Video: En Jie - tea tasting/evaluating at a Tea House
The concept of quality differentiation is important in Chinese tea. Within China for the same tea (for example Dragon Well), the market value of high quality loose leaf teas could be up to thousand times that of the low quality loose leaf ones. Note :This is not even considering tea dust for that tea type (the lowest grade of teas and normally used to make tea bags.)
There are manay factors influencing tea quality, but the ultimate judge of the final product is the consumer.
In China, consumers go to tea houses to sample the teas before they purchase. These tea houses are associated with the collection of farms and factory producing tea in an area. They provide a meeting place for experienced tea drinkers, buyers and producers, and help preserve the culture and art associated with Chinese tea.
This is a video of EnJie at a typical Chinese tea house owned by one our producers - Mr Ma.