During our annual sourcing trips to China and Taiwan, we are presented with a variety of teas at each farm we visit. Some farms grow many different varieties of the tea plant, but every farm produces many lots of tea throughout the harvest season, with differences based on the exact day of harvest and minor adjustments in crafting techniques. Our job is to discern the most subtle of flavor differences and curate our selection to include only the very best. To ensure we get an accurate tasting, we use our own version of the gong fu cha brewing method. Here are the steps we take to gauge the quality of every tea we get the opportunity to taste.

For those new to tea, the brewing process can be intimidating, especially if your first exposure to loose leaf brewing involved a showy sampling in traditional gong fu cha style. The specialized teaware, high tech gadgets, and precise methods of tea connoisseurs can all serve a purpose in the enjoyment and appreciation of tea, but brewing the perfect cup doesn’t have to be complicated. With the three adaptable steps in this article, you will be able to brew great tea in any context, with whatever equipment you have on hand.

As direct importers, we made the conscious choice many years ago to source from small, family owned tea farms, despite the extra level of difficulty this adds to our buying process. While large, commercial farms can produce teas with great consistency at inexpensive prices, we choose to seek out smaller, family-owned tea farms that focus on quality over quantity. Often, we have to look far and wide, well outside of the normal boundaries of famed tea markets or major cities. In return for the extra effort of annual sourcing trips through rural mountainous regions in China and Taiwan, we are rewarded with better quality of flavor, inherent sustainability, and an infinite variety of new tea possibilities.

Teas with floral flavors are some of the most popular on the market, and  dried flowers are often characterized as tea despite having no relation to the traditional Camellia sinensis tea plant. So it is easy to understand that teas described as “floral” bring to mind flowery tisanes or teas blended with dried blossoms, but many unblended teas have natural floral nuances with more depth than any blend can offer.

High quality green teas like our Ming Qian Dragonwell, Panan are plucked only once a year and consist of only young leaf buds. They are limited in quantity, but high in antioxidants and other nutrients. While many Chinese tea drinkers will eat the leaves directly from the cup after brewing, these valuable leaves can also be used in culinary dishes. One way we preserve these leaves after we brew them is to pickle them.

One of the things we love about working with traditional tea farms is that the growers we work with are primarily concerned with how the tea tastes, rather than how much they can produce. With this focus on quality over quantity, we are free to appreciate the ways in which even subtle differences in growing conditions can dramatically change the final flavor in our cup. By tasting several lots of tea from the same farm or season, it is easier to isolate specific variables like changes in weather patterns between different farms or years, or even between specific weeks during the harvest season.

Differences in weather between seasons are one of the most important factors in the overall grade of the finished tea, and often correlate to levels of bitterness or astringency as the plant grows more mature leaves throughout the annual growth process. Differences in regional weather patterns, along with local flavor preferences and crafting styles, define ideal harvest dates for each type of traditional tea. And variations in weather patterns, whether from year to year or week to week, keep growers, crafters and tasters on their toes, ensuring that no two harvests taste exactly the same.

For many black tea devotees in the western world, it can be easy to forget that all tea begins as a leafy green plant. Though processing steps can make those leaves unrecognizable, the original form is recognizable in whole leaf teas, and especially in the vegetable-like, or “vegetal” flavor palate of lightly oxidized teas like greens, whites, and some oolongs. Just like fresh vegetables, the flavor notes found within these teas can be pleasant or unpleasant, depending on the terroir, harvest date, crafting style, and ultimately, how the tea is brewed, or “cooked” in hot water.

As direct importers, we believe that transparency in the sourcing process is one of the best ways to ensure that tea production stays sustainable. We make it our mission to understand and share as much information as possible about any tea we carry, from the variety used to grow it, to the environment it was grown in, the harvest date when it was picked, and the way the leaves were crafted into finished tea. But this in depth knowledge depends on our personal trips to the tea farms we work with, and the control we have over each lot we source, from the time it leaves the farm to the time it arrives at our San Francisco warehouse. Not all teas have such a direct path to your cup. Here are a few of the twists and turns your tea might be making.