With high mountain autumn teas absent this year, many tea friends have had questions. Here are a few additional points from the shopkeeper regarding the 2023 autumn tea season:
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Personal opinions don’t represent the whole picture: We tasted dozens of tea samples without finding any standout goods, but that doesn’t mean all autumn tea is bad. Lishan alone has over a hundred tea plantations and thousands of sample batches; no tea merchant could possibly taste every single one, and besides, whether a tea is good is something you only truly know by drinking it yourself. If any of you happen to try a great tea from a specific producer, be sure to let me know. 😀
The autumn tea season isn’t over yet: Liao Chang Xing has decided not to purchase autumn tea this year, but the autumn harvests in ShanLinXi, Alishan, and the lower-elevation tea regions haven’t wrapped up yet. You can still keep your hopes up—who knows, maybe the stellar autumn tea I missed out on will turn up in one of those regions.
Autumn tea that’s neither bitter nor astringent: I found this year’s autumn tea quite light, but quite a few samples still offered a smooth mouthfeel and lovely floral aromas, and even the astringency that many people dislike wasn’t very noticeable. Tea lovers who don’t mind a lighter flavor profile might want to give it a try.
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We didn’t find any autumn teas that met our standards, but after visiting quite a few tea plantations in July and August, we gained an even deeper appreciation for different plantation management practices, which we’re confident will help with our future sourcing.
August weather wasn’t ideal, and many tea farmers gave up on harvesting their autumn tea. When I asked one of them if he felt it was a shame, he replied that there’s nothing you can do when Mother Nature isn’t cooperating—as long as you’ve put in the effort, that’s what counts. With the farmers working this hard, we tea merchants need to keep pace. Here are some notes from our visits to various tea regions and tea tastings during the autumn season to share with everyone~
- Introduction to Autumn Tea: https://bit.ly/3Yb6gYB
- Cuifeng Road Closure: https://bit.ly/3OmoTUC
- Lishan Tea Region: https://bit.ly/47iEFJa
- Qilai Mountain Tea Region: https://bit.ly/45hUk9D
- Cuifeng and Meifeng: https://bit.ly/3sdwWvC
- Lishan Autumn Tea: https://bit.ly/3R1HGIb
- Cuifeng Autumn Tea: https://bit.ly/45FjUFV
- Tunyuan Qilai Mountain Autumn Tea: https://bit.ly/3Eb4FJ9
- 2023 Autumn Tea Review: https://bit.ly/3QYEM6U
