Industry News Category

A Fisherman piece beside a yixing pot with a red filter

Cold Winters, Floods, and the Price of Tea

It is just about that time of year when we start asking ourselves why we started a tea business in Tucson. The monsoons are hovering in the evening, sparing a drop or two, providing just enough humidity to stop evaporative coolers from working. Today it is raining hard and roofs all over Tucson are leaking…


World Tea Expo taster

2 Years, Too Much: Perspectives on the U.S. Tea Industry

I was asked many months ago to write about my experience with the tea industry for this blog; I have had so little time and it has taken me a long time to put my thoughts together… even now I am not sure I have done the best job, but this is more or less the story of what happened with my blog, authori-tea.com.



the piling segment of black puer tea production

The Safety of Chinese Teas

Recently I sent out a newsletter that had a picture of puer being fermented. Someone sent me an email that said that the photo was not appropriate for people who were already afraid about the safety of Chinese products.I can understand why that might be a perception commonly held…



NYT Tim Arango Oct. 5, 2009 article publication picture

Soon, Bloggers Must Give Full Disclosure

This is a ruling I’m glad to see. We have been on-line for 7 years, and we have seen a lot of things change. A lot of the changes have been great, but I haven’t seen an explosion in integrity. I have seen some awful things, like the websites that have been selling cheap oolong… // MORE


China Daily featured photo for article Tempest over tea: What is the true Puer?

Tempest over tea: What is the true Puer?

Seven Cups is gearing up for another trip to Yunnan. The article “Tempest over tea: What is the true Puer?” from the China Daily seems especially relevant. It talks about the first fallout from China’s new tea export laws.  We’re sure this is the beginning of many controversies to come since China is trying to… // MORE



Tea on a tray

National Standard of Puer Tea Put into Practice

On a Beijing Review article China has set a standard for Chinese puer production that limits the use of the word puer to it’s native growing areas. This standard includes Kunming even though tea is not grown in the Kunming area. I’m not sure how meaningful this standard is in relationship to the domestic market, but… // MORE



Image from The National Newspaper

Article by Karen Attwood of The National Newspaper

Peacefulness through a bowl of tea Peacefulness through tea! This from Abu Dhabi. This is a great story. It is interesting to note that the Islamic countries consume 25% of the world’s tea. Below is the image and article by Karen Attwood taken directly from the website for The National Newspaper.   ABU DHABI // When Hounsai… // MORE



黄片 Huang Pian _preview

News From China

Reporting from our Changxing Office in Zhejiang I’m writing from our recently opened office in Changxing, in Zhejiang. Changxing just a short drive away from Guzhu Mountain where Luyu supervised tea production for the Tang emperor, while he composed the first book about tea, while he lived and died in nearby Huzhou. This area is… // MORE


Assam Garden

The Hindu Writes on the Assam Government Taking Measures Against Tea Estates

In an article from The Hindu, a national publication, by Sushanta Talukdar, failure to provide safe drinking water to garden laborers is being cited as a serious health issue according to the Health Minister. The complaint is being leveled against tea gardens in upper Assam’s Jorhat and Golaghat districts who had ignored demands to correct the problem… // MORE


Lu Yu artist view

For Lu Yu, Tea, a Monumental Museum

Many of you have heard about Lu Yu, the man that wrote the Cha Jing, the first book about tea, written during the Tang Dynasty. Some of you may know that he wrote the book while managing the emperor’s tribute tea factory, which was located near the city of Changqing in China’s Zhejiang province. It… // MORE


Puer tea mao cha's quality is vastly improved by wrapping it in this manner.

Difficulties in the Puer Market

I know some of you are aware of the volatility in the puer market, and I would just like to share with you my experiences on my last trip to China. I spend a lot of time in China and also a lot of time in Yunnan. As I travel around the tea producing provinces… // MORE


Taipei Times logo

Dangerous Tea in The Taiwan Tea Supply

Lawmakers, tea farmers and activists called for a suspension of tea imports from Vietnam, after the Department of Health discovered residue of a banned pesticide in Vietnamese leaf tea imports earlier this month (see article here). The department found more than 0.09ppm of dicofol, a pesticide prohibited from use on tea plants, in 21,000kg of… // MORE


Large amounts of puer cakes traditionally wrapped in bamboo packages.

The Bubble Bursts for Pu’er Tea

“Since the beginning of this year, the price of Pu’er has soared, reaching its peak in May at 20 times higher than last year’s price. In terms of returns, Pu’er is a better investment than stocks or gold, isn’t it?” a tea collector in Guangzhou said. “In the first four months of this year, the… // MORE


Photo of Puer City Earthquake from The Telegraph

Puer City Earthquake (Update)

I visited the quake site on the 19th of June. We saw the tent city sheltering the 5000 people left homeless from the quake. The majority had lived in buildings that had sustained some damage and had been condemned. Some houses were destroyed typically from the roofs collapsing. It was estimated that it would take… // MORE


China Daily photo of Puer City Earthquake

Earthquake in Puer City

I am writing this from Hangzhou, and I will be visiting Puer City in about a week and a half, so I will get a better picture of the real impact of the earthquake. I called around Yunnan and the story that I received was less dramatic than the tone of what was reported in… // MORE


small tasting cup

Puer Cake Goes Back Home to Visit Family

This year, not any cake, but the hundred year old Golden Melon Tribute Cake given to the last of the Qing Emperor and certainly the most famous puer cake in China returned to Yunnan on a museum tour. The priceless tea was sampled for the very first time. When we met with Luo Shou Jun,… // MORE


Yellow tea picker

Switch to Organic Crops Could Help Poor

This story is doesn’t mention tea, but  it is still meaningful in relationship to Chinese organic tea. We completely believe that future for farmers worldwide is organic farming and a return outside of China to the small highly skilled farmer, growing organic crops. There are many layers of irony here. As Americans, few of us… // MORE


A single plucking of fresh Shifeng Longjing green tea with one bud and two leaves, held in the palm of a hand.

Don’t be fooled by ‘fake’ Longjing tea

Yes, don’t be fooled. According to China Daily, Long Jing has new self-proclaimed brother. These Longjing teas are close in appearance, processing methodology, and even grow in the same area. Perhaps you should know a little bit more to prevent that from happening, and just what fake means, because this is a very complicated issue.… // MORE


View of Tai Ping Lake

Tea Weather Update…

I’m writing from Huangshan in Anhui province and the weather here for the last two days has been great, and tea is being harvested now that the weather has warmed again and the sun has broken through. The high-end tea crop was damaged a little bit by the unseasonably warm weather in February followed by… // MORE


countryside tea garden

Global Warming Buzz and New Tea

SPRING TEA ARRIVES EARLY! Zhuping has been in China since a couple of days before Chinese New Year and I will be going next week. There has been a very warm winter this year and an early spring. In Sichuan where the first tea of the year is harvested the news is not good for… // MORE


Puer tea on racks

The Hot Puer Market

As I browse the talk these days on the internet, the tea that I see discussed more than any other is puer. For a tea that was virtually unknown outside of China five years ago, I think that is pretty remarkable. Actually, prior to 2002, puer was not very well known inside of China either.… // MORE


Dr Okello

BBC NEWS | Health | Cup of Tea May Help Boost Memory

Every Chinese student tasked at memorization as the key component to education knows how helpful tea is to memory, but this is really important for all of the families struggling to take care of a family member with dementia. This is great news to me personally because I take care of my dad and he… // MORE


Fresh food from a farmer's market in Yunnan Province.

On Contaminates & Pesticides in Tea

I promised to answer a question I received through an email (Sorry it has taken so long) on the blog, because it is an issue of concern to all of us. The person that wrote me had heard a lot about Chinese tea being contaminated with pesticides, lead, and other contaminates, and he wanted my… // MORE


View of Yunnan

Green Tea and the Asian Paradox

Yes, it has been a slow month for news related to tea. I get a little bit bored after reading thousands of news reports about green tea being good for your health. How long will it be news? This is one article that I just had to mention. It is a press release from the… // MORE


Different grades of white tea_preview

The Tea Industry Tries to Define White Tea

Can We Take the American ‘Tea Industry” Seriously? I’m back from a great trip to China. As usual it is a very inspiring experience for me. China is what tea is all about, and nowhere outside of China is tea being produced that is even in the same league as Chinese tea. Sitting on my… // MORE