A few days ago, the shopkeeper mentioned that Lishan tea farmers were applying supplementary fertilizer in preparation for the upcoming autumn harvest. Several tea friends asked, “Does Lishan harvest autumn tea too?” Let me tell you, absolutely—not only do they harvest it, but they harvest quite a lot of it.
Every tea region harvests autumn tea. You might have read marketing copy claiming high-mountain tea is so precious that it’s only harvested in the spring and winter. Honestly? That’s overthinking it! High-mountain tea can actually be harvested up to five times a year if you really want to (spring, summer, autumn, winter, plus Winter Sprout Oolong).
The Shopkeeper’s Observations
You might wonder, “Then why do I never see anyone selling autumn tea?” The reason goes back to what I just mentioned. When marketing copy insists that only spring and winter teas are harvested, it implies that autumn tea is of inferior quality—and who can easily sell an inferior product? So, most autumn tea simply gets sold as winter tea!
Let me share a little secret with you: a good autumn tea is “just as good as winter tea!” It all comes down to careful tea garden management and whether enough fertilizer is used. As I’ve mentioned before, tea factories that take great care of their gardens spend hundreds of thousands on organic fertilizers alone. As long as the tea plants are well-nourished, combined with the high-mountain temperature fluctuations, autumn tea easily beats out average winter tea any day.
Over the past few years, we’ve offered Cuifeng autumn tea and Lishan autumn tea. The feedback we received was, “You honestly can’t tell this is autumn tea,” and “I thought this was genuine prime-season tea.” Let me tell you, most autumn tea of this quality is sold as prime winter tea because very few people can actually tell the difference.
