Just to clarify: First pick green tea is not always the best

Non-oxidized tea
Post Reply
Sweetestdew
Vendor
Posts: 60
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 10:33 pm
Location: Huang Shan, China
Contact:

Fri Apr 03, 2020 9:11 am

This morning I came back from Hou Gu which is in the core region of Huang Shan and produces a Mao Feng that was really loved last year.
I was there April 1st and the first thing the guy who makes the tea said to me was, it's too early.
They were picking tea, they were making tea, but the tea was too small.

Green tea has an optimial size, different for each tea, before this size the flavor of the tea is too weak and has no flavor/complexity. I tasted some of the tea that was picked that day. It has sweetness, some floralness, but just tasted like the rinse steep of a tea; tasting like a flavor was about to come but never did. (granpa styled it, whole bunch of leaves in a small cup)

Things like first pick/first flush and pre qing ming are good for beginners, but I think as people get more into chinese tea they should understand the first pick may not always be the best.

Any thoughts on my thoughts?
User avatar
Bok
Vendor
Posts: 5782
Joined: Wed Oct 04, 2017 8:55 am
Location: Taiwan

Fri Apr 03, 2020 9:33 am

Sweetestdew wrote:
Fri Apr 03, 2020 9:11 am
This morning I came back from Hou Gu which is in the core region of Huang Shan and produces a Mao Feng that was really loved last year.
I was there April 1st and the first thing the guy who makes the tea said to me was, it's too early.
They were picking tea, they were making tea, but the tea was too small.

Green tea has an optimial size, different for each tea, before this size the flavor of the tea is too weak and has no flavor/complexity. I tasted some of the tea that was picked that day. It has sweetness, some floralness, but just tasted like the rinse steep of a tea; tasting like a flavor was about to come but never did. (granpa styled it, whole bunch of leaves in a small cup)

Things like first pick/first flush and pre qing ming are good for beginners, but I think as people get more into chinese tea they should understand the first pick may not always be the best.

Any thoughts on my thoughts?
Makes complete sense to me.

Same goes for:
The competition winner is not always the best tea of its kind.
The organic tea is not always better, than the not organic
The full handmade traditional tea by some individual old guy is not always better than a modern farm tea

and so on...
.m.
Posts: 877
Joined: Wed Oct 11, 2017 3:26 pm
Location: Prague

Fri Apr 03, 2020 10:30 am

Sweetestdew wrote:
Fri Apr 03, 2020 9:11 am
tasting like a flavor was about to come but never did
I've had experiences like that a few times with a very fine leaf early spring tea -- looking exquisite, but lacking some robustness, never found the right way to brew it.
Post Reply