Cha Bing — Compressed Tea

Piles of compressed tea discuses, some open and chipped for making tea, some in wrapped form, some in the original bamboo bark wraps

A very old origin Done in the beginning as a means of packaging, compression to contain tea leaves in cha bing and other compact forms has evolved through the millennia. It was mainly green tea back in the early days.…

One camera, 22 years in tea

Leo taking picture of tea leaves using a Canon Powershot G5

Not long ago I needed to prepare the training for a batch of new staff intake. As I went through our own online information for teaching materials, came across this photo again. Haven’t seen it for years. It was from…

Bead Shape Oolongs

Closeup of a bead-shape oolong

[spb_text_block animation=”none” animation_delay=”0″ simplified_controls=”yes” custom_css_percentage=”no” padding_vertical=”0″ padding_horizontal=”0″ margin_vertical=”0″ custom_css=”margin-top: 0px;margin-bottom: 0px;” border_size=”0″ border_styling_global=”default” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”] Before people started rolling tea leaves into beads, all oolongs used to be only one form — twiggy curls of dark colour tiny sticks.…

Darkening of an Iron Goddess

A deep baked tea

Making of the Queen in Gongfu Tea There exist two distinct styles of Tieguanyin — Iron Goddess of Mercy — the green bouquet style and deep-baked dark brown classic style. While some people like their green style as fresh as…

Freshness vs staleness

The tea producer turning coal at the tea baking oven

Master Wang of Taiping makes our Taiping Houkui Traditional. It is a green tea that I have always thought best when fresh, but not oven fresh kind of fresh. That is because immediately after the tea is baked the infusion…