We have released the Flower of Ancient Tea Tree | HOJO Online Speciality Tea Shop

We have released the Flower of Ancient Tea Tree.
This is the fresh tea flowers hand-picked from old tea trees of ancient tea gardens. The tea garden is totally sustainable, with natural farming practice and no pesticide or fertilizer at all.
The tea garden is located at altitude of 2000-2200m in the western part of Lincang.

Tea flowers are difficult to obtain

If you go to general tea gardens in Japan or Taiwan and observe carefully, you might have noticed that despite the large tea plantation, the tea flowers are sparse.
Actually, the number of tea flowers is inversely proportional to the amount of fertilizer applied. Interestingly, fertilized tea has less number of flowers, and conversely, tea trees left unfertilized in sustainable condition produce many tea flowers.

The fertilized tea tree is like a human with very enjoyable life for example, so tea tree may not have the necessary to leave offspring.

The quality of tea flower varies a lot just like tea leaves

Like tea leaves, flowers make a remarkable difference in quality. In particular, the concentration of aftertaste and flavour vary greatly depending on the altitude, age of the tree, and the presence of fertilizer. Old trees at high altitude and without fertilizer grow slowly, so the tea flowers as well as tea leaves give a rich flavour and aroma, and the aftertaste is very thick, with long-lasting finish and lingering richness on palate.

We have collected tea flowers from the tea garden where we have produced Tang Jia Raw Pu-erh Tea.

Our tea flowers were collected from old trees about 200-300 years old. Those are big tea trees, about the size of a two-stories house, so farmers have to climb on the tree and pick the flower one by one.

Sweet scent like peach

The up-lifting scent of Tea flower is like the flavour of barley drink that is popular in Malaysia. And when drinking it, the flavor like fresh peaches or pears show up.

Blending is fun

Tea Flower is enjoyable when it is drunk alone, but it is also interesting to blend it with other teas.
Tea flowers are from tea trees, so they match very well with all types of tea. It goes well with green tea, white tea, black, pu-erh tea and oolong tea.

https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/cha1953/1956/8/1956_8_84/_pdf/-char/en

It is recommended for those who need very low caffeine, such as pregnant women and lactating mothers, as the amount contained is very small, which is one tenth of tea leaves.

Brewing with cold water

We also recommend to brew Tea Flower in cold water. The cold brewed tea is suitable during warm weather.
For cold water brewing, please use the boiled water that has cooled down.
As a simple guide, use 5 grams (approximately one tablespoon) of tea flower for 2 litres of water. You can keep it in the refrigerator for half a day until overnight to extract its fuller flavour and taste.