Reflections : A year with tea : April : Connection

April 30, 2024

Welcome to our year with tea

Throughout 2024 we will be sharing our year with tea; embracing tea through the seasons both at home & in the tea fields. As this is the only full year our pop up Shatwell Tea House will be open we are taking the opportunity to document the space throughout the year & share it with you all. In this blog we offer our reflections on April - starting with stories from the Tea Houses and then looking at activity with some of our friends and partners around the tea world.

For April our theme was connection.

Reflections on April....Connection at our Tea Houses

Our Shatwell Farm Pop Up Tea House was only open at the start and the end of April as Michelle & Jenny headed off on travels to China and South Korea. Before our travels we took and shared this photo - a moment with this delicious Jiayinglong Qi Lan to sit in the still & quiet & experience its layers unfold. A reminder that these moments are available to us all. Just 5 minutes - a favourite tea, a favourite spot to sit and sip, a favourite tea bowl.

Our Bath Tea House

We were very grateful for such a busy and positive month at Our Bath Tea House as Rob & the children worked hard to keep everything going while Michelle was on her travels. As always beautiful human and animal visitors came through the door!

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Reflections on April....in the tea fields

As part of our year with tea project we are asking many of our partners around the world to share what activities they undertaken each month - an insight into the work that goes on in tea all year round - and of course a window into what tea everyone is drinking! For Michelle much of April was spent in China and S Korea - you can read what she saw and discovered in these blogs [more to come which are still being written up!]

More in keeping with our usual monthly 'Year with Tea' blogs - here is our spotlight on April from India to China & beyond.

April with tea friends in the Nilgiri Hills S India

From our partner Murali : Here you can see the pruned-area vs unpruned. Tea leaves are growing back! We also plucked a few kilograms of leaf

April with tea friends in the Darjeeling Hills N India

From our partner Husna : As the first flush arrives it seems a good time to celebrate this most beautiful of teas. In the spirit of our theme from this month let us truly connect with the First Flush from this beautiful tea garden using descriptions from Husna and the team

What is First Flush? First Flush refers to the first set of new leaves that emerge from the bushes as daylight hours increase as spring arrives, while Second Flush teas are harvested later in summer when the secondary leaves appear. First Flush consists of tender, young tea leaves which are lighter in colour and more delicate in flavour. The two leaves and a bud from Second Flush tend to be a darker shade of green.First Flush teas have a lighter coloured brew that is subtle, crisp and more delicate in both taste and aroma with nuanced floral undertones while Second Flush is characterised by a darker, amber coloured brew, often with fruity and musky undertones with a stronger flavour and muscatel aroma. Other than these differences First Flush and Second Flush teas also go through different processes such as Drying and Rolling, in different ways. Each difference lends that particular tea its special character, flavour and aroma.

Where does the first flush character develop? The delicate flavours and aromas characteristic of this early season harvest are manifested in the lush green tea fields. Glenburns first flush then undergoes some key processes when the leaves reach the factory. Throughout the processes strict love and attention are paid to defining factors like temperature, humidity and the timing of each process

Plucking : Our most experienced and skilled workers meticuluously hand pluck tender two leaves and a bud from our tea bushes focusing on the most delicate and youngest shoots [Chinery, Assam and clonal]

Withering : The freshly plucked leaves are spread out in a well ventilated area to wither allowing the leaves to lose moisture and become supple. First flush withering is often shorter than other flushes to retain the delicacy of the flavour

Rolling : The leaves next undergo gentle rolling to break the cell walls and release all of the important health-giving and aromatic components like flavenoids, anti-oxidants and more - kickstarting oxidation - which contributes to the unique flavour profile of this prized tea.

Oxidation : First Flush is known for its light oxidation, resulting in a delicate and floral cup and monitoring oxidation is critical to achieve the desired flavour and aroma characteristics. The leaves are laid out in a cool space for a very sport duration compared to other seasons.

Firing : To halt oxidation and preserve the fresh delicate flavours the leaves are fired at a high temperature. This takes places over about 20 minutes so both the inside and outside are dried evenly. This process also enhances the teas aromatic profile while ensuring its long shelf life during storage.

Sorting/Grading/Packaging : Fired leaves are sorted based on size and shape and packed into paper sacks to be shipped away to different markets.

Want to try the tea? You can explore here

April with tea friends : China Myanmar Border

From our partner Matt : I am in Yunnan this April and busy with the tea production. In April, there is a festival called Water Splashing Festival. It is the New Year of Thai minority, everyone wears their best clothes and splash water to the others to give them best wishes. Here is a picture of Huang Pao, which is quite similar to berries in the west. They are on the mountains and taste a little bit sweet and sour.

Want to try the tea? You can explore here

April for our tea friends in Ujitawara Japan

From our partner Yuta : Here is the picture of the organic Gyokuro field.

The leaves has been growing well. We will shade the field very soon

Want to try the tea? You can explore here

April for our tea friends in Kyoto Japan

From our partner Tokuya : It's Spring! It's a little cool at night, but it can be quite hot during the day. This is now the busiest time. It's harvest time. There is a mountain of work to do. Now I'm making various preparations before picking. I also mow the grass. We may start picking some early this year. We are weeding, cheesecloth covering, removing fallen leaves & picking the new shoots. I am personally drinking the Lactic acid fermented tea. I think it helps the stomach function during the change of seasons. I like it. Please look forward to this year's tea. It's starting soon.

April for our tea friends in South Korea

From our partner Seong Il : As part of our travels in April we were very lucky to visit the studio of Seong Il and Hye-jin.

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Our visit coincided with a very busy period for the studio as they prepared for a major exhibition in Seoul. Here is a window into their world in April

One of the wonderful thing about working with people who work in tea is that no matter how busy they are there is always time for tea. We headed out into the tea fields to enjoy beautiful Korean teas from beautiful Korean Teawares

Fancy a beautiful new teapot? you can explore here

April with tea friends ; Shire Highlands Malawi

From our partners Wouter & Alexander : hereby a picture of Alice in the tasting room. That time of the year when the main CTC season is running to an end and specialty tea season is kicking off. This year the CTC season was relatively poor in volume and low in pricing on the auction. The main hot rainy season comes to an end. Cooler times are coming. Cooler, means slower growth, more taste development in the leaf. Blue & clear skies... plants are stressed a bit from the main season. Also pruning started. Roughly 1/3 of the estate is pruned each season...
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Want to try the tea? You can explore here

April with tea friends in Adams peak Sri Lanka

From our partners Buddhika : We are still experiencing heavy rains on and off which we expect following last years heavy drought. This makes it more difficult to harvest the wild tea - Wild harvest is very limited and there are significant landslides on the way to the harvesting. Despite this we have continued to make teas, in limited quantity this month.

We have also made good, uplifting, positive progress on our other projects. Here you see a newly joined farmer whose tea we are planning to support through sourcing in the future. We identified very good potential in him and are developing ways to use his knowledge and ours to make progress. We have consulted him to undertake closer plucking rounds, put drains in to his land and diversify his crops to include cinnamon cardamon and clove.

He has completed a small tea nursery but we identified that the approach was completely wrong - so I spent some time in April advising him. He has not raised up the nursery properly - starting from the soil - so there are some fungal infestations in the roots and planting distance & shade management are not correctly done. The outcome has been around only 40 viable plants out of 100 plants. Even the 40 that are viable this will not be good - the plants will be weak. So we will restart a new nursery for him.