What is “fresh tea”

By Valley Green Tea

Posted On February 21, 2009

Drinking fresh teas

Most of the premium loose leaf teas need to be consumed fresh, with the exception of the post-fermenting Pu-erh, Hei Cha, and aged white tea. 

Fresh tea means the teas produced seasonally, adequately packaged and stored, and consumed ideally within the 12 month of their production. 

Tea is a very fragile product. Even the top quality teas could deteriorate rapidly when exposed to light, high temperature, moisture and foreign odour. Once the tea quality is diminished, it is not reversible.

Some downfalls of the teas on the current market

  • Tea bags: Most of the tea bags are made of low quality tea dust, which is the lowest on the tea grade scale
  • Loose leaf tea: Most of the packaged loose leaf teas currently on the market are not adequately packaged or stored under optimal conditions (eg refrigeration). The teas are continuously exposed to tea damaging factors to cause the rapid decline of quality. 

Our apparoch 

At Valley Green Tea, we import only teas that are seasonally produced, except for those aged Hei Cha and white tea. We use the latest techniques for storing high quality loose leaf teas – vacuum seal, refrigeration and small satchel packaging. The small satchel packaging (10-25g) allows teas to be consumed gradually without affecting the quality of satchels that remain sealed. We also air transported the teas to Australia to minimize the time under room or high temperature.

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