Early spring in Yunnan province?

[thanks]

Apparently the green tea season has already started in Yunnan due to a mild sunny winter. What does this mean for pu'er? Wasn't it a short winter last year in China? We could start seeing new pu'er as soon as next month! Maybe even a little earlier. Anyone knowledgeable about harvesting care to comment? I also wish we could see production quantity for the bigger factories from 05-now. Hopefully it's slowed down or gotten smaller.

[MarshalN]

Late Feb is a little early, but in general they start picking sometime in March, depending on where you are and who you talk to.

[nada]

Plantation tea has already started to appear in the market.

Farmers in Yiwu say for their old growth trees, they'll start picking mid-march this year

[shogun89]

Yay! I think this is a year to stock on Menghai Dayi. for me.

[Drax]

Isn't some tea actually cut from the previous year, but pressed a year later?

I realize that wouldn't be "new tea" for 2009, but when does that pressing usually happen? Whenever? Or have I completely mis-interpreted some stuff?

(edit: the point/relevance being that couldn't you just press the stuff in Jan 2009 and be the first to market a 2009 tea? Oh yes, it's not really 2009-cut tea, but when has that stopped entrepreneuring businesspeople?)

[hop_goblin]

Isn't some tea actually cut from the previous year, but pressed a year later?

I realize that wouldn't be "new tea" for 2009, but when does that pressing usually happen? Whenever? Or have I completely mis-interpreted some stuff?

(edit: the point/relevance being that couldn't you just press the stuff in Jan 2009 and be the first to market a 2009 tea? Oh yes, it's not really 2009-cut tea, but when has that stopped entrepreneuring businesspeople?)

Drax, some beengs are a blend of different years. Some will hold on to it for later pressing for a "special product" Like the Mengyang Guoyan Anniversary beeng. Blenders will at times use different years to make their teas better. One example I can think of is the recent 7582 and the Silver Mark. So frankly, batch numbers can be misleading at times.

[vibrantdragon]

We just spoke with some friends in Jinghong and they have started to pick the leaves. The leaves seem to be good this year. Last year the early leaves were not that good, so everyone is happy this year ( For the early crop last year, a late cold and wet spell hurt the leaves and gave some a bad fungus). The crop looks good this year, and the weather is good so if everything holds it will be good. The price of Mao Cha is up just a little from last year, but the price for the Old growth trees has been fairly consistent for a while. The big fluctuations have been on the bush leaves. It has been down for the last year or so until now.