Chinese Teas at Tea-Direct
At Tea-Direct, we stock a wonderful range of delicious Chinese tea varieties, such as Lapsang Souchong, Jasmine, Keemun and Yunnan, and favourites including Rose Pouchong, Golden Monkey, Pu’erh and Pai Mu Tan.
Home of the very first tea plants, China has an ancient tea-drinking culture that goes back thousands of years. With a global influence on tea production and cultivation, China is today the world’s largest tea producing country, offering a vast variety of teas that are grown in equally varied climate conditions.
Chinese tea leaves are harvested at different times throughout the year but not usually during winter, when temperatures are simply too low. The first spring harvest is generally considered to be the highest quality, making up nearly half of all yearly production of Chinese tea.
China produces almost all types of tea, with black teas such as Keemun, Yunnan and Lapsang Souchong exported in large quantities, while Oolong and Pu’erh are also very popular.
Lapsang Souchong – From £10.99
Sourced from the beautiful Wuyi Mountain region of China's Fujian Province, this fine black tea has a distinct smoky aroma and taste, created from methods used during the drying process. Leaves are dried over pine wood fires to develop complex woody notes, complementing their natural flavours, and resulting in a delicious, well-balanced and robust tea.
How Lapsang Souchong Tea is Produced
Tea leaves used to make Lapsang Souchong are plucked by hand and usually harvested in early May. The larger, older leaves chosen are coarser in texture and more suited to absorb the smokiness from the pine wood. The leaves are withered, with pine wood fires burning beneath them, before a rolling process helps to release the oils in the leaves and starts the oxidation process. After several hours of oxidation, they are pan-fired and then rolled a second time to extract residual moisture, before being dried over smouldering pine wood fires.
Subtly sweet and wonderfully fragrant, Jasmine tea is created through a careful process of picking closed jasmine flowers in the late summer afternoons, carefully storing them until they begin to open in the evening and blending them to sit overnight. The delicate, complex flavours and outstanding aromas are brought to life as the jasmine flowers begin to bloom, making for a very special cup of tea.
Keemun Tea – From £9.99
ourced from the Qimen County of Huangshan City, Keemun is a black Chinese leaf that was first produced in 1875. Creating a tea that reveals delicate fruity aromas and a subtly floral fragrance, Keemun is best served without milk or sugar, allowing the winey and fruity flavours to be truly experienced.
How Keemun Tea is Produced
During the production of Keemun tea, the leaves are plucked and slowly withered during an oxidation process, which serves to remove moisture from the leaves. This process causes the Keemun tea leaves to change colour, from green to a dark brown, then finally to black, at which point the leaves are crisp to the touch. Leaves are then baked to remove the last of their moisture.
It is also during this oxidation stage the Keemun takes on its unique aromas and flavours, with delicate fruity notes and a subtle floral fragrance being revealed.
Made from a delicious blend of top quality, fresh leaves, Rose Pouchong is a light and aromatic tea, that offers delicate flavours, subtle melon fragrances and wonderful floral notes.
Unlike black teas, Pouchong teas are only lightly oxidised (fermented). Pouchong, or Bao Zhong, is traditionally made with long, twisted leaves of a deep green hue, that are hand-picked around the end of March. After being slightly fermented, they are withered indoors, before being panned, rolled and dried. Rose Pouchong tea leaves are interleaved with fragrant rose petals during the drying process, so they take on the delicate scent and natural flavour of the roses.