The first flush tea
of 2012 will come to the market soon in early April. More and more people will
begin to source the teas to replenish the stock. Here, we listed five common
misconceptions we concluded when people buying Chinese teas in recent years. Read
them, you may become more experienced and better prepared in tea purchasing in
2012.
Misconception #1 Expensive teas are definitely better
than the cheaper ones.
Here, we don't just
mean it for the teas sold by different vendors because it is obvious that it is
not so under the circumstances. Even it is not right when we study the
relations of the prices and the quality of the teas dealt with by the same
vendor. As a commodity, tea price is
mainly decided by the supply-demand relations. That is
to say, in fact, people's preference which is sometimes irrational has great influence
to tea prices.
For example, Dragon Well and Biluochun are almost the
most expensive green teas in China.
Do you know why they are so expensive? Of
course, they are wonderful indeed, but is it the only reason for the high price?
No, another main reason is that they are produced in Suzhou
and Hangzhou, the two wealthiest places in China dubbed as
paradise by Chinese intellectuals and poets. That is why Dragon Well and
Biluochun are easily known and become so popular. Some others kinds of teas
such as Huoshan Huangya, Dinggu Da Fang, Huangshan Mao Feng are also wonderful in
quality, however, they are not so fortunate as Dragon Well and Biluochun because
they are produced in the remote areas and are difficult to be transported to towns
and cities especially in ancient times. Therefore, if you want to buy Chinese
teas, don't just focus on Dragon Well and Biluochun, some other teas good in
quality but low in price are also good options. As a matter of fact, China is so big
and there are so many famous teas.
Another example, nowadays, Chinese crave for the
Mingqian tea (tea harvested before Qingming around 5th April), driving the price
of the Mingqian tea such as Mingqian Dragon Well Tea to the sky high. Is the
Mingqian Dragon Well Tea really so good? Is it worthwhile? Not necessarily. Tea
quality is determined by many factors such as the tea cultivar, growing area, and
harvest time and production method. Harvest time is only one of the factors.
Now a great deal of Mingqian Dragon Well Tea we found in the market was made of
tealeaves from one tea cultivar named as Wuniuzao. The Dragon Well Tea made
from Wuniuzao cultivar is much worse in taste and flavor compared with the ones
from the traditional cultivar Longjing Qunti while Cultivar Wuniuzao is more
than 10 days earlier than the Qunti cultivar in tea buds sprouting, and more
and more tea farmers join in growing Wuniuzao so that they can produce more
Mingqian tea and earn more money. During recent years, the Wuniuzao Dragon Well
Tea is growing fast in quantity year by year.
Misconception #2 Teas harvested earlier such as
Mingqian tea is definitely better than those harvested later
Not necessarily, you can see it from what we’ve talked above in Misconception #1. In fact tea
cultivar plays a bigger role in tea quality than the harvest time. And here is
another example. You know the temperature becomes lower when the altitude
increases in the same area and we all know teas growing at high mountains are
much better than those at the lower altitude of the same area, however, they
are much later in sprouting, sometimes later more than 15 to 20 days. And we find
teas made of leaves harvested from high mountains of 1000 meters above the sea level
around Mid April are always better than Mingqian tea at the foot of the
mountain.
Misconception #3 I can buy the authentic famous teas so
long as I go to the producing areas of its origin.
Every year, when tea farmers start harvesting and producing teas, huge
crowds pour into the producing area, especially in Mejiawu, Hangzhou, the core
producing area of Dragon Well and Dongshan, Xishan, the two core producing area
of Biluochun. Can they really get the authentic Dragon Well or Biluochun by doing
so? Not necessarily.
Thanks to the celebrity status of Dragon Well and Biluochun, the local
Chaqing (plucked fresh tealeaves but not processed) is several times higher in
price than those in other areas, and the local Chaqing which is quite limited
can't meet the high demand. The huge profit drives people to find lucrative
ways. More than 20 years ago, Chaqing from the Huangshan, Anhui
province and Wuyuan, Jiangxi
province were brought to Hangzhou
for production. Both areas are close to Hangzhou
and have a great deal of quality Chaqing. However, in recent years, to meet the
high demand of Mingqian Dragon Well and Biluochun, Chaqing from Sichuan and Guizhou are
brought by air to Hangzhou.
By dong so, it can not only solve the shortage of the local Chaqing but also produce
much more Mingqian tea because the tea trees sprout almost one month earlier
than the ones in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
Misconception #4 Pay too much attention to the grade
of the tea.
The grading of tea is much sophisticated and confusing. For example, there
are commonly six grades of Dragon Well tea but some tea manufactures have their
own unique grading system and there are always the grade emerging that you may
have never heard of in the market such as Supreme, Special AAA, and Jipin. You
will be confused by the grades even as a professional. We suggest you care
about it but don't pay too much attention to it. The best way is to make a
sample comparison between teas of similar prices without caring too much about
the grades.
Misconception #5 Green tea should be green in color
and the greener the better
Totally false, nowadays, more and more people even young Chinese assume
dried green tea should be green in color and the tea in yellowish color is not
the tea of the current year. To take people's fancy, more and more tea makers
make the tea light roasted, resulting in greener tea with bad taste. In fact,
authentic Dragon Well tea made in the traditional ways is yellowish in color
instead of green, the same as Huangshan Maofeng.
