This year’s winter tea in Fanzitian and San-Ceng-Ping was harvested earlier than usual. I remember last year, harvest at the high-altitude Fanzitian and San-Ceng-Ping didn’t start until November, but this year some tea gardens began picking as early as mid-October. When I went to check a few days ago, most of the tea gardens above 1,600 meters had already finished harvesting. 🙂🙂
I didn’t get to see the growth condition of the winter tea above 1,600 meters in person. For tea gardens below 1,500 meters, the store manager’s observation is “average.” This is likely due to the excessive rainy days recently, which caused quite a bit of spindly growth in the stems. The later-sprouting leaves are still very tender, and with plenty of sunshine lately, they might turn out quite well as long as irrigation goes smoothly.
I tasted a few batches of tea along the way, but unfortunately didn’t find anything suitable, and the tea samples sent by farmers weren’t very satisfying either. Many tea gardens below 1,500 meters have leaves that are too tender, and the weather isn’t cold enough yet. I plan to come back looking for tea after November 5th.
Fanzitian and San-Ceng-Ping are not ultra-expensive tea regions. Their tea garden management and factory equipment are generally not on par with LongFengXia, but because the winter tea is harvested later, aided by the northeast monsoon, exceptional batches sometimes pop up. I’ll drop by again in a few days to take a look!
