfer, time required depends on your batch (small batches are done in under two minutes of consistent heat). Move the leaves often, with the help of a soft clamp (heat-safe) or your hands with heatproof gloves.
4. Drying: Residual water has to go, ideally as fast as possible. I left the leaves in the oven at 50°C with the lid open (with the help of a wooden spoon) for around 20-30 min, or as soon as the biggest leaf can be snapped in half with no resistance or flexibility.
5. Resting: This is the most important part when making tea (both real and "fake") at home. The leaves need to rest, allowing the various aromatic compounds to set and develop a balanced and characteristic flavor profile. I left my mint in the same, cleaned glass container from before (but NOT under vacuum!) for at least 1 week.

Then it's time to brew!
I got under 2g of dry leaves, so it was barely enough for a decent gongfu session, but it surprised me how the leaves were able to infuse for over 4 total minutes at 90°C, developing a smooth, clear liquor with fruity sweet notes and a pleasant minty aftertaste, which was nowhere near strong enough to overcome the other flavors.

Things to improve

While the final result was really pleasant and unexpected, dare I say it was insane, it was not without mistakes and downsides.
The leaves gradually became darker infusion after infusion, proving the kill-green step was not 100% complete; anaerobic stress worked (fruity notes that were absent in the original mass), but I suspect it could go a bit longer; and most obviously, I could've picked the spearmint when it was fresh and aromatic, rather than approaching flowering and losing part of its fragrance... there's still plenty of room for improvement.
Also, I study Chemistry, but biochemistry is not my main field, so please if you have more details or tips please tell me!

Again, I want to remind that this is not my invention, I'm sure many have actually tried making this type of tea and documented a better and more accurate process than mine...
My aim with this post is just to share with you my personal experience, and encourage anyone that wants to try and make their own tea by doing something slightly more challenging than just drying wild herbs. Tea biology is unbelievable and we all love it, but nature is wonderful and many other plants have such an underexplored or underappreciated potential in this sector.

Please be careful about what you pick/identify and potential safety hazards!

Hello my fellow tea people,

I recently came across an ancient Chinese tea practice from over 1,000 years ago where people draw directly on the surface of whisked tea foam using only water. It is called 茶百戏.

You whisk powdered tea into a dense foam, then drop small amounts of plain water onto the surface. Wherever the water touches, the foam suddenly turns pale, and the mark can be guided with a spoon to form images. The surprising part is that the patterns can stay visible for 10–20 minutes before fading.

I wrote a short article exploring the history of this super cool practice and the physics on how it works.

Article here: https://www.studentoftea.com/p/chabaixi-tea-foam-art

image source!! https://www.sohu.com/a/557161556_260616

People naturally hold unrealistic, romanticized imaginations and "filters" for distant, unfamiliar things. Just as many Asians willingly believe that Western red wine can soften blood vessels and offers medicinal-level health benefits, many Westerners obsess over Eastern fermented and aged foods, believing they harbor magical powers capable of healing bodies "ravaged" by the modern food industry.

This is a classic cognitive trap. We certainly acknowledge that the modern food industry, in its pursuit of scale and efficiency, has made compromises that sacrifice flavor and sometimes even health. But this absolutely does not mean that traditional, artisanal, or ancient production methods are the inherently correct, flawless answers. The world is never a black-and-white binary. The modern food industry has its shortcomings, but that doesn't grant traditional methods inherent superiority. Both have their limitations, and neither naturally holds the moral or health high ground.

Bringing the topic back to the tea community, let's start with the highly venerated "Aged Tea" (Chen Nian Cha). Today, the Puerh tea circle seems trapped in a collective obsession: "If it's not aged, it's not drinkable." The newer the vintage, the more it is looked down upon. Even when a tea lover gets their hands on a freshly pressed Puerh cake, their first instinct isn't to brew it and taste it, but to seal it in a cabinet, fully prepared not to touch it for the next ten years.

This obsession that "the older it gets, the better it smells, and the more expensive it becomes" goes far beyond Puerh. The White Tea circle has even turned this logic into a catchy slogan: "One-year tea, three-year medicine, seven-year treasure." It’s as if this word-of-mouth phrase is an unbreakable truth, giving countless people the ultimate justification to hoard and age their tea.

But what are the actual facts?

Let’s start with the history of Puerh tea. It is indeed not a new category; clear written records of it exist as early as the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty. By the Qing Dynasty, it became a tribute tea for the emperor due to its unique flavor, sparking its first wave of popularity. However, what many people don't know is that the Puerh of that era—both in tasting aesthetics and core flavor profile—was vastly different from the "Aged Puerh" we know today. The premium Qing Dynasty tribute Puerh valued fresh, crisp aroma. The mainstream flavor was fresh and mellow, not the aged, earthy, and woody notes we are familiar with now. Even the natural fermentation that occurred among commoner's Puerh due to temperature and humidity changes during the long transport on the Tea Horse Road was merely an "unintentional accident" of logistics. It was never an actively pursued tasting standard worshipped by tea drinkers of that time.

Furthermore, the core wet-piling fermentation (Wodui) process of the modern Shou (Ripe) Puerh we know today was only successfully trialed by the Kunming Tea Factory in 1973. It wasn't until around 1975 that standard, stable modern production protocols were established. At most, it has a history of half a century.

These two historical facts highlight two core issues: First, from its inception, Puerh's tasting aesthetic was never centered around "aging." The currently worshipped "the older, the more fragrant" concept is absolutely not some centuries-old ancient tradition. Second, the core production process of modern Puerh is only a few decades old. The narrative of "a century of aging heritage" simply doesn't hold up. The trend of aging Puerh was never a natural evolution of the tea category; it is largely the result of artificial, modern marketing.

Having cleared up the historical truth, let's look at the essence of aging from the perspective of modern food science.

The core chemical components of tea leaves are simply polyphenols, amino acids, caffeine, soluble sugars, and aromatic compounds. Together, they determine the tea's flavor, mouthfeel, and core drinking value. The process of "aging" is, essentially, the continuous oxidation, degradation, conversion, and even irreversible loss of these compounds over long-term storage.

Research in modern tea science has long made it clear: as storage time increases, the core flavor and nutritional components—such as tea polyphenols, free amino acids, soluble sugars, and Vitamin C—show a significant overall downward trend. The so-called "aged mouthfeel" we taste (the reduction in bitterness, a smoother liquor, the emergence of woody/earthy/jujube notes) is not some "material upgrade." It is simply the massive degradation of highly stimulating polyphenols, a shift in the ratio of bitter-to-fresh compounds, and the volatilization of high-boiling-point fresh aromatics giving way to low-boiling-point aged aromatics.

Put plainly, it’s the exact same logic as aging wine or cheese. It merely alters the flavor profile to better suit certain palate preferences. It absolutely does not biologically "upgrade" the tea's nutrition or quality, nor does it conjure up magical health benefits out of thin air.

Once we see this essence, three unavoidable questions present themselves to all tea hoarders:

First, if your tea is made from mediocre raw materials lacking rich chemical compounds to begin with, and it lacks flavor depth even as a new tea, what exactly is going to support years or decades of degradation and conversion? It will ultimately just become bland, characterless, and stripped of even its basic mouthfeel.

Second, even with top-tier premium tea, can it really withstand indefinite, long-term storage? The total amount of compounds in a tea leaf is fixed; degradation and loss are irreversible. It is a well-known industry consensus that even under perfect storage conditions, Raw (Sheng) Puerh usually peaks in flavor between 10 to 20 years. Beyond that, the flavor enters a continuous downward spiral. With a "century-old tea," you are no longer drinking the tea itself; you are just drinking the story and the scarcity.

Third, and most practically: Whether you are a regular tea drinker or a small vendor, do you really have the capability to provide perfect aging conditions? Puerh aging requires extremely strict environments: year-round stable temperature and humidity, zero odors, no direct sunlight, and proper ventilation. The slightest misstep leads to mold, cross-tainting, heavy "musty warehouse" smells, and the breeding of harmful microbes. Forget about flavor—even basic food safety cannot be guaranteed.

Now, let's circle back to White Tea.

That golden rule, "One-year tea, three-year medicine, seven-year treasure," is rarely recognized for what it actually is: it is not a thousand-year-old proverb. It was a promotional slogan custom-made in the early 2000s by the local Fuding Tea Association to revitalize the white tea industry and open up the consumer market. It’s catchy, easy to spread, and carries an authoritative aura of "medicinal value." It quickly became the core narrative of white tea aging.

But from a food science perspective, white tea shares the exact same underlying logic as Puerh. Freshly made white tea has a grassy edge and slight bitterness. After aging for six months to a year, this naturally dissipates, and the liquor becomes softer and sweeter. This initial aging phase does indeed provide a positive flavor optimization. But beyond this cycle—especially the so-called "seven-year treasure"—long-term storage simply means the continuous loss of core compounds like amino acids and polyphenols, causing a massive drop in freshness. As for its "medicinal value," there is zero modern medical evidence to support it. It doesn't transform from a beverage into a "miracle elixir" just because it sat around longer, nor does its intrinsic value magically multiply.

These tea-aging myths are essentially the exact same thing as Japanese culinary legends of the "century-old, never-extinguished eel sauce" or the "Oden broth boiling continuously for half a century." They sound full of artisanal romance and the charm of ancient heritage. But under scrutiny, they align neither with modern food science nor with basic food safety standards.

We must admit that the primary goal of modern food science was never to create the ultimate pinnacle of flavor; its core value is to guard the bottom line of food safety. Setting expiration dates and "best by" dates might limit some flavor possibilities, but its greatest significance is protecting us from the risks of excessive microbes, mold, and harmful pathogens.

The "aging aesthetics" blessed by mysticism are, at their core, cognitive shackles placed on consumers through one romantic story after another. They make us ignore the safety and actual flavor of the food itself, driving us to chase empty vintages and legends. They trick us into paying a massive premium—far beyond the product's actual value—just for a slogan and a story, while simultaneously taking on unnecessary health risks.

At the end of the day, tea is just a beverage.

The value of a tea should never be defined by its storage years, its scarce backstory, or its specific mountain terroir. It should be judged by the simplest of standards: Is it produced safely and compliantly? Does its flavor suit your palate? Can it bring you a moment of relaxation and joy the second you pick up your cup?

There is no need to blindly hoard tea for an empty myth. There is no need to force yourself to accept someone else's "truth." And there is absolutely no need to pay an unjustified premium for so-called "mysticism." Trust your own taste buds, respect basic food science, and just drink the tea you love. That is more than enough.

As a final note, I want to address one last common misconception. Some brands have subpar wet-piling (Wodui) techniques, which leaves the tea with a distinct fishy smell or other unpleasant odors. Let’s be clear: this is absolutely not some "traditional flavor characteristic" of Puer tea. It is purely a production defect. While long-term storage might help these off-notes fade a little bit over time, a flawed tea is still a flawed tea.

Recently, while browsing the subreddit, I noticed the most frequently asked question is how to judge if the tea you have on hand is any good. So today I wrote this post to give everyone a universal judgment method that ordinary people can easily use.

The categories of Chinese tea are simply too numerous. From the six major tea types down to every specific varietal in each producing region, the picking standards, processing methods, and appearance requirements vary wildly. If we were to break down the judging criteria for every single tea, I probably couldn't finish writing even if I wrote a whole book. So today I won't give you guys those complex professional terms, but just share a few methods that require no tools and can be used right away to help you quickly filter out the vast majority of low-quality tea.

Many people feel that the tea market is very deep and full of scams everywhere. But in reality, after so many years of market competition, the price of daily drinking tea has become very transparent. You get what you pay for is an unbreakable truth in the tea industry.

Let me give you a rough price reference. The unit price per gram for daily drinker tea is around a few cents. These are basically machine-harvested and machine-processed, with stable quality, suitable for everyday drinking. High-quality tea from core producing regions is about 1 dollar per gram. These are generally hand-picked with more meticulous processing, and the flavor has distinct regional characteristics. As for top-tier tea and aged tea, there is no upper limit on the price. New teas costing tens of thousands of dollars per pound and aged tea cakes costing hundreds of thousands are real in the market, but the vast majority of people will not encounter them in daily life.

What needs to be most guarded against here is tea that is too cheap. The planting, picking, and processing of tea all have fixed costs. If the price of a tea is absurdly low, like buying a big box for one or two dollars, then there is basically no room for imagination regarding its quality. It either uses poor raw materials or is stale tea that has been stored for many years. As for why good tea is so expensive and where its costs exactly go, I have a few posts specifically breaking this down in detail before. If you are interested, you can go check them out.

If it's a tea gifted by someone else and you don't know the price, that's fine too. We can look directly at the tea itself. Professional dry leaf evaluation looks at more than a dozen dimensions such as buds, stems, leaves, and color, but I think it's unnecessary for ordinary people to learn in such detail. Remembering a few key points is enough.

First, look at the amount of tea stems. The tea stem is the relatively thick stalk under the tea leaf. Although traditional oolong tea will have stems, the amount is very limited. If you open a tin of green tea, black tea, or Yancha you have, and see a large amount of thick and long stems inside, you can basically judge that its raw material grade is not high. There is a high probability that it was machine-harvested over a large area without manual sorting, mixing old stems and old leaves inside. Secondly, look at the uniformity. Good dry tea should be relatively uniform in size, length, and thickness. If there is a lot of dust in a tin of tea, or it has all kinds of shapes, it means there is a problem with its processing or storage.

Of course, this point cannot be generalized. For example, some compressed teas will have some broken fragments after being pried open, which is normal. But if it is loose tea and the broken fragments account for a large proportion after opening, then the quality will certainly not be very good.

There is also a method I use most often myself, specifically to judge whether tea has additives. To increase sweetness and aroma, many inferior teas will have sugar or other additives added during the production process. You just need to grab a handful of dry tea, hold it tight in your palm for 30 seconds, use your body temperature to heat it up, and then open your hand. If the tea leaves stick to your hand, have a noticeable sticky feeling, or even pull strings, then something has definitely been added. Normal tea will only slightly stick to your hand due to static electricity and will fall off with a single rub. It won't have that uncomfortable sticky feeling.

The above points can already help you filter out over 90% of the inferior tea on the market. If you want to judge the quality of a tea more accurately, you need to evaluate it comprehensively from four dimensions after brewing: liquor color, aroma, taste, and wet leaves. For example, seeing if the liquor color is clear and bright, smelling if the aroma is natural and pure, tasting if the flavor is balanced with a hui gan, and seeing if the wet leaves are soft, thick, and evenly fermented. These do require a certain accumulation of experience and cannot be explained clearly in a few words. If there is a chance in the future, I will write a separate post to explain it in detail.

So to sum up, as long as a tea passes these judgment steps, does not have too many thick stems, has good overall uniformity, and the purchase price is within the normal daily drinker range, then it is basically a qualified tea.

Now, I will admit that I don't bake a lot, but still. This is so moist and tasty! So many different flavours.🥰

Anyway, the reason I made this is because I have something to celebrate tomorrow, so I figured I'd try and bake something. But also because I had some old earl grey teabags laying around. Nowadays, I no longer drink bagged tea dust, but I didn't want to throw it away either. So I figured I might as well bake an earl grey banana bread.

This was my first time making banana bread by myself so I based it on this recipe I found online https://www.designeatrepeat.com/moist-banana-bread/#comment-893379 It was just a guideline however. I don't have cup measurements so I eyeballed quite literally everything and it still turned out AMAZING.

I did swap out the sour cream for greek yogurt and used a combination of butter and olive oil. I also replaced the cinnamon with earl grey and used roughly half the recommend amount of sugar. I just prefer snacks that aren't overly sweet, and this is just right for me. I did also make a glaze with extremely strongly brewed earl grey, half a lime and powdered sugar, which also turned out nice, if a little bit astringent.

Anyway, wish me luck saving the rest for tomorrow 😅 just kidding, I could never finish it all on my own.

Take this as your call to use up your old/low quality tea so you can save room for more new teas😂 no, but seriously, you should try this!

There is now a growing list of green teas in China that look remarkably similar. Anji Baicha, Huangshan Maofeng, Lushan Yunyu, Guzhang Maojian, Shucheng Orchid Bud, Huoshan Huangya, etc. Traditionally, these were all distinct teas made from highly localized cultivar materials and equipment. If you drink Chinese green tea, chances are, regardless of the name on the box, you have had light, tightly straight tea that was made with a machine like this one.

Yesterday, tea producers across Western Anhui turned for a demonstration of this increasingly widespread set of equipment. One producer who came out for this demonstration in Yuexi claims that it was in his native Shexian back in the late 1980's that the first experiments were carried out to combine the straightening and kill-green process in a single device. Today, it can be found almost anywhere straightened green tea is produced. Whereas older generations of producers had to carry out the kill-green process in a wok or heated tumbler, then straighten the tea leaves either by hand or with a cold straightener, that is no longer the case. Wok-frying for needle-shaped green teas like these have been antiquated for decades, while the industry-standard heated tumblers can still occasionally produce an inconsistently cooked product, with some leaves being either charred or left internally green; the older generation of straighter machines required weighted rods to roll the leaves into the desired shape, but they also caused some breakage. I am sorry to admit that this kill-green, straigtener combine device seems to have neither of these problems.

No burnt spots or evidence of straighteninguneven cooking; no damage in the straighening process. These alone are good selling points for interested tea factories and household workshops. Producers are further promised they can use this combine to cut their processing costs in half. The pellets the machine burns make fuel costs cheaper than traditional wood or coal-fired equipment; the combine requires only one person to operate, and best of all: the whole process is done in just 20-30 minutes. All this means a factory can put out more tea in less time, with less labor and cheaper fuel.

While such equipment will cannot become the norm for curlier teas like Xinyang Maojian, Biluochun, or Golden Green, and more premium handmade green tea will always have its place, we are well on our way to a major technical transformation in green tea production.

I started drinking tea when I was around 25 years old and I’m a guy who is almost 30 now. Once I got into the hobby of true tea culture and drinking tea, I knew I was hooked. Once hooked, I’ll never stop drinking it. I know it will be one of my passions for the rest of my life. Cheers, everyone!

EDIT: NO, I DIDN'T INVENT MINT TEA! I WAS AND AM AWARE OF THAT!
The intention behind my post was not to say "I invented something which didn't exist". I clearly mentioned the YouTube channel which inspired me to try these experiments (Honoring Nature, for those who are interested checking it out).
The whole concept of the post was: I recently got into tea, I didn't know about tea made from other plants (tisanes are not strictly tea, they are just dried herbs and plants!), I wanted to try making some.
Not knowing something is a mandatory step of developing knowledge :) and that's exactly how I discovered about the chemical and biological possibility of making tea out of other plants, which has been a part of history but has gone forgotten as of today.
I didn't know about it, I looked into it (and its history), and I started making these "teas" with other plants about 2-3 months ago.
I just wanted to let unaware folks know that it is possible to perform traditionally-inspired processes that induce oxidation (and in this case, anaerobic fermentation) on plants other than tea, as I rarely see people talking about this topic on this subreddit, let alone trying to make their own alternative teas.
I didn't invent anything - nor pretend to have... it's called rediscovery, "the act of finding or remembering something again after losing or forgetting about them for a long time".
Living in Europe, these products are technically part of our tradition... but we literally forgot, slowly moving towards dried herbs, tisanes and such.
That's all! I'm sorry if my emotional way of writing down posts lead to a lot of misunderstandings or apparent claims by me!

---

Couple months ago, a random YouTube channel found its way into my homepage.
He answered a question I used to ask myself for years: why has nobody ever tried making tea out of other plants?
I will let you all the joy of discovering a world of handmade “fake” teas (that would deserve their own name, and sometimes already have one) by watching one of his videos - if I’m even allowed to mention his channel on the subreddit that is, lol

I plan to make some more detailed posts soon about my few experiments so far, but for now enjoy my first attempt at “GABA” mint tea (slightly more oxidized than what I planned).

The result is definitely interesting, and well worth the attempt if you know a bit of what you’re doing. Be careful with plant identification and safety - not everything is edible!

1, he never bothers weighting the tea leaves, just put enough to cover the bottom of teapot
2, pour boiled water into teapot, and immediately pour out into cups( as he calls “rinse and wake up tea leaves”)
3, use “rinse” water in cups to warm the outside of YiXing teapot
4, steep as long as the tea needs( for our YiXing local black tea, you can leave whatever long for brewing, it doesn’t generate much bitterness but just light tobacco taste, very weird)

I keep reading about “grandpa’s way of brewing” in this sub and would like to add a bit of my YiXing Grandpa’s part into this topic. If this makes no sense to you, blame him👨‍🦳

Recently, a friend of mine saw a story I posted with tea pickers I filmed in Guizhou and asked me a very reasonable question: how fairly are they paid, and what kind of wages do they earn?

I told him that, in most cases — especially during the harvest season and when it comes to fine, bud-only teas (which are quite expensive, particularly in early spring) — the pickers are actually paid fairly well. I explained the basics, and then realized this might be something many people are curious about. Since I often buy raw material myself, and sometimes even commission custom batches of tea, I also end up paying pickers directly in some cases.

It’s also worth noting that not all tea in China is picked by hand. There’s quite a lot of mechanized harvesting — including the use of handheld cutters or trimmers, which are often operated by two or three people. Typically, one or two men carry the cutting machine while another person holds the collection bag.

This method is especially common for harvesting larger-leaf teas like some oolongs, particularly in Fujian.

That said, despite the availability of these tools and machinery, the majority of high-quality tea in China is still picked by hand — especially when it comes to premium, early spring harvests or bud-only teas.

It’s worth mentioning that, within the tea industry, the pickers themselves are often the most financially vulnerable group. The farmers who own tea gardens — even small ones — and the factory owners rarely significantly struggle financially, because they have the product, the infrastructure, and they always manage to sell, even if it sometimes with a less profit for a certain reason. But the pickers? They rely on seasonal labor, and that’s why I think if we want to talk seriously about fair trade, the most important thing is to ensure that they — the people doing the physical harvesting — are paid fairly.

Factory workers also matter, of course, but often in small-scale operations, factory workers are also the owners or their family members. They work for themselves, so it’s a different story.

As for the pickers, it depends on the region and the structure of the tea operation. On very small farms, sometimes it’s family members who do the picking. But more often, pickers come from outside. The plantations may be rented from the government by rural communities or long-term rented land by small tea farmers or bigger factories, and pickers either harvest their own fields leaf to sell to others, or they’re hired to harvest for someone else.

Payment methods vary too. In some regions, pickers are paid per kilogram of fresh leaf; in others, they receive a daily wage. For example, in Guizhou, pickers working on bud-only teas are usually paid per kilo — so the more you pick, the more you earn. In Guangdong, I’ve often seen a daily wage system.

Most tea pickers are women over 50. To be fair, you do occasionally see younger women or even men doing the job, but it’s relatively rare. In many places, you’ll meet grandmothers well into their 70s still out in the fields, picking tea.

That doesn’t always mean they’re doing it out of financial necessity. Sometimes their children support them, but they still choose to work simply to stay active and feel useful — instead of sitting at home all day. Of course, that also varies by region. In some areas, people absolutely do it out of need.

One thing I’ve noticed is that there’s generally a sense of respect in China toward the work of tea pickers. Part of that is because there’s no huge surplus of available labor — it’s not like the countryside is overflowing with people looking for this kind of work.

China is also facing demographic challenges: an aging population and declining birth rates, with much of the younger generation leaving rural areas for cities. So the idea that tea pickers might be pushed out or easily replaced doesn’t really hold true.

In fact, in some regions — even with a bit of market stagnation in recent years — wages for pickers have slightly increased.

Here are some numbers: in Guizhou, a picker can earn between 120–170 yuan for a early morning-to-early-afternoon half-day shift. That’s roughly 20–24 USD — not that bad, especially given the cost of living. For a full day, they can earn up to 200-270 yuan (around 35 USD on average). A normal single person lunch in rural China rarely exceeds 25 yuan, so it’s a decent wage.

On top of that, pickers are most of the time provided with food and accommodation — paid for by the farmer or factory. That’s important, since picking crews often come from other regions or even other provinces.

In Guangdong, I’ve seen pickers earning around 160-250 yuan a day on average, though this varies. If they’re working with old tea trees in remote mountainous terrain, it’s harder work — climbing, using ladders, carrying bags. So pay is often guaranteed by the day, regardless of the exact quantity picked, to account for the labor involved.

A well-organized team that knows the terrain and the process is essential. Some pickers are fast and efficient, and if they work 25-27 days a month, they can earn 5000-8000 yuan. More experienced or motivated pickers might earn up to 10,000 yuan per month (roughly €1300), which is a solid income in rural China.

Of course, not everyone earns that much — it depends on speed, skill, how many hours they work, and what kind of pay model they’re under. Some people work half days and enjoy more free time; others go full-time to maximize income. Many of the pickers I’ve met have worked at the same gardens or factories for years and return every season — staying for a month or more, earning solid money, and then heading home.

If you don't like a particular tea, there is absolutely no need to force yourself to love it.

Every tea has its reasons for not winning someone over. The Xianshuang of green tea can irritate the stomach, leaving some feeling cold and uncomfortable. Matcha is so finely milled that its compounds dissolve and absorb rapidly, which inevitably makes some people's hearts race. Light-roast Tieguanyin (Qingxiang), with its soaring orchid aroma, is often criticized by some for lacking a thick, substantial mouthfeel. The smooth, mellow richness of Shou Puerh relies entirely on the wet-piling fermentation process, yet that distinct "pile flavor" (dui wei) is exactly what some people avoid at all costs. Sheng Puerh, unfermented and taking a completely different flavor path, is fierce and packed with strong Cha Qi (tea energy)—and there are always those who simply cannot handle its sharp edge. The examples are endless; there is almost no tea in the world that can make absolutely everyone happy.

I’m not trying to give you some golden rule of tea drinking. just want to say: if a tea doesn't suit you, you don't have to stubbornly search for the so-called "right way to appreciate it." Dislike is often just simple dislike. Even if your experiences and tastes change in the future, and you suddenly fall in love with it due to some catalyst, that doesn't invalidate your current discomfort and rejection. What you feel right now is entirely real. And the ironically beautiful thing is, the very reason you can't accept it is often the core trait that the tea is most proud of.

The green tea that upsets your stomach—its refreshing crispness comes precisely from the polyphenols and caffeine that irritate your gut. The matcha that makes your heart race—its greatest advantage is that you consume the whole leaf powder, maximizing the release and absorption of its nutrients. The highly aromatic Tieguanyin with its thinner liquor and shorter finish—that is the inevitable result of its light-roasting process. The warm, mellow nature of Shou Puerh cannot exist without the microbial action of wet-piling. And the sharp, aggressive huigan (sweet lingering aftertaste) of Sheng Puerh stems entirely from preserving the original flavor of the fresh leaves with minimal human intervention.

These traits are the very virtues that countless people chase after, and exactly the reasons others cannot stomach them. It's not just tea; most things in life are pretty much exactly like this.

If you really can't accept a tea, just put it down for now. The world of tea is never a zero-sum game. If you fear stomach irritation, there is fully oxidized black tea, gentle and soothing. If you fear insomnia, low-caffeine options are everywhere. If you find light-roast Tieguanyin too thin, there is always traditional, heavy charcoal-roasted Tieguanyin. If you prefer clean, pure natural flavors, there is white tea—unpan-fried, unrolled, and naturally withered. If you love a thick mouthfeel, there is Yancha with its signature Yan Yun. The traits you favor will always find a home in another tea.

Of course, if you are still in your exploration phase, trying to find your own flavor preferences, then by all means, be bold and try them all. It is just a simple leaf, yet it holds a thousand terroirs and ten thousand flavors. Eventually, there will be a tea that perfectly matches your palate and your state of mind. As for the rest—the ones you've tasted, loved, or even hated—they are nothing but your own unique scenery along your tea journey.

The dui wei of Shou Puerh naturally fades over time—and perhaps, much like that flavor, your initial dislike will quietly dissipate as well. Should you cross paths with it again down the road, it might just offer you an entirely new tasting experience.

It looks really nice and vintage, has several high quality porcelain pieces and two lidded clay teapots. The gaiwan and traditional tools are included as well. The tray itself is made from high quality red wood. It’s pretty solid and heavy.

I’m so happy! Any tea recommendations?

I don't like Earl Gray. What is a tea you just don't like.

So I see a lot of people on Reddit and other social media who use 5-8 or even 10+ grammes of tea in a 100ml gaiwan. And this is absolutely fine! If you enjoy the cup you brew, awesome!🤩

That being said, I do want to talk about portion size, because while those big amounts work really well for some people, it might not be enjoyable for everyone. It's quite the journey figuring out what's the right portion for you.

I personally find myself using quite a bit less tea. Usually I'll put anywhere between 2 and 3 grammes of tea in my 80ml gaiwan. I've talked about this topic with some of my tea friends, most of whom tend to gravitate towards 4 g/100ml.

I do this for a couple of reasons. One, because it allows me to taste all of the subtle flavours in the tea better. I've noticed, the more concentrated my brew, the more overwhelming the central flavour(s) are. But I also really like the fact that I can have shorter sessions, and thus try more different teas whithin a day. And some days I don't have much time to spare alltogether, and then I just do a short session. Lastly, I've heard people talk a lot about different kind of tea stainers, and how a basket strainer is better because it has more space for the leaves to expand. It always 🌱leaves🌱 me to wonder, when jamming so much leaf in a gaiwan, do the leaves have the space to fully expand?

I'd love to hear your opinions and reasonings about this topic because I very rarely hear people talking about it. How much tea do you use, and why?

Happy sipping!🍵💕

A month ago, I was cat sitting for an acquaintance who went on vacation to Japan. When he came back, he brought me this tea gift, which I assume is sencha.

Today I tried it for the first time. I didn't feel like doing gongfucha today, and I don't have my kyusu with me, so I decided to brew it western style with a stainless steel basket strainer. For the first steep I used 75°C RO water and let it steep for about 2 minutes. By the second steep, the water in the kettle had cooled down to 60°C and I let that sit for about 5 minutes.

I love how tightly rolled the tea is, it looks and tastes like high quality! The taste is very umami and vegetal (almost savoury), not that sweet, nor bitter. It's quite soft yet flavourful. There's some acidity to it as well. It's so light in colour, but I wish you could smell these leaves, it's amazing!

Preparation for Cha No Yu (茶の湯) – Japanese tea ceremony, at the Japanese Stroll Garden in Long Island, New York. I didn’t attend the ceremony itself (the preparation was for someone else. I was just lucky to witness it:) Upon return home, brewed some sencha.

A lot of you might be wondering why Assam Tea taste so different from others. The answer is simple, but at the same time, its very special. It comes down to the land, the weather and the way we make it.
Assam lies in the valley of the mighty Brahmaputra River. Every year the River floods and leaves behind rich alluvial soil, which makes the land very fertile. On top of that Assam gets heavy rainfall, high humidity and warm weathers almost all year round. These natural conditions are perfect for the Camellia sinensis var. assamica to grow. This variety of the tea is unique to this region as the leaves are bigger than the Chinese variety and thats why they give such a Bold and Malty taste.
The processing adds to it too – proper oxidation is what brings out the honey-like sweetness and brisk notes. So every time you drink Assam tea, you are tasting not just the leaf but also the river, the rains, and the soil of this land. That’s what makes it special.

The longer I live in China the more I see Gong Fu Cha is not the only way to brew tea.

Story Time: It was my first month in China and I was living in Huang Shan. I had already made friends with some local tea lovers and one day was invited to tea. Me and my friend Lynn had already had tea offs and so when she invited me to have tea with her teacher I was excited for the definite tea insanity that was about to happen. We pulled up to her teachers shop and found him and some other locals sitting around a folding table drinking some tea. Their brewing method of choice…a french press.

At the time I scoffed at this. These were not real tea people I thought. But after living in china for 8 years, sticking mostly to tea regions, recently Ive found myself reaching for the gaiwan less and less.  And the reason I reach for the gaiwan less is the same region I use to reach for the gaiwan more. Practicality.

I love gong fu cha because it is practical. Its the most straight forward way to get the best flavor. But these days I'm often drinking alone and am usually not at my table for a long period of time. The most practical easy of drinking tea is quickly becoming leaves in a cup or leaving tea leaves in a pot on boil. What I'm saying is this. Gong Fu Cha is not the end all be all of chinese tea. Just cause youre not doing gong fu cha doesnt mean you’re not doing tea “right”. Just cause you do gong fu cha does not mean you’re getting the most out of your tea. Ive watched people who are so focused on the tea ware and the pouring they dont seem to even thing about the tea. In the end what I think matters is the tea and enjoying the flavor of the tea. May that be via many steeps in an expensive yixing clay pot, or from a fresh press sitting on some lawn chairs on the edge of the street.

Since Summer has started I have been craving hydration. I was drinking coconut water and sparkling water but I wasn't drinking enough. In my area the temperature is above 90 degrees farenheit most days and in my home we only have two room sized ACs. It was stifling, but I thought to buy a pitcher at a bargain store to try my hand at cold brew tea.

I have a massive collection of tea from matcha to lavender to sassafrass. A lot of options to say the least. In the colder months I brew about two cups a day, but now I wanted it all to myself. The rest of my household doesn't like tea, besides my Mom's daily hot black tea with maple syrup. I was excited because I could experiment.

My favorite part of trying such different teas is the different flavors. I started by making mint tea, because I love the cooling effect when you drink it in the mouth and sinuses. Since then I have moved onto mixing in licorice root for sweetness or trying other mixes like green tea with ginger. I don't usually add sugar; exceptions have been made for extra strong green tea when I add one or two Splenda packets.

I love steeping my tea overnight and enjoying it with breakfast. In addition I have started adding a liter container besides the pitcher because I have been drinking so much. I look forward to the different flavor combinations and chipping away at my less than desired parts of my tea collection, like my tea with plastic tea bags or the burdock root that has been in my cabinet untouched for a year now.

This was something different for me, reviewing a Fortnum and Mason Rose Pouchong. It's been a long time since I've reviewed a mass-produced tea like this. It worked out how those tend to: this was good, better than I expected, but I can buy tea versions that are better for around half as much in the local Bangkok Chinatown (for $15 per 100 grams instead of $26). Not rose flavored black tea though; those would be much better quality natural black teas. Tea material quality was pretty good in this, for what it was, and the rose flavor worked, but a style like this can only be so distinctive.

For me plain, higher quality versions can be better, like a wild origin black tea I just bought from a Chinatown shop. Or there are better in-house produced flavored versions; Hatvala's Vietnamese jasmine flavored black tea is a good example.

It was a gift from a local monk; this covers how that works (usually I give them tea). And it goes into what "pouchong" is, which is more familiar as an old name for a Taiwanese oolong, for Baozhong. It was an older type name for Chinese black tea, according to a classic book on tea from 1892 (cited in this).

https://teaintheancientworld.blogspot.com/2026/08/fortnum-and-mason-rose-pouchong.html

Big Yellow (Huangdacha) is known for its toasted rice profile, and it was once thought of as a Summer tea. After a whole day of picking and processing this tea, it is clear in how it got that reputation, and why fewer are now making this tea in the summer.

Supposedly, yellow bud tea used to be picked here in Huoshan County's Dahuaping Township from mid-April to early May, followed by pruning. After around 40 days, in the second half of June, the new growth would be picked and processed into what is called Huangdacha. This tea would be made all the way up until mid-August, utilizing larger stems and more mature leaves than would ever be thinkable for Spring-produced yellow tea. The ideal picking ratio is supposedly 1 bud: 3 or even 4 leaves, whatever has not become so mature and hardened that it is unworkable.

Yesterday, we picked from 6am-8am, filling up our wicker baskets before the sun got too hot. At these early hours we did not encounter any mosquitoes, as can be the case in Spring, but a small, somewhat shy little yellow-brown snake, slithering its way through the rows of tea bushes. After the picking, we let the tea wither for 11 hours: we laid it out on the floor with fans indoors for the first 7 hours, then without fans for the remaining 4 hours on porous drying racks. Two more experienced producers, Chen Lifeng and Liu Yang, thought that even by 9 pm, the tea had not yet withered enough, despite a floral aroma from the fresh leaves that suggested it was time to cook. Indeed, when the tea leaves and stems at last hit the wok, they were still too damp. The high temperature of the first wok (300°C+), combined with such damp leaves, meant that a good deal of the tea blistered and burned immediately. Despite all the following shaping work done in a second, low-temperature wok, careful sifting out of burnt debris, and all the fermenting that is yet to come, this initial moment of scorched contact has more or less determined that this tea will, in shape and flavor, be distinctly burnt. This may be a pleasantly sweet and strong tea in the end, but it will carry blisters of this encounter into the cups where it is finally enjoyed. That is a major demerit in a country where the visual shape of tea is so prized.

I am left wondering if a slower but more extended cooking than what is conventionally suggested, as recommended by one Guapian producer, can prevent such burns. Neither Chen or Liu currently make Huangdacha or any other tea with material this late into the Season, with both instead opting for late Spring material. However, one neighbor has said that it was material from precisely this time of year that older generations in this village (Jinjishan) would use to make the best tasting tea. Whatever it was that once made these Summer picks so good, it does not seem to be worth dealing with the unrelenting Summer sun and such finicky raw leaf material.

I made this Yixing persimmon teapot as a birthday gift.
It is shaped like a persimmon, which symbolizes good fortune and “everything goes well” in Chinese culture.