Frustrated by something I just learned about Chinese tea grading

I was at a small tea shop in San Francisco last weekend, the kind where the owner actually cares about where stuff comes from. He mentioned something that floored me - only about 2% of all Chinese tea produced each year is considered "premium" grade, like the stuff that gets sold in those fancy tins. I thought most of the good green or oolong teas were just marketed up, but he showed me a government grading system from Fujian province that actually breaks it down by leaf pluck and harvest time. He said a single pound of that top grade Tieguanyin can cost over $500 because it's literally picked by hand at 5 AM for just a two week window in spring. I had no idea the gap between what we drink in the US and what locals get in China is that huge. Has anyone else run into this kind of info about how Chinese teas are really graded?

2 comments

2 Comments

claire4439d ago

Isn't it funny how the best versions of anything always seem reserved for the people who live closest to it?

the_dakota9d ago

Yeah no kidding @claire443, it's like some secret tea illuminati keeping the good stuff for themselves. I swear the premium Tieguanyin is probably guarded by tiny dragon statues and only given out to people who know the secret handshake. Meanwhile over here I'm paying $15 for a box that's basically floor sweepings compared to that 500 dollar hand-picked leaf. Next thing you know we'll find out the Chinese drink their 'basic' tea while watching Netflix too and it's just us getting bamboozled by the tin design.