China

Buying at the source

What matters most in the way HOJO buys Chinese tea is going to the growing area in person. Every year we stay in Yunnan, Fujian and Guangdong, visit the farmers and their gardens, and buy only after seeing how that year's crop turned out. During the spring season we spend nearly two months in Yunnan, working alongside the producers and handling quality control on the factory floor.

Choosing gardens that use no pesticides or fertilizer

For HOJO, a garden that uses no pesticides is a condition for buying at all. We favor mountain areas high enough that pest pressure is low, and naturally farmed gardens that are properly looked after. For Yunnan we buy only naturally farmed tea, grown with no fertilizer and no pesticides.

A tea tree given no fertilizer grows slowly and yields less, while its leaves carry more minerals and more polyphenols. The body and the long finish that HOJO judges tea by come from these growing conditions.

Main growing areas

From Yunnan: pu-erh tea, ancient tree black tea, white tea and wild tea. From Wuyishan in Fujian: Wuyi rock tea, and Lapsang Souchong, said to be the first black tea ever made. From Fenghuang in Chaozhou, Guangdong: Phoenix Dan Cong oolong. From Anxi in Fujian: Tie Guan Yin. We also carry the best known tea of several other provinces, including Tai Ping Hou Kui and Keemun from Anhui, Xihu Longjing from Zhejiang, Mengding Ganlu and Bitan Piaoxue from Sichuan, and Junshan Yinzhen from Hunan.