On April 21, the store manager visited the DongYanShan tea region to source tea and found that the tea leaves had grown “very well.” Some tea farmers started harvesting that very day, but I decided not to buy because the leaves were still a bit too tender. For the following week, the manager mostly sourced tea in the ShanLinXi and Cuifeng tea regions. On May 1, coming down from Cuifeng, I checked on DongYanShan again, and much of the tea had already been harvested.
For this year’s DongYanShan spring tea, the manager feels the leaves grew “very well” and the timing of the harvest was “exceptional.”
It was sunny from April 23 to April 30, allowing for a massive harvest of DongYanShan tea. However, it rained in DongYanShan on May 1 and May 2. Tea quality drops significantly after rain, so the store manager feels the timing for harvesting this year’s DongYanShan spring tea was “absolutely perfect.”
Many tea leaves in high-altitude areas like LongFengXia and Cuifeng remain unpicked, putting a lot of pressure on tea farmers since the weather forecast predicts a high chance of rain for the next ten days, casting doubt on the tea quality. We hope the weather clears up soon so we can source great tea.
The DongYanShan tea we purchased this year was harvested on April 29 and is expected to be packaged and listed in the next couple of days—stay tuned!