What we call "Black Tea" in the West, Chinese call "Red Tea" (Hong Cha 红茶.)
To respect Chinese tea tradition, I use the Chinese description of "Red Tea", but no matter the name, if you have had black tea before, the taste will be familiar to you!
THE TEA
Each box contains:
One 50g (7-10 sessions) Rose Shai Hong Mini-Cake
Yunnan is famous for its tea and roses, and both of those are in this gorgeous mini tea cake.
The tea base is Sister Ai's "Shai Hong" or "Sun-dried Red" tea. The sun-drying creates a sweet and clean flavor that is not heavy and perfect for sipping.
Sister Ai pressed these cakes with petals from Yunnan roses, known as "Red Ink" roses, a type of rose grown specifically for their fragrance.
The result is a unique blending of two of the greatest prides of Yunnan province and a tea which is intensely floral and sweet without being saccharine or overly perfumey.
Who is Sister Ai?
(A note from Jesse)
In June of 2023, I went deep into the tea mountains of Yunnan and spent almost a whole week at Sister Ai's tea farm, sampling teas and enjoying the tea life.
Sister Ai has farms all throughout the region, including access to the wild trees where some of the best tea in the world comes from.
That trip created our Tea Master Series, which allowed us to bring high-level single source tea directly from the mountain to our tea friends around the world. The only downside was that the teas were beyond the cost we could give in our subscription.
Since then, we have grown and can get excellent teas from this region at prices that I can put in our subscription box. I hope you enjoy tea (and roses) right from the source!
Making tea with Sister Ai on her tea mountain!
Jesse on "Red Ink" roses and flash-freezing:
This last trip to Yunnan, in addition to visiting Sister Ai, I followed a lead to a rose farm outside of Kunming.
There, the farm owners showed me around, and I got to see both the roses and also the incredibly excellent food-safe facilities where the roses
We picked the best roses you can get: "Red Ink" roses that are flash-frozen to preserve as much of their scent as possible. While some roses are air-dried, or heat-dried, both of these methods mean volatile compounds are released during the drying process.
With freezing, however, the roses lock away their original scent and color. The process is a bit more expensive, but after sampling several types of roses any drying methods, it was clear this was the best one.
Sampling Rose Water in Yunnan
VALUE AND QUALITY
Jesse's Teahouse started because Jesse realized the quality and value of the tea directly from the Beijing Tea Market was so much higher than what could be easily found in the States -- and around the world.
Jesse contacted his tea friends, they shipped their best teas to him, and he sends them to you. That's it!
These teas are high quality and can be re-steeped multiple times! Each serving makes between 3-6 cups of tea, so at around $.50 a cup, you get top quality Chinese teas at a price that you can enjoy every day.
NOT JUST TEA, TEA CULTURE
Jesse believes the key to making good tea is to help his Chinese tea friends share not just their best teas, but the best ways to make the teas.
That's why each box comes also comes with an info card that tells you:
Tea Origin
Steep Temperature
Steep Time
Directions for both teapot steeping and gaiwan steeping
All Jesse’s Teahouse Tea Friends (that’s you now!) also get access to private YouTube videos where Jesse and his Chinese tea friends show you how to make the teas and explain the tea-making process.
The links are on QR codes on the back of the info card included in the tea box.
Don't Forget Your Tea Pets!
In Chinese Gongfu Tea Tradition, Tea Pets accompany you at teatime and you "raise" them by feeding them tea! Check out the tea pets at the bottom of this page.
