Worth waiting for spring harvest?

[Poohblah]

I'm not a very experienced tea drinker. Is it worth waiting for the spring harvests? I figure that I shouldn't be able to tell the difference if I order last springs's harvest assuming the leaves have been stored properly.

[gingkoseto]

It depends on what tea you prefer and how the tea is made. Storage of some modern green style oolong is very similar to green tea and 1 year may be quite old. However, the little vacuum bag is pretty good for storage and may largely elongate shelf life of modern greener oolong. Some traditional deeper oxidization style may reach its best state after 1 or 2 year.

[northerncalifornia]

If you like green style oolong, or light roast oolong, freshness could make a big difference and it probably worth the wait. But the Spring Oolong tea like Tie Guan Yin won't come out to market on bulk until May. There was a severe frost in inner-Anxi county three days ago that killed all new growth for Tie Guan Yin so it is probably going to be even later for this year.

[entropyembrace]

You don´t need to wait for the spring harvest if you want fresh green style oolong, many kinds of oolong are harvested in autumn and at the begining of winter which are very good

Check Jing tea shop´s An Xi oolong section and Floating Leaves Tea´s Winter 2009 Oolong section

[Victoria]

I agree with northerncalifornia - go ahead any buy TGY if you are interested, but yeah at this point I would wait to buy any quality high mountain greener oolongs.

[gingkoseto]

You don´t need to wait for the spring harvest if you want fresh green style oolong, many kinds of oolong are harvested in autumn and at the begining of winter which are very good

Check Jing tea shop´s An Xi oolong section and Floating Leaves Tea´s Winter 2009 Oolong section

That's true! People often describe oolong as "Take spring tea for its liquor texture, and autumn tea for its fragrance." Autumn harvest is very good too and is even preferred by many people.

[jktea]

That's true! People often describe oolong as "Take spring tea for its liquor texture, and autumn tea for its fragrance." Autumn harvest is very good too and is even preferred by many people.

Totally agree!

But these are only for TGY only. For Huang Jing Gui, I would say spring tea is better than Autumn.

Still, I enjoy the high quality Huang Jing Gui, Ben Shan and Mao Xie. Good prices and sweet taste.

[Sacha]

That's true! People often describe oolong as "Take spring tea for its liquor texture, and autumn tea for its fragrance." Autumn harvest is very good too and is even preferred by many people.

Totally agree!

But these are only for TGY only.

And don't forget Taiwanese oolongs, winter harvests (not the autumn ones which are not as interesting) of the different Gao shan cha are very appreciated and sometimes even better than their spring counterpart, depending of the weather of the plucking season. Last winter was not too bad for many teas from Taiwan I have sampled.

[edkrueger]

Short answer: No
Longer Answer: No, because winter oolongs are just as good if not better. Also, they are more straight forward, so more likely to appeal to a newbie. Finally, I prefer them.

[brandon]

FLT is out of Baozhong. Where else can I get something great?

[Victoria]

http://camellia-sinensis.com/tea/teas/W ... liste-thes

[brandon]

Thanks V, you just cost me a lot of money. (Ended up on their puerh page and it went downhill from there... )

<3

[Victoria]

Oops sorry. Yeah, it can get a little pricey, but I think you'll be happy
with the tea and the service. They went from u/k to my top 5 in two orders. Hope it works out for you.