2014 'I Can't Believe It's Not Honey' Aged Chinese White Tea
This aged shoumei white tea was picked and pressed in Fujian in 2014, and was then stored in Guangzhou for several years. Chinese white teas such as this are known for their fragrance and sweetness, and the solid storage and age on this tea lends itself well to those aspects. Whilst shoumei has less buds than a gongmei or baimudan grade white tea, the higher proportion of larger leaves means this tea is very robust, and is suitable to many styles of brewing, including gongfu in a small teapot or gaiwan, brewed directly in a mug, in a large Western-style teapot, or for being boiled/simmered in a kettle or on the stove. Depending on how strong you brew the tea, the flavours can range from light and softly sweet and fragrant, to thick and rich, with a smooth and very satisfying honey-like character, hence the name.
Aged white teas from Fujian have exploded in popularity in recent years in the Chinese market, and it's increasingly difficult to find teas that were actually aged rather than being processed to mimic age, especially because ageing white tea is a fairly new concept, only being done since around 2011 in any commercial sense. We think this tea is great value, and a perfect introduction to Chinese tea if you're just beginning to explore, or after a solid tea of this style to keep on rotation.
The cakes are 360g, which is the traditional size for tea cakes in China based on Imperial measurements, but a fair bit larger than most of our in-house productions which are normally 200g. At $0.25AUD per gram, this tea is the equivalent of a $50AUD 200g cake.
Artwork produced in collaboration with Eroductions.
All orders are shipped from our HQ in Melbourne within 1-2 business days, using Australia Post.
Australia: $9.95 AUD flat-rate standard shipping, free above $75 AUD. $14.95 AUD flat-rate express shipping, free above $100 AUD.
New Zealand: $20 AUD flat-rate, free above $90 AUD.
Asia: $25 AUD flat-rate, free above $150 AUD.
North America: $30 AUD flat-rate, free above $150 AUD.
Europe: $35 AUD flat-rate, free above $150 AUD.Use boiling water (100C).
We recommend using approx 1g of tea per 15ml of water for gongfu-style brewing in a teapot or gaiwan. Rinse the leaves once and then brew as usual. You can re-steep the leaves several times until there's no flavour left.
For Western-style brewing in a larger teapot, use approx 5g tea per 100ml of water. You can re-brew the leaves a few times.
To brew direct in a mug, use 1-2g of tea in the bottom of the cup, fill to top with boiling water, and drink once cool. Re-fill the cup with more water when you've drunk 1/3rd of the tea. Repeat until there's no more flavour left.
All of our teas are suitable for long-term storage and ageing.
Keep your tea away from sunlight and strong smells, and somewhere with stable climate conditions.
You can keep it sealed inside the re-usable bag the tea comes in, or another non-porous container.