Hello tea friends, the 2022 winter high mountain teas are now fully in stock. Today, the store manager checked the Ruifeng, Taihe, and Zhangshuhu tea regions and couldn’t find anything worth buying, so those items are officially “absent” this season. For those looking to complete your order all at once, you’re good to go ahead.
Thoughts on This Year’s Winter Tea Procurement
If I had to describe the 2022 winter tea in one word, it would be “scarce.” This applies across the board, from Lishan, ShanLinXi, and Alishan down to the lowland tea regions. The worst case I heard of was a large tea farmer with 5 chia (about 4.8 hectares) of land who finished harvesting in under two days—meaning his yield dropped to less than 40%. Many others saw their yields cut in half, barely covering their upfront production costs.
For tea merchants, not only is tea scarce this year, but even worse, the quality is “below average compared to previous years.” If we didn’t purchase certain popular items this time around, it’s because they simply didn’t meet our standards after screening; we had to pass on them to protect our reputation.
To those of you who have been waiting patiently for specific tea regions, the manager can only apologize. I could easily source some subpar tea just to make a sale, but you’d definitely be unhappy drinking it. I want to emphasize that famous tea regions don’t automatically mean great tea—this year, plenty of renowned regions produced mediocre tea. And these famous regions haven’t lowered their prices despite the poor quality; in fact, due to the aforementioned “scarcity,” origin prices have actually gone up quite a bit.
Aside from explaining why certain items are missing this season, I also hope everyone can move past the myth that “famous tea regions always equal good tea.”
Lastly, a quick plug: many of the teas the manager sourced this year easily rival Dayuling and HuaGung, yet cost less than half the price. Take the opportunity to grab 150 g and put it in a blind taste test against your favorite Dayuling or HuaGung—who knows, you might just discover a whole new level of tea appreciation.
