Tea Discovery Archives

Lydia Gautier, Sommelière Pionnière du Thé

Pionnière dans le domaine de la sommellerie du thé et auteure de plusieurs ouvrages de référence sur le thé, Lydia Gautier a été consultante pour des marques internationales. Ses 25 années d’expérience et de proximité avec des producteurs l’ont conduite à devenir une des figures majeures de l’expertise du thé dans le monde, et à créer en 2107 sa propre marque, Lydia Gautier Thés et Tisanes. En 2021, elle préside le jury technique des thés monovariétals du concours de l’Association de Valorisation des Produits Agricoles (AVPA) qui récompense les meilleurs thés de spécialité.

by Anne-Frédérique Dayraut

No sale in North India while Kochi Sees High Prices

Demand for CTC at the Kochi tea auction was strong this week. Orthodox teas for export to the Middle East and CIS countries also increased. Green teas from the Nilgiris are also commanding higher prices.

by Aravinda Anantharaman

South India Sale Continues as North Awaits Production

Sale of tea continues in the south Indian auctions while north India awaits sufficient volumes as early season still underway. The early Darjeeling first flush is quickly being picked up in private sales.

by Aravinda Anantharaman

Light Rains Point to Promising First Flush

A weekly report on global tea prices by market that includes data and details on price averages at tea averages, weather conditions during harvest periods, labor availability and other developments influencing prices, and expert views.

by Aravinda Anantharaman

Record Green Tea Prices in the Nilgiris as Darjeeling, Assam Begin Harvest Season

A weekly report on global tea prices by market that includes data and details on price averages at tea averages, weather conditions during harvest periods, labor availability and other developments influencing prices, and expert views.

by Aravinda Anantharaman

Fungi Love Tea, Too

Fu Brick Dark Tea, also known by its visually descriptive name of Golden Flower Dark Tea, is a relatively unknown fungi tea in China that is awaiting one clever and energetic entrepreneur to bring it into mainstream awareness in the West.

by Jaq James

Wild Forest Grown Ceylon Tea

Forest Hill Tea Garden features wild grown teas produced from an abandoned tea plantation that spans 100 acres, part of a forest that extends to the Holy Adam’s Peak rain forest reserve.

by Ellen Kanner

Tasting Notes: Jin Jun Mei

Red teas in China are experiencing a Renaissance. One of the most sought after of the high-end red teas is Jin Jun Mei – a fully oxidized tea created in 2006. It is made wholly of tea buds picked in early spring…

by Jaq James

Tea Discovery: Jin Jun Mei is a Wuyi Red Legend in the Making

Daniel Hong’s whimsical online profile picture has him adorning a Charlie Chaplin hat with an oversized black cardboard moustache.Chinese millennials don’t usually do whimsical, so I thought I might soon be meeting an over-the-top eccentric…

by Jaq James

The Science Behind the Scents of Tea

Intrigued by the notion of creating a scent kit I was not prepared to launch a serious effort until I had fully retired and written the first version of my first book on tea. It was then I began to grasp the various processes that yield the different aromas in tea. And I had sourced some of the aromas for my presentations.

by Virginia Utermohlen

Time-lapse of Japan’s Shincha Harvest Tea

— This time-lapse video captures the beautiful birth of the 2018 shincha harvest.A special video camera, positioned at the Nakakubo Tea Farm, advanced a few frames every 5 minutes for about 30 days last month to show us the dance of the new leaves. The digital images were then edited to create a short film.

by Dan Bolton

Tasting Notes: A Taste of Winter in South India

Premium teas from the Nilgiri mountains were well-known among brokers and traders, but not widely recognized by consumers, because most was used in tea blends sold in tea bags. By the first decade of this century, Nilgiri white teas, oolongs and boutique black teas began showing up in Europe and America.

by Frank Miller