Separating Tea Types Through The Different Seasons
Hey my fellow tea lovers I am very curious if anyone drinks certain teas at certain times of the year. For example, for winter months I tend to drink black or red tea which ever you prefer to call it and pu-erh. Now in spring I tend to lean more towards jasmine or osmanthus scented teas it really invokes spring in my opinion. Once the nasty summer hits I am drinking green tea for the most part. White tea may fit in their maybe. Not real sure on white tea since that is a tea I have no experience with. As sad as it may seem I have had snapple or lipton bottled white tea only and I would suppose not nearly the same. LOL!!! As for my love for oolong I tend to drink that in the fall. Does anyone else do this or am I just a wired one out of the bunch? LOL!! Also, if anyone has good traditional white tea recommendation would love to hear the type and company to buy it from. In addition, If any one has a suggestions on where I should incorporate the white tea in the seasons I would love to hear it since I have no experience with them. Thanks for all replies and suggestions my friends.
I just kind of follow my own feelings – usually at any given time, a particular tea sounds good (or doesn’t sound good). I do tend to like lighter teas during the summer.
Humidity and other environmental factors also seem to affect the way tea tastes, and the types of teas I might want to drink.
Thank you so much for your reply. I also will drink whatever tea too specially when I so want to drink them or just want to sample something I never tried but the pattern I was saying in above post seems like what I tend to do. Have a wonderful day.
I do notice a trend in which teas I choose depending on the season. In the winter, I tend to go for strong flavors like chai and cinnamon. Today we had an unseasonably warm, sunny day, so it is currently Earl Grey which I usually drink in the warmer months. In the summer I love fruit flavors like lychee and lighter teas like jasmine and white. I am still trying to figure out where green and oolong will fit in, but those will probably be more any day type teas for me.
Thank you for your reply. Now that I think about it I tend to wear my different fragrances in different seasons too. I wonder if that is where my separating the tea types stems from. LOL! As for where you should fit in green and oolong well here is my suggestion as for green tea it is refreshing just the thing for summer as for oolong it is in between a black tea and a green tea so I think of warming drink is black tea and refreshing is green so it only makes sense to me for it to be place in fall your in between summer and winter. Well at least thats how it make sense in my brain. Hope what I said made sense and didn’t sound like crazy talk. LOL!!!
I wouldn’t know cause I live in the tropical area and we only have one season throughout.
But in China, even way back in the early Qing dynasty, it was recorded the Emperor QIen Lung’s decreed tribute tea in summer was Lung Jing and in winter was Pu-er, so there is some wisdom in it.
Bearing it mind also at that time, oolong, black (Chinese red) were not discovered yet.
Wow are you serious. I did not know that. That was a interesting fact. Thank you for the information. I appreciate your reply too. Thanks again my friend.
Yup, cause Chinese believe food (and beverages) have warming or cooling properties.
Oolong, pu-erh and black (red in Chinese classification) are warm
Green and white are cooling….
Hence the summer and winter classification- though all teas are taken warm, the effect on your body ‘heat’ is different- according to Traditional Chinese Medicinal beliefs, at least……
The most famous white teas are Silver Needles and White Peony, I am not too wild on them but taste is a personal thing I guess…..
I know the only time I’ll drink chai is in the winter. I like my jasmine all year round, but in the summer I do make it iced, same with silver needle and matcha.
Thank you for the reply. Silver needle is a white tea right? Now, I have not tried any white tea yet but do you have a recommendation on what company to get the silver needle. Granted if I am going to try a white tea I want it to be good quality and done right. LOL!!
Yes, silver needle is a white tea, it’s supposed to be the highest grade of white tea, comprised of only the buds, which are fuzzy. I usually get mine from Teavana, Harney and Sons, or Rishi. Depending on if I’m ordering other teas online or if I’m at a store that carries it depends on which of the three I’m getting it from. It’s one of the very few teas I enjoy iced and it blends well with the jasmine pearls and/or some peppermint. Enjoy!
oh, I definitely do this. Winter means lots of masala chai, with some plain Assam every now and then. Fall for me is genmaicha and nothing else. Summer is all oolong and chilled hibiscus with some chrysanthemum every now and then. Spring…doesn’t really have a designated tea yet. Hmm.
Hey cheetah_pita first off I want to say I love the name. LOL!!! I thank you very much for your reply. I am glad to hear other do the same thing. LOL!!! I like your choices. Have a wonderful day.
In China, teas form an integral part of Chinese traditional medicine and that suggests that there are definite benefits from drinking teas that are appropriate for each season. Here are the brief information that you can figure this out quickly:
Spring – scented teas
Summer – green teas
Autumn – Oolong and White teas
Winter – Black and Pu’erh teas
And there is no need to following this rules of drinking tea, you can just follow your own feelings to choose a proper tea in proper time. If you are interested in why we should drink different types of tea for each season, I think this link can help you: http://www.teavivre.com/info/proper-drinking-time/
As for the white tea, it contains serveral types: such as silver needle white tea (Baihao YinZhen), white peony ( Bai Mu Dan). The biggest difference between the two tea is, the former is completely made by top unopened tea leaf buds, but the latter is tea buds with one or two leave. Both of them have a subtle, slightly flowery, sweet, lingering taste.
Thank you for the informative information. Wow, this helped a lot. I will check out the link too thanks. I like cologne and fragrances and have a nice little collection that I tend to wear them in different seasons. I believe that is where this habit I do with the teas came from. Ha ha ha. Granted if I am craving a certain type of tea I drink it at anytime of the year. In my humble opinion I think our body craves certain things for whatever reason that maybe for example to replenish a vitamin, the best thing for us to do is to just listen to our bodies.
Thank you for the reply I appreciate that. By the way I will have to check into the white teas you mention. Wishing you and your family well have a beautiful day.
I find that I do tend to drink the reds, blacks, and Pu-erh more in the cooler months and more Oolong and occasional greens in the warmer months. However, when it is warmer, I do enjoy making iced tea with any of the above, so that sort of skews my results a bit!
Dinahsaur thank you so much for your input. Green tea is good iced. Ha ha
I live in a area where summers are so HOT that *ICED*is the only way to go. LOL
Interesting question, Tea_is_wisdom.
One the white tea question, as has been mentioned, there seem to be the two main types: Silver Needles and White Peony. I have had both, each from at least two different retailers, and I enjoy them both. Silver Needles is very light on flavor and still very pleasant tasting. It’s not a tea I would drink every day (price aside) but it is still a very enjoyable tea. White Peony is also good, and offers much stronger flavor in the cup (and it’s usually much cheaper for reasons listed above by Teavivre).
As far as recommendations on where to buy white tea, Silver Needles can be very expensive (I have seen an organic version for, I think, over $12/oz). It’s not easy to touch the good stuff for less than $6/oz (True Silver Needles come from Fujian province). I haven’t had Tea Trekker’s, but I would recommend them (I think they go for about $7/oz), and TeaVivre has both Silver Needles and White Peony; I have tried their White Peony and it is good and reasonably priced (about $9 / 100 grams), and I judge they have an impeccable reputation for great customer service. Jing Tea Shop offers Silver Needles for I think just over $6 ounce, and all of their Tea I have tried is of good quality.
In my understanding, one reason for categorizing food and tea into hot and cold is that hot things can energize or excite us (which I imagine may be due, at least in part, to the caffeine in Chinese Red/Indian Black teas), and cool things calm our mind and body (which I imagine may be due, at least in part, to the high level of theanine in green tea). Both can be useful, depending on what we need at the time (for balance). Here is an interesting related article (btw, I see Wikipedia as simply a good starting place for information, and not necessarily as a reliable source of it): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_food_therapy
If you buy any white tea, and try it, let us know!
Thank you so much for the info. my friend. I will have a peak at the article thanks for that. I do have an order actually coming from Teavivre. I have been eyeing Teavivre’s white teas I think I will get a small amount of them to try because I am not sure if I am going to like it because I am thinking white tea is just going to be too mild of a tea for me like drinking hot water. LOL
I thank you again for taking the time to respond to my weird discussion I started. Ha ha!
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