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Before leaving China, I knew I had to get one; a proper tea set, complete with a teapot, cups to share and a beautiful glaze. After all, that’s what’s important, right? I wanted a teapot as brilliant as the tea inside.
And that’s what I thought was most important, or rather, the only element important when purchasing a tea set—the look, design and feel it resonates. Important, true, but to be the only detail, well, that was my novice mistake, no doubt.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of a casual tea consumer without a clue, just as easily as the souvenir-hunter is famously ripped off. But I was not just seeking any castaway souvenir, but a travel gift of great purpose; so when I finally set out for the mass of markets, I wanted to know which teapot to buy and why. 
Essentially, for a novice, what to know when purchasing a quality teapot?
In the nooks of many streets of China, off and dead-on the tourist trail, teahouses flourish. And besides selling China’s best—oolong, pu-erh, jasmine, green tea, black tea—they also sell all its tools. You can find unique, old, antique and China factory-made tea cups, pots, spoons, stirrers, anything you could wish for a robust cup of cha, tea.
The first question to ask when making the plunge for a new teapot—what kind of tea are you looking to brew the most? Basically, what are your tea intentions?
Understandingly a difficult question to answer if you are the novice tea drinker in question, but theguidelines below will outline why. A pewter pot? You shouldn’t have, really.
Size: Like a McDonald’s meal, you can upgrade to big in the tea world, luckily without the guilt here. The traditional Chinese manner of serving, however, remains small. The advantages? While the large pot allows the individual to reap more tea per pot without much effort, the quality and taste of the tea can be compromised because the leaves continually rest in the pot and can become over-steeped. A small Chinese pot, however, requires the leaves to be removed and hot-boiling water to be added for each serving poured. For green tea lovers, the Chinese style is perfect.
Material: Not just porcelain, teapots can be made with more materials than usually known, including jade, tetsubin (coated iron), crystal, agate, silver, stainless steel and glazed iron. However, it’s recommended to stay away from pewter, aluminum, uncoated iron, plastic, lacquered bamboo or other synthetics when looking to buy. Why? The latter are materials that oxidize easily and therefore can affect the taste of the tea, though none are actually harmful.
However, the most popular are glass, porcelain and clay. Here’s why:
While glass does not retain the heat as other materials, glass does provide a perfect view of the visual transformation of the tea bud to the leafy green. Moreover, glass does not taint the flavor of the tea, nor change the color of it. If you buy glass, be prepared to enjoy your tea right that moment for optimum warmth and taste. Herbal gourmet teas are the best match for a glass pot as they look best with their colorful, almost potpourri-like blends.
A much better heat trapper, porcelain is a classic choice for a teapot. Again, porcelain is another material that does not enhance nor take away from the taste of the tea. Black tea is an ideal brew for porcelain teapots.
However, for the best, clay is the name. Porous in nature, clay pots can actually take up the aroma of the tea, while also altering the texture, aroma and taste of the tea once poured. As so, many people only brew a single variety of tea in each clay pot they own, an oolong clay pot or a pu-erh one. The famous type of clay pot is the Yixing, also called Zisha, made from unique clay only found in the Yixing region of China. The best grade of it can be strong enough to hold the weight of a person.
Of course, if style, not material, is your forte, a teapot also serves a good dose of that too.
My choice: A small Chinese pot, made with an equally traditional red and black glaze, perfect for the black tea I bought on my Yunnan adventures!
 Think it's a good idea to keep your fine loose leaf tea sitting on top of your stove or near a window exposed to sunlight? Not if you want to make it last long enough to enjoy through next winter. If tea is properly stored, it can potentially last up to a year for green, oolong and black teas. White tea lasts about six months before it isn't as good in quality as when fresher. Stale tea will taste flat, as if you are sipping liquid cardboard. Here are the do's and don'ts of properly storing loose leaf tea:
DO:
- Keep fresh tea away from air, heat, light, and moisture. Each of these will cause the tea to deteriorate or to go stale.
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Place the loose leaf tea in a non-plastic container. Preferably use a container that is made from tin or aluminum. Plastic can transfer an odor and spoil the taste of the tea. It should be airtight; if not, place the tea in a sealable bag first, although be careful of the odor of the bag if it's plastic. After usage, tightly close or seal the container every single time. This ensures that the tea maintains its freshness, flavor and aroma.
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Store the tea in a dark, cool, and dry location. Light and moisture are tea's biggest enemies as they will activate enzymes that contribute to its decomposition. The perfect place to store tea is in a pantry that has an automatic light switch and its temperature constant, unaffected by climate change. A kitchen cabinet is the next best location. Keep flavored tea apart from plain varietal or origin (pure) teas. Otherwise, the flavored tea will overpower all the other teas in the cubby. Conduct a sniff test before storing. Blended teas may have a flavor that is overwhelming. Keep smoky teas well separated; they are the most potent.
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Buy smaller quantities of tea and drink them faster to retain freshness.
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Tightly seal bag or close tin after each use.
DO NOT:
- Place tea over the stove. The heat and moisture will harm it.
- Place tea in the refrigerator or freezer. This will burn the taste and kill the aroma.
- Store tea in a garage. It will be exposed to light and moisture which are the primary causes of deteriorating tea.
- Purchase tea that comes in a see-through glass container. You may not know how long that tea has been sitting on the shelf.
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I’ve never been great at origami, but if it means not slaving over keigo (敬語), honorifics, or memorizing hundreds of kanji ( 漢字), Chinese characters, in Japanese class – I’ll try it!
In Iowa, high schools and colleges joined together to make 1 million cranes to send to Japan to show support. And so, our sensei (先生) taught us how to make paper cranes.
Mine didn’t turn out so well... but I am still proud of it!
I previously wrote on the safety of Japanese imported tea after radioactive contamination fears. In my research, the affected areas of Japan were not the major tea growing prefectures.
So which ones are?
Japan has 47 prefectures – three of which grow the majority of Japanese green tea – Shizuoka, Kagoshima, and Mie.
Shizuoka is located between Mt. Fuji and the Pacific coast west of Tokyo. This area actually accounts for 40% of Japan’s commercial production each year!
Kagoshima is located in southern Kyushu, in the far southwest of Japan; this area produces around 20% of tea leaves. Lastly, is Mie, which is located in central Japan.
Japan was influenced by China’s culture, and created their own tea culture, now Japanese sencha (煎茶) is a major mainstay tea in Japan and in America as well.
It was actually by accident that I discovered Qingming's other significant role--it's mark on tea prices.
Who knew?
I was planning my holiday escape from Zhengzhou, Henan, when I decided to research its roots of reverly. With 5,000 years of existence, Chinese history and traditions can easily get confusing.
Qingming, I found, is translated in several fashions in English, sometimes quite literally as Tomb Sweeping Day, or more poetically as the Pure Brightness Festival or still yet, the Clear Bright Ming Festival. Under all names, it's a day for the dead and respecting the spirits of ancestors. Food is traditionally brought to the altars of the dead, as well as, wine, chopsticks, joss paper, and as suspected, tea. Notably, the sweeping of tombs is involved too.
But why then does tea have such a significant importance on this festival, this day?
Rather separate from tombs, tea's economic value swiftly changes on the date. As it's known, tea that is "pre-Qingming" meaning fresh green tea leaves that are picked before the Qingming date, are given special status, and thus higher prices. Why? As the origin of Qingming may tell by its age, dating back more than 2,500 years, time has yielded wisdom. The tea plants plucked before the April 5th date usually produce teas with lighter and subtler aromas. Thus, as greater taste and quality usually keep company with--higher prices.
What is the most confusing place for people to make a choice? It is probably the supermarket. As a tea-savvy, the most time-consuming aisle for me in the supermarket is the beverage. There are a whole bunch of almost the same-size boxes lying on the shelf and usually they can be categorized by different standards. They can be divided into Green, Black and Herbal. They can be categorized by organic and non-organic. People can even choose them according to those emotional adjustment functions, which I never believe so, such as calm, passion or refresh. Or trying to pick out what you need by this so typical American way, caffeine or caffeine-free.
Actually, there is another way to make your tea choice, which is seldom chosen by me. The way is choosing the tea by production regions. And the reason why I never try this way is that I can rarely find Chinese Tea category.( Indian is the most popular tea here, I think!) People always get interested in what they hardly know. How about starting the navigation of tea production regions around the world from China, the original tea production country?
First off, all the tea in China is grown in the southern half of China. Not only southern China the birthplace of tea (Yunnan to be more specific), but of course the climate is ideal. Northern China is simply too cold.
The divided growing regions of China are: Southwest, North of the Yangtze (Gansu, Shanxi, Henan and Shandong), South of the Yangtze (Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu, Hunan, Jiangxi and Zhejiang) and South China (Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian, and Hainan).
The Southwest district is comprised of Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou and the southern part of Tibet. This region has a subtropical monsoon climate which is the perfect weather for tea to grow. Yunnan is considered the birthplace of tea well-known for the oldest living tea tree there. The oldest living tea tree is an incredible 1700 years old and the oldest cultivated tree is 800 years old. Yunnan produces mainly black tea but also produces some white, green and oolong. Nearly all Pu-er is also made in Yunnan. Guizhou is famous for growing Yunwu, a rare and style of green tea that is hard to be found in the US. Sichuan produces mostly green as well as black and yellow tea. Tibet grows very little tea that is most often made into low grade pu-erh or black tea. The soil in these provinces is mainly yellow or brown, which a kind of sour soil and most suitable for tea planting.
The North of the Yangtze district refers to Henan, Shanxi, Gansu and Shangdong. This region also includes the northern sections of Anhui, Jiangsu. This region produces mainly green tea and is not famous for quality. Tea in this region may suffer drought due to uneven rainfall. This means that there are micro climates that are great for growing. The soil is chiefly yellow and yellow-brown. Liu An Guapian, Xinyang and Maojian are grown in the more favorable micro-climates here.
The South of the Yangtze district refers to Zhejiang, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu. This region is the bread and butter so to speak of tea production in China. There are some incredibly famous gardens and micro regions here and the annual production totals about 2/3s of the entire crop of China. 4 seasons are clearly defined. This region produces mainly green, black and scented tea. This region is home to 5 of the 10 famous teas of China. The soil type is mainly red with some yellow and yellow-brown soil. 60-80% of the precipitation is concentrated in the summer and spring.
The South China district includes Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Hainan, an island off the south coast of China. The soil type is classified as old clay and red clay in other parts. This soil is very nutritious. This region gets a lot of annual rainfall and the period of growth for the tea trees is 10 months out of the year. Black/red, green and oolong tea are produced here. The most noteworthy of these types of tea is oolong. Anxi and Wuyi Shan, two of the most famous growing areas for oolongs are in this district.
This is just some basic information I threw together to give a basic idea of what the growing regions of China are like. Honestly, as a Chinese, I don’t know even more than that until I go to those regions and tea gardens.
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