Marketplace in India

As we speak, owner Bill Waddington is making his way to the Darjeeling and Assam tea growing regions of India.  Before he left, we made sure he had enough space in his suitcase to bring back some souvenirs for us here at TeaSource, but he will also be picking something up for you!

How to enter:
1) Re-post the above photo on Twitter with the hashtag #TeaSourceSouvenir and tag @TeaSource

-OR-

2) Go to Facebook and "Like" our souvenir photo Keep your eyes on Twitter and Facebook, we will be announcing three winners on March 26th!  (Souvenirs will be mailed to winners the week of April 1st.)

Have fun!

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The Lumbini Tea Factory

The tea profession is old.  Not the oldest (we all know what that is), but still old.  It has been a part of global trade before any of us knew we were “global”.  It’s still mostly transported by large boats over vast oceans.  And the main preparation method of steeping leaves in boiled water has gone almost unchanged for hundreds of years.  It finds its way to market any way it can, and because of this, sometimes you just have to go to the growers directly, even if they’re in Sri Lanka. 

For example, here’s a fictionalized email exchange of us buying Ceylon (Sri Lankan) tea: "Hi Chaminda, it’s Bill from TeaSource.  We’d like to buy 500 kilograms of the Lumbini Estate FBOP.  Do you have it available?" "Hi Bill, it’s Chaminda from the Lumbini Estate.  We do have that available for you.  We’ll ship it out right away."

Chaminda Jayawardana doing a tea evaluation

And as simple as that, a truck shows up around 10-12 weeks later (remember, most of its journey is by boat) with a pallet of tea in wooden chests with the words “Lumbini Tea” stenciled on them.  One wire transfer to the Lumbini Estate later and we’ve successfully done business.  That is exactly how it happens (with the addition of a lot of unpleasant bureaucracy when crossing international boarders, but let’s keep the story positive).

Leaves from the Lumbini tea fields

TeaSource has been buying tea from Lumbini estate for the last 14 years and they’ve been wonderful partners to work with.  It started in 2000 when Bill was on a trip to Sri Lanka and visited their factory. 

Chaminda had presented an experiment of Ceylon “Silver Needles” to the visitors (a white tea from Sri Lanka is rather controversial to most tea purists) and Bill could not help but discretely make an offer on the spot (Bill said he had to buy extra luggage just to get it home). 

Since then, we’ve been regularly buying their FBOP (Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe), and now expanded to their OPA (Orange Pekoe A: a long twisted leaf style), and their “Burning Sun” FBOPF (Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings: very small leaf style – which TeaSource recently submitted and won 1st place in the North American Tea Championships in their “Breakfast Blend” category).

The founder of the Lumbini Estate, Mr. Dayapala Jayawardane.

The Lumbini Estate and factory was started by Mr. Dayapala Jayawardane in 1984.  It is located in the mountainous village of Pallegama in southern Sri Lanka. Because of his faith, Mr. Jayawardane named it “Lumbini” in honor of the birthplace of The Buddha.  The factory produces almost exclusively black tea – the exception being their Ceylon Silver Needles – approximately 600,000 kg per year!  They pride themselves on their skill as both a grower and manufacturer, employing 80 machine operators and 30 tea pluckers.  His son, Chaminda Jayawardane, is now the CEO and generously gives his time to his international customers, like TeaSource.  It’s a privilege to work so close with someone so far away, and this month we’ll proudly be featuring all our Lumbini teas.

Team Lumbini

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Here are some more of our favorite photos from the recent Web Party Tea Photo Contest. Now you will get an idea of why it was so difficult for us to choose winners. We had so much fun doing this, we are thinking of doing it again, down the road. Let us know if you think this is a good idea.

My little pony I’m not sure if they made a little tiny TeaSource bag, or if they had really GIGANTIC sized My Little Pony figurines (ok-that thought is going to give me nightmares).

Steam & Serenity

Reflections

It’s not the Teatanic,  but it’s still pretty funny.

And just a reminder: this Thursday, Feb. 20 at 10:00 a.m. we will Livestream an in-house Darjeeling cupping training for a few of our own employees. We try to make sure all of our employees know what they are talking about in this great big world of tea, and the only way to do this is prepare the teas, taste them, and analyze and talk about them. We do this kind of thing quite often. And we’ve had customers ask, “How do your employees get to know so much about tea?” This is one of the ways.

-Bill

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Yesterday we had the great pleasure of selecting the winners in the TeaSource Tea Photo contest. It was a great pleasure, but it was also a grueling experience. There were so many fantastic photos: some of which made us burst out laughing, and some of which made us sit and stare in wonder for 20 seconds until someone finally said, “That’s REALLLLY nice.” Narrowing it down to the three below was really tough. So much so, that in addition to the three winners each of whom will get a $25.00 gift card, ALL participants will receive a $5.00 off coupon (good in-store or on the web). The winners are below. And I’ll be posting a number of the other entries over the next few days. Thanks much to everyone for participating.

-Bill

Drowning in tea

 

Golden warmth on a frosty day

Tea-Rex and his friends

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Favorite tea photo, that is.

Tomorrow, Saturday January 26^th is the last active day of our Web Party and also our Tea Photo Contest Day. Snap and share your favorite tea (or TeaSource) photo that you took on TeaSource's Facebook or Twitter.  That’s it.

A team of TeaSource employees will choose the three favorites and each winner will receive a $25.00 gift card.  Full rules and procedures are at the bottom of this post.

Here are some of our favorite tea (or TeaSource) photos to get you in the mood and to give you some examples.

Teas lined up for cupping/evaluation at the Kenilworth Estate, Ceylon

Kouki, son of one of our great employees, really getting into his iced tea. The puer tower behind him is bigger than he is.

Tea fields in Anhui province, China

Grace, daughter of another great TeaSource employee, drinking puer.

Camellia Sinensis: two leaves and a bud

Blue Beauty Oolong (does the table look familiar?)

Tea fields in Japan

The Boss: we start ‘em young at TeaSource

Oolong and treats

I WISH I had taken this photo.

*Rules & Procedures:
-All photos submitted must have been taken by the person submitting the photos (unlike the photo directly above--I just couldn’t resist).
-Photos must be submitted before midnight on Saturday January 25th
-Photos can be entered into the contest by posting the photo on TeaSource's Facebook page or by tagging (@TeaSource) on Twitter and using the hashtag #TSteaphoto
-Three winners will be chosen and awarded a $25.00 gift card for TeaSource.
-Winners will be announced on Sunday, January 26th on Facebook and Twitter

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Two days before New Year’s Day we received our annual big shipment from China by sea.  Two days after New Years we received our annual big shipment from India, also by sea.  (For reference, we also receive numerous smaller air shipments from China, India, etc. throughout the year).

 

So, it’s been busy around here and we’ve got some new teas and decided to shine a spotlight on them during our Web Party.  All of these teas will be offered at 20% off regular price, both on the web and in-store.  Prices below reflect this 20% discount.

India, Darjeeling, Jungpana Estate 2^nd Flush FTGFOP1, Organic 
Special price $9.51 per 4 oz.
I got lucky; this black tea is a steal.  Full-bodied (for a Darjeeling), smooth, flavorful, a little fruity (muscatel grapes), and a lingering tingle on the tongue instead of astringency.  Excellent black tea at an incredible price.

Wuling Mountain Black 
Special price $7.59 per 4 oz.
Roasted cocoa, that's the aroma of this gorgeous, wiry, twisted leaf.  The steeped cup is deep, rich, toasty, slightly sweet, and completely satisfying.  This unique black tea is only available in limited quantities.  This lovely black tea is grown in northern Hunan province of China.  This tea is also referred to as Xiang Cha, roughly translated this mean ‘fragrant tea.’  When steeped, this tea has an almost Keemun like character, i.e. wine-y thickness to it. I strongly suspect this black tea has some of the chemical compound myrcenal (a totally naturally occurring chemical compound found in some Anhui tea bushes) that is generally considered responsible for the classic Keemun winey/sweet taste and aromatic characteristics.

Golden Mao Feng 
Special price of $7.18 per 4 oz.
If there was such a thing as cocoa-honey, this tea is what it would taste like.  Large, golden, wiry, twisted leaves with a sweet, dark aroma produce a liquor that is very thick, velvety, sweet, almost cocooay. This black tea is from Guangxi province in southern China (just east of Yunnan), so it sorts of tastes like a cross between a Yunnan tea and a Keemun tea.

 Rare Orchid Oolong  S
pecial price $14.78
This rare regional oolong, from Wuyi Mtn, Fujian, yields a light liquor, but with great aroma, taste, and texture.  You'll experience: sweet nutty, fruity, honey, and silky over many steepings.  These long large twisted bronze/brown leaves are produced at more than 1000 feet elevation from the Qi Lan cultivar.

 

Silver Bud White tea (aka Ya Bao)
Special price $7.19
This rare white tea from Yunnan is a winter-pluck tea with huge downy buds and leaves from wild growing tea trees and produces a liquor that is mellow, sweet, slightly fruity (ripe plums?), and lingers with a soft floral  finish.  Can also be aged, as a puer. This tea is from the wild growing tea trees in the mountains around Xishuangbanna, Yunnan province, China.  It is all hand-plucked and processed and rarely seen outside of China.  It is processed as a white tea, but is also meant to be aged as a puer.  So, in one sense, it is similar to a sheng puer.  But, as with many Sheng puers, it is also marvelous to drink as is immediately, without waiting the aging process.

2007 Guangxi Dark Tea Cake 
Special price of $34.39 per cake
This tea will be shipped in a special presentation gift box, including a stainless steel puer knife at no extra cost. This 357 gram dark tea cake from the Baise district of Guangxi province is very similar to an aged sheng puer.  The liquor is very fresh, vibrant, crisp, invigorating, and smooth with a hint of a toasty note.  The leaves (local Guangxi tea cultivar Lingyun White Downy tea) for this tea were grown in 2005, then aged and made into this cake in 2007.  An exceptional and very unusual dark tea.    

Up & Coming
Our annual big shipment from Sri Lanka (Ceylon) is due any week now and we have two new very cool teas coming in.  We’ll get these on the web as soon as they arrive.

Ceylon Burning Sun
This tea from the Lumbini Estate, grade of FBOPF, is a perfect blend of strength and complexity-which is pretty rare.  The Lumbini Estate has blended many broken golden tips into this tea, giving it a thick/weighty mouth feel, with multiple dark fruit notes, a clarity and brightness as you sip, and a lingering finish with just a hint of briskness.

Ceylon Oodooware Estate BOP
This is a wonderfully aromatic tea from the southern regions of Ceylon.  The large wiry leaves produce a liquor that is very smooth, mellow, with a hint of a melony sweetness, in a cup that is very balanced and full-bodied.

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