Best time to find spring tea

[Jayaratna]

Hi all,

I'm slowly finishing the green samples I managed to 'smuggle' from China. I was wondering when is the best time to shop for new spring tea (and where?).

thanks for your suggestions,
A

[Sydney]

teaspring.com supplied me with fresh spring greens last year, and I had no complaints.

[Salsero]

Of course it depends on weather conditions. Last year was an especially early year in China and TeaSpring started putting up new greens in March. The Japanese greens started coming in as early as April with most of them out by early May, if memory serves me right.

[olivierco]

The Japanese greens started coming in as early as April with most of them out by early May, if memory serves me right.

Yes it does.

[Jayaratna]

Of course it depends on weather conditions. Last year was an especially early year in China and TeaSpring started putting up new greens in March. The Japanese greens started coming in as early as April with most of them out by early May, if memory serves me right.

I guess one should keep watch... and that's all?!

[Chip]

Most non Asian locale vendors are a month or so behind their Asian locale counterparts in offering new harvest teas. I start keeping a "shincha watch" sometime in March for Japanese greens. I know they are not coming out that early, but some vendors provide regular updates on progress.

... and then the excitement starts to build, and it is sooo contagious ...

[Salsero]

I guess one should keep watch... and that's all?!

If you keep an eye on TeaSpring for the Chinese teas and an eye on TeaChat for the Japanese you should be in good shape.

Last year Chip set up a special sticky thread devoted to shincha (new tea from Japan) and the plan is to do the same this year. The forum is not as organized about Chinese greens, but TeaSpring tells you which are new harvest, normally just a couple at first, then more and more come in.

[Jayaratna]

Last year Chip set up a special sticky thread devoted to shincha (new tea from Japan) and the plan is to do the same this year. The forum is not as organized about Chinese greens, but TeaSpring tells you which are new harvest, normally just a couple at first, then more and more come in.

Great! I can't wait!

[Sydney]

Shincha: Christmas for heathens.

[taitea]

Will I notice a huge difference between green teas purchased now and the teas I could get in the spring?

(Let's assume equivalent harvests between 2008 and 2009 in terms of quality for the sake of argument)

[Chip]

It is good to be running out of your previous harvest GREENS come Spring. No point in loading up on one year old tea when fresh harvest is available.

Definitely discernable and more discernable with each passing week, month, etc.

Old green tea is for suckers ...

[Sydney]

I ordered some teas from first harvest and the same teas from the same vendor closer to the end of the year. It seemed to me that I could indeed tell a difference, but it wasn't earth-shattering.

Tea is more robust than we sometimes give it credit for.

[olivierco]

I ordered some teas from first harvest and the same teas from the same vendor closer to the end of the year. It seemed to me that I could indeed tell a difference, but it wasn't earth-shattering.

Tea is more robust than we sometimes give it credit for.

+1

[gingkoseto]

I ordered some teas from first harvest and the same teas from the same vendor closer to the end of the year. It seemed to me that I could indeed tell a difference, but it wasn't earth-shattering.

Tea is more robust than we sometimes give it credit for.

Very true! Usually only the early-harvested teas (March harvest, or whenever the earliest season is) show biggest differences between newest and well-preserved last year tea. Those are also the teas that can hardly achieve >6 months (or >3months) shelf life. Most affordable and available products in market are not those earliest harvests anyway.

[taitea]

So what do vendors usually do with the previous year's teas when the new ones come out? Most sites seems to only have teas from the current year. My guess is that they discount them to try to get rid of them?