Verdant Tea

2022 Laoshan Huai Flower Tea

2022 Laoshan Huai Flower Tea

banner
Wild flower buds
finished like green tea
The He Family forages caffeine-free Huai Flower buds and gives them a green tea firing and curling finish to bring out complex notes of sweet corn, lilac, quince and licorice.
May 2022 ♦ Laoshan, Shandong
Wild flower buds
finished like green tea
The He Family forages caffeine-free Huai Flower buds and gives them a green tea firing and curling finish to bring out complex notes of sweet corn, lilac, quince and licorice.
May 2022 ♦ Laoshan, Shandong
Loading...

SPRING 2023 PRE-ORDER

This spring 2023 pre-order tea from the He Family in Laoshan is available to reserve on pre-order while supplies last.

This tea is arriving now and shipping in within the next week!

Crafted By the He Family

Pioneers and community leaders, the He Family is dedicated to making a name for their stunningly smooth, malty, rich teas cultivated in China’s coldest, northernmost growing region.
 
This herbal tea is finished with flowers foraged from Laoshan Chinese Scholar Trees on the slopes of Laoshan, carefully hand-finished by the He Family with a technique similar to their reserve Laoshan green teas.
    • DATE OF PICKINGMay 2022
    • Laoshan VillageShandong Province
    • ELEVATION500 M
    • Styphnolobium japonicumTea Varietal

    The Huai Flower of the Scholar's Tree grows wild across the slopes of Laoshan. The aromatic little flowers have been used in Chinese medicine for hundreds of years for anti-inflammatory properties. The He Family has been wild-foraging and brewing Huai Hua for as long as they can remember, but this year again they decided to apply their meticulous tea processing to these unique flowers, including withering, heat fixing, curling and drying. The flowers partially oxidize during these processes, bringing out deep complexity and lingering sweet aftertaste.

  • true
    80
    masa corn cakes
    true
    75
    marigold, lilac
    true
    60
    quince, mandarin
    true
    65
    licorice, cardamom
    true
    sweet, honeyed

    Tasting Profile

    • savory - masa corn cakes
    • floral - marigold, lilac
    • fruit - quince, mandarin
    • spice - licorice, cardamom
    • texture - sweet, honeyed


The He Family also recommends:

  1. 2023 Reserve Pine Needle Green
    2023 Reserve Pine Needle Green

    Mr. He’s daughter Qingqing, co-owner of Verdant Tea, pioneered this finishing style with her father. She loves the long delicate twisting technique for the way the leaves dance in a glass pitcher as they unfold yielding a delicate nuanced brew that lasts over multiple steepings. The hand pulled and twisted finish on this early reserve harvest shows off the delicate deep-green buds that the family picks with so much care, cultivating with sustainable chemical free farming, and fed by sweet mountain spring water.

  2. Reserve Flat Pressed Laoshan Green
    Reserve Flat Pressed Laoshan Green

    This special hand picked, hand made tea was picked this year during the early shage-grown spring harvest in mid-April, with the He Family's greenhouse protection against the cold of Laoshan's unique northern climate. With the greenhouse protection still in place, the tea plants grow slowly for textural intensity and sweetness unique to shade-grown tea. The flat-pressing process that Mr. He uses to finish this fresh spring harvest is inspired by Dragonwell green tea. In fact, Laoshan tea was originally brought to the area from Dragonwell, so for this cultivar, flat-pressing is a return to its origins. The day-long labor-intensive process to finish this delicate tea makes for beautiful leaves to brew in glass. The flavor is lighter but the aroma and sweetness more pronounced with flat-pressing.

  3. 2023 Spring Reserve Laoshan Green
    2023 Spring Reserve Laoshan Green

    A mild winter and cool spring has made for a beautiful early harvest of shade-grown Reserve Laoshan Green. These sweet and delicates buds and leaves are picked while still under greenhouse protection in the He Family’s ocean-facing plot at the foot of the Laoshan mountains. The early April picking is still intensely sweet and packed with deep minerality.


  • 'By putting all the cultural value that the word “tea” inspires behind just one species of plant, we are missing the opportunity to appreciate the craft, devotion and subtle taste experience of other plants. The cultural weight of the word tea should be awarded based not on plant species, but on craft. After all, it was the craft of tea that originally made it necessary to distinguish cha (茶) and tu (荼)'

  • 5
    6-8
    175
    20 seconds
    10
    5
    6
    175
    8 seconds
    4
    5
    12
    room temp
    8 hours

    Steeping Instructions

    Western

    5 g.6-8
    oz.
    use 175° watersteep 20 secondsresteep many times
    add 10 sec. each infusion

    Gongfu

    5 g.6 ozuse 175° watersteep 8 seconds
    add 4 sec. per steeping
    enjoy many steepings

    Iced/Cold

    5 g.12
    oz.
    use room temp. waterrefrigerate overnight
    8 hours
    add ice & enjoy

Product Photo Gallery

Copyright © 2013-present Magento, Inc. All rights reserved.