Jesse's Teahouse Pu'er Tea Oranges

Jesse’s Pu’er Tea Oranges (Jesse’s Tea Orange Series)

Note: Seeing “Out of Stock”? They might just not be available in your market yet! Check the Launch Month Living Blog (hyperlinked) to see the status for each of our 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇪🇺🇬🇧warehouses.

Note: As we are now making our own line of tea oranges, we have replaced our old tea oranges with the new ones we created ourselves! 

What is a Tea Orange?

Tea oranges, known as “Xiao Qing Gan” in Chinese, are tea leaves packed inside a special type of fragrant mandarin orange grown specifically for its aromatic peel.

The inside flesh of the fruit is scooped out, the peel is dried, and then filled with loose leaf tea. The result is a fantastic citrus scent during brewing, and a smooth, natural orange note in the tea.

The tea oranges in this series are the end result of over a year’s worth of tea scouting and sourcing, where I went in person to the orange fields and the tea mountains to find the best ingredients, put them together, and develop a complete line of amazing flavors, including both classics and innovative unique tastes.

What’s in the Box?

Each box contains ten tea oranges (between 100-120g total), filled with Royal Shou (Cooked) Pu’er Tea.

This is the most classic tea orange flavor - the dark earthiness of the shou pu’er melds smoothly with the crisp citrus notes from the orange. The result is a special flavor that has made this flavor of tea orange one of the best-sellers on the site ever since it was one of the first teas we offered in our original sampler box in 2021.

The high quality, small and fine pu’er tea leaves used in this tea orange are known as “royal pu’er” since it was originally developed as a tribute tea meant for the Emperor and his court. The small size and clean flavor of these leaves make them perfect for filling our tea oranges!

What is Shou (Cooked) Pu'er?

Pu'er is the wine of teas, meticulously picked and aged with each tea mountain having its own personality. True Pu'er is only grown in Yunnan, China, right on the border of Myanmar in the heart of Southeast Asia. It is drunk throughout Asia for its fantastic flavor and health properties.
 
Shou, or "cooked" pu'er has been put through process that involves piling the leaves and turning the pile repeatedly to rapidly increase oxidation and fermentation. The resulting tea is dark, complex, and known to calm the stomach and aid digestion.

Not sure which flavors you like? Try the 5-orange sampler!

Why Make Our Own Tea Oranges?

While tea oranges are not difficult to find in China, they are usually filled with lower quality tea, with most vendors hoping the interesting shape will be enough to attract customers.

Eventually, we decided that if we wanted higher quality tea oranges, especially those that would pass EU export standards for pesticides, we needed to start from scratch.

We sourced the oranges, sourced the teas, put the tea in the oranges, and made our own line of products that simply can’t be found anywhere else!

Our Orange Guy: Jie Ge

Jie Ge is a third-gen tea orange farmer from Xinhui, China, the best location in all of China to grow tea oranges, thanks to its unique geographical position in a rich flood plain and their special varietal of orange. His family has been growing and aging oranges for decades.

The orange varietal he grows has 27 volatile scent compounds contained in the dried peel, compared to normal oranges which have under 10.

Jie Ge’s oranges come from the core area of (area) and are grown fully organic, using only organic fertilizer he makes himself by fermenting ingredients like peanut shells, soybean powder, fish and fish bones, seashells and seaweed, amongst other ingredients.

Our Tea Lady: Tian Zong

Tian Zong has been in tea tasting and sourcing for over twenty years, and has spent much time in the last decade helping local farmers grow to organic and EU export standards, as a way of increasing incomes for farmers and helping them reach overseas markets.

Tian Zong connected us directly to local farmers, and serves as our quality-control specialist for making sure all teas fit the highest standards of pesticide, heavy metals, and other health-related topics. She also ensures the farmers get the proper export papers needed.

In addition, Tian Zong is also a certified tea-tasting expert, as granted by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. Her insight on which types of teas might be a good fit for the Tea Orange Series was very valuable.

Jesse and the team testing tea oranges in Changsha

Pesticide Testing: Assuring Top Quality

Jesse Says:

I spent over $4000 on pesticide testing for these products so they would pass EU regulations, which are the toughest on the planet.

The challenge for orange peels to pass pesticide testing is immense because the peel stays on the fruit all throughout its growth. This means any pesticides used on them accumulate, and so virtually no chemical pesticide can be used during the growing process.

Jie Ge uses natural methods on his farm to resist pests, including creating a biodiverse growing environment where wild animals help control pest population, as well as fermenting his own organic fertilizer from (ingredients).

We smelled this stuff and it smelled horrible, but it works well!

The end result: lots of “ND”s (meaning “not detected”) on the final pesticide tests and my personal satisfaction that we’ve made the best tea oranges from a health, safety, and ingredient quality perspective available outside of China - and maybe even inside of China!

(pic of passed tests)

Making The Tea Orange Series: A Jesse’s Teahouse Timeline

October 2024:    After searching for months to find fully-made tea oranges that fit EU pesticide regulations and also use high quality tea, we decide to start developing our own, and start searching for farmers who grow to our quality standard.

January 2025:    We find Jie Ge and receive the first samples of empty organic tea oranges from Jie Ge, proving that if we can source our own tea, we can make our own oranges.

April 2025:    Jesse and the whole JTH team fly to Xinhui village in Guangdong province to meet Jie Ge, see the farms, try the different oranges, and do taste testing to see which tea types match well with the citrus flavors. We also see the brand new clean room packaging facility Jie Ge has built just for our Tea Orange Series, in order to register with the FDA and other relevant regulations.

July 2025:    With the help of Tian Zong, we select 11 different organic teas that we ship to Jie Ge for packaging. He packs the samples and ships them to Tian Zong in Changsha, Hunan Province.

August 2025:    Jesse and the JTH China team fly to Changsha, to meet with Tian Zong, visit local organic tea farms - some of whose teas are featured in this series - and taste test Jie Ge’s tea orange samples. Jesse and the team agree that we should make a five tea orange sampler and individual 10-packs of each.

September 2025:    Harvest Season! Our oranges are picked, scooped, dried, and packing begins!

November 2025:    Our custom packaging designs are completed, packaging samples approved, and final printed packages arrive in Xinhui to be filled.

Jie Ge contacts China Customs and begins the process of explaining how we will be the first people shipping EU-standard oranges to the EU and UK markets, and making sure Chinese Customs approves the unusual shipments.

December 2025:    Packing continues, we ship to the ports, and begin the export processes.

January 2026:    Our tea boards trains, planes, ships and automobiles, on its way to our four warehouses in the USA, Canada, EU, and UK! By importing directly, we avoid paying US tariffs outside of the USA.

February 2026:    Our Tea Orange Series launch month begins!!! Check the Launch Month Blog to see when they will arrive in your market!

Questions about the Tea Orange Series?
Email teafriendsupport@jessesteahouse.com and ask!