Newsletter Archive Jun. 25, 2021

A woman standing in a traditional Chinese teahouse, smiling and holding up two glass pitchers filled with green tea side by side. — Zhuping comparing two green teas in the guided tasting for our new sampler.

Zhuping kept a weekly ritual for nearly 15 years. Every Friday afternoon, she hosted a tea tasting at our tea house. Her ritual not only let her taste a lot of tea, it introduced her to new friends. As an immigrant, getting to know her guests enriched her experience and understanding of American culture, making Tucson feel like a second home.

Tasting tea over and over again with her guests also taught Zhuping how to introduce Chinese tea to people and help them explore their interest in it.

Zhuping is looking forward to starting this tradition up again as soon as possible. But during these months without her usual tea tastings, Zhuping got to thinking — why not offer a virtual tasting along with tea samples that’s designed to help people learn about different styles and different qualities of tea?

So she made just that. Our first guided tea sampler is available now: Black & Green Tea 101.

Small bags of the four teas included in the Black & Green Tea 101 sampler kit, arranged around and on top of its paper box. — The four teas included in the Black & Green Tea 101 sampler kit.

This sampler is designed as a comparative tasting of four teas, two green and two black, with the goal of introducing examples of high-end and every-day Chinese teas and how to look for quality in each. The samples are accompanied by a private link to a 30 minute video in the style of our Friday tea tastings where Zhuping explains what to look, smell, and taste for in each tea. It’s ideal for someone with a new interest in Chinese tea.

Also in the spirit of the tea tasting, this weekend enjoy three black teas, fresh in from this spring. Now is a chance to sample or stock up on spring black tea with flavor profiles classic (Youle Xiaoshu), fancy (Qimen Caixia), and bizarre (Laoshu Dianhong).

Holding a pint glass full of black tea up against a rustic wooden fence. The saturated leaves fill the bottom third of the cup. — Brewing Qimen Caixia in a tall pint glass.

Check out a preview of the Black & Green Tea 101 guided tasting video below: