Similar to wine in western culture, Chinese tea is all about quality!

A good cup of tea has been described as ‘sweetest dew from heaven’.

The range of tea quality is very broad, from: Top quality that is difficult to put a price on to very basic such as most of tea bags.

For most of the Chinese teas (except Pu-erh tea), GOOD TEA IS FRESH TEA! 

Tea quality: good or bad?

The last step of tea processing is sorting and grading. When the tea leaves are dried, they are sorted by equipments that are able to sort according to the various sizes of tea leaves. This first stage of professional grading is often not based on the taste and inner quality, but based on the outer appearance and characters (color, shape, size etc). There is however a strong correlation between the tea inner quality and their general characters. Teas of top quality will guarantee to have excellent outer characters.

Teas sorting process roughly divides teas into two major groups: leaf tea and broken tea. There are also fanning and dust tea after and they are often used to fill tea bags. Sorting is a very important stage of tea making. Various size tea leaves produce teas of very different concentration, continuity, color and taste. The bigger the tea leaves are, the longer it takes to brew.

Whilst different teas vary in their appearance and taste there are some basic indicators of quality as follows:

1. Appearance:

• Tea leaves should be freshly glossy with tight but full bodies. Leaves should be equal in size. (Please expand the photos in our shop to look for these characteristics and compare against other suppliers).
• Tea liquid should be bright and clear. (There are some teas, such as some green and white teas, that are made of very young tip tea leaves that are covered with white fur from the original leaves. This could result in white fur resolving in the tea liquid and should be distinguished from tea of bad quality.) 

2. Smell:

Fresh and fragrant when package is first opened.

2. Taste:

• Unlike most other beverages, the magic flavor of tea is often in its after taste. Words used to describe this include: lingering, refreshing, smooth, aromatic etc.
• Premium quality green teas sometimes taste slightly bitter at the beginning, followed by a beautifully refreshing, mellow taste that lingers for long time.  A clear mind and calm body are associated by-products of drinking a quality tea.

Teas of bad quality: In contrast, teas of bad quality are often dark and dull in color, leaves in various sizes with plenty of dust, moldy in smell and tea liquid cloudy. Tea tastes rough and bitter, lack of lingering and refreshing after taste. 

Novice tea drinkers take some time to appreciate the quality differentials (similar to wine tasting). However, with experience comes the issue that  "once you have tasted and appreciated good quality tea, the memory of this makes it easier to discern lower quality - and harder to be satisfied with it'’.

What makes the differences between premium quality and low quality tea?

1. Plants and Harvesting

• Plant quality.
• Right environment: sun shine, rain fall, altitude of the plantation and soil condition.
• Correct harvesting: Leaves are picked at the optimal time of the each year, harvested during the day and processed at night. This crucial element sometime comes down to a matter of hours. Working during the harvest seasons is often is 24hrs around the clock.

2. Skill and experience:

• It has taken thousands of years of experiences and skills to fine tune the art of tea making - “Manual production reflecting tradition and outstanding craftsmanship (China)”.
• The art of processes tea is complicated and involves many steps.  The delicacy of the process is such that the person in charge could make the difference between the finest tea and the tea of low quality on any particular day.
• Compromises in any step will affect the quality of the final product.

3. Fresh tea

Tea is a very fragile product. Even the top quality teas could deteriorate rapidly when exposed to:

• light
• high temperature
• moisture
• foreign odor

Some downfalls of the teas on the current market:

• Most of tea bags are made of low quality tea dust to the effect that it is hard to distinguish whether it is fresh or not.Loose leaf tea.

• Most of the packaged loose leaf teas currently on the market are not adequately packaged in air tight bags or containers. The teas are continuously exposed to moisture in the air, high temperature and odors from surrounding products.

At Valley Green Tea, we only import teas that are seasonally produced. We use the latest techniques for storing high quality loose leaf teas - vacuum seal, refrigeration and small satchel packaging. The small satchel packaging (10-25g) allows teas to be consumed gradually without exposing the unopened satchels unnecessarily.  We also air transported our teas to Australia to minimize the time of un-refrigerated storage.