This year’s harvest is a bit different. The bud are MUCH larger, many a full two inches long, yet are still the full downy-haired leaves and not a later harvesting. The end result is that the tea is much sweeter, almost like a bai mu dan rather than the sweet hay flavor of earlier years. Although it’s still delicious, Spring Cottage Tea House obviously knows this deviates from the “ideal” silver needle and the price is therefore twenty dollars a pound less this year.
