teanamu tea shop

tea:- the inside scoop!

The scientific name for the true tea bush is camellia sinensis. Three of the most common versions of this are camellia sinensis var. sinensis (China bush), camellia sinensis var. assamica (Assam bush) and camellia sinensis var. cambodi (Java bush). The China bush can produce equally good green teas, oolongs and black teas, and tends to have less tannin than Assam or Java. Each version of camellia sinensis has many subdivisions. All together there are more than a thousand subvarieties of the tea bush. Many tea types have been specifically bred - for example, to withstand cold or parasites or to maximise their subtle, umami sweet flavour - and given different methods of processing, diverse traditions and tastes, and the many regional variations, there are actually more than 300,000 different teas in the world, each with a different terroir, leaf size and shape, flavour profile and so on. It’s enough to keep the most zealous tea lover permanently interested and stimulated!

There are many fascinating, rare teas such as Phoenix Single Bush tea, an oolong varietal grown deriving from a cutting from one of just 18 distinct, unique ‘mother’ bushes up to 900 years old. Each mother bush has its own distinct flavour and aroma, and according to various nuances in taste and fragrance, Phoenix Single Bush can be further categorized into more than 80 sub-varieties.

tea mountains and tea gardens

The China tea bush grows 1 to 3 metres high and thrives on cool, south-facing slopes 2000 metres above sea level where the water and air are less polluted, the light is diffuse and the mists provide shelter. Often these are originally wild, random, hillside clusters which became the basis of human-cultivated plantings. The bush’s wild domed shape is often flattened through pruning in order to make the hand-picking of the newest growth easier. The very same bush in Japan, on the other hand, is harvested via highly mechanised shearing, and so is allowed to grow taller and is trimmed somewhat differently, and is organised in huge, flat, meticulously planned tea gardens.

plucking the tea

There are very many stages of tea processing - such as plucking, sorting, cleaning, drying, rolling, roasting, blotting, sifting, rattling, bruising, tumbling, smoking, scenting, firing and finishing - which vary from tea to tea but many of which are common to all teas.

Particularly with our fine teas, every stage, from plucking, through processing, to finishing, packing and brewing, involves incredibly precise, artisanal craftsmanship, working with small quantities of tea leaves and hand tools, such as bamboo sieves, or simple machinery, following techniques passed down through many generations.

First comes the plucking of the fresh leaves, typically in China done by hand and starting early in the morning. Tea pickers will use a style of handwork that has been perfected to suit the particular tea variety, terroir, season and so on. With some teas the picker must pay particular attention to picking just certain parts of the plant, such as a bud with a single leaf, or larger leaves, or the tenderest shoots, whereas with other tea varieties the pickers pluck more randomly and separate out the sizes, shapes and types of picking at a subsequent sorting and cleaning stage. Uniformity of leaf is critical throughout the processing stages.

Tea picked in early spring is often the most highly prized, the bush having had the whole winter to rest, regenerate and accumulate nutrients. These teas are naturally free from any infestation, rendering even organic pesticides otiose. But some oolongs, for example, are considered at their finest when plucked in the autumn. Each tea variety in each region will have its distinct picking times.

from leaf picking to the finished tea

After plucking, the leaves are carried down the slopes in baskets or cloth pouches to be processed either in a farm-site workshop on the farm itself or local factory. The baskets or pouches are considered suitable because they promote air circulation and protect the leaves from damage by compression. There is a quick gentle hand-sorting to remove twigs, pebbles and broken leaf fragments, then the leaves are left to air dry. Drying recurs actually at several stages in the production of most teas, and it helps to ‘fix’ the leaf shape. In the case of oolongs and black teas, the primary drying phase is elongated and known as ‘withering’.

The short, primary drying of green tea leaves helps prevent oxidation (the darkening of the leaf). Oolongs and black teas, on the other hand, will go through a further rolling process that actually breaks the leaves at a cellular level so as to bring out the ‘juice’, a crucial factor in natural oxidation (the darkening of the leaves through the reaction of polyphenols with oxygen in the air, catalysed by enzymes in the leaves). The art of the tea master is to halt the oxidation process at just the right point. White tea, for example, may have an oxidation level of 8%, but this will vary according to the unique qualities of each particular white tea. Oolongs range from 10-20% oxidised up to 80%, and black tea is fully oxidised (red or ‘post-oxidised’ teas like Pu Erh are fermented, i.e. chemically reacting with bacteria not oxygen, and over periods of years).

A word here about the delightful category known as oolongs, or ‘blue’ teas. They cover a vast, wondrous range, being cultivated and processed according to the style of tea favoured in each region and the choices made by the individual tea maker. Lightly oxidised oolongs are fruity or flowery and aromatic, having light brown leaves with tinges of green. More fully oxidised, traditional-style oolongs tend to have a dark appearance and a deep, rich flavour and aroma suggestive of wood or leather. The best oolongs are handmade and replicate age-old techniques, baked or roasted over charcoal fires in bamboo baskets or rotating drums.

The pan-firing of tea fixes the ‘juice’ in the leaf and drives other moisture out, it seals the flavour in, helps dry the leaf to the proper moisture content before finish-firing, and adds a special toastiness. The large pan-firing woks vary in sophistication and heat source, for example wood or electricity. The pan-firing is done by hand, with small amounts of leaves at a time, over an even gentle heat, around 180-200°C. A tiny amount of solidified tea-seed oil is used to help the leaves glide around the wok without burning. The tea master, hands full of callouses after years of this work, will painstakingly glide the leaves around the wok without burning them (assisted by a tiny amount of solidified tea-seed oil), employing particular movements which depend on the shape and other intended qualities of the particular leaves. For example, Dragon Well green tea, an excellent example of a pan-fired tea, requires ten specific hand movements, which are geared to flattening the leaves in a particular way. Bi Luo Chun is pan-fired with different hand movements aimed at producing a particular, curly, spiralled shape and leaf colour.

scented tea

Scenting of tea may be effected by adding essential oils. However, our teas are actually scented at an earlier stage through a more traditional process that ensure the natural fragrances are properly absorbed into the as yet ‘unfinished’ tea. Scenting may be with natural fruits but to take the example of scenting with flowers such as jasmine, the pickers will start gathering thousands upon thousands of fresh flower buds around noon, when all traces of dew have evaporated. The harvesting date will have been chosen with a view to picking the jasmine just when its colour has changed from ivory to white. The blossoms are then kept around 40°C for a few hours to encourage the aroma to develop, and the buds continue to open partially, then they are introduced to the base tea by being layered together, over and over, in vast ‘carpets’ of tea leaves and jasmine blossoms. With the highest quality scented teas, the flowers are changed several times and the scenting process can last up to a week. The blossoms impart their scent to the tea leaves, and the tea, when brewed, has a delicate but distinctive taste and a wonderful, sumptuous aroma.

japanese green tea

Japanese tea production differs in several key respects. It is almost always green and thus unoxidised tea. Generally the appearance of the tea leaf is very much subsidiary to the flavour and aroma of the final brew. Two factors are particularly noteworthy: (a) sun shading and (b) steaming. To boost the glutamate content and thus the umami sweetness of the tea leaves, several varieties, such as gyokuro, are grown under shade for some weeks before harvesting. Vast screens of rice straw or synthetic netting are built as temporary constructions to cover entire tea gardens. This simulates what it is like for the tea bushes that grow in China on high mountainsides, where the light is diffuse. The other distinctively Japanese process is the steaming of the leaves, added in as an additional step in the early stages of green tea manufacture. This ‘fixes’ the vivid, dark, emerald colour of the leaves and preserve their natural enzymes packed with flavour. Standard steaming last for less than a minute, while deep steaming imparts a deeper colour and stronger flavour. Steamed leaf tea present more vegetal, sometimes kelpy character, often likened to spinach.

tea personalities

japanese green collection purest steamed, subtle, leafy teas	green collection grassy, sweet, like freshest morning dew	oolong collection sophisticated & aromatic for the afternoon	scented collection floral or fruity, irresistible any time
black collection deep, opulent, after-dinner decadence	white collection smooth, delicate, clean, soft and fresh	pu erh collection vintaged, earthy, nutritious, biscuity	teaware collection cherish your teas with beautiful accessories

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