June 2025 Tea Subscription
Thank you for coming onboard Parchmen & Co and travel with us to savour our world in a cup!
We aim to bring tea drinkers into the world of extremely fine and exclusive teas. These teas used to be inaccessible to commoners in the past but today we are able to bring it to you via our extensive network of sources directly from tea farms owned by our friends in different countries.
In the month of June 2025, we are featuring a green tea, a wulong and a pu'er tea:
- 2025 Pre-qingming Lion's Peak Long Jing green tea 西湖狮峰山龙井 10g
- 2025 Anji Huang Jin Ya Golden Tips green tea 安吉黄金芽 10g
- 2025 Spring First Pick Dark Roasted Anxi Tie Guan Yin 浓香型安溪铁观音 10g
Long Jing green tea, otherwise known as Dragon Well, is perhaps the most famous tea within and outside China. Its history stretched back 1,300 years ago when it was recorded in Lu Yu’s Classic of Tea (Tang dynasty) that Ling Yin Temple and Tian Zhu Temple located within West Lake area of Hangzhou produces tea. During the Song dynasty, these teas were listed as royal tribute teas. During the Qing dynasty, Qianlong emperor further amplified its fame by ringfencing 18 tea shrubs in West Lake and designating them as royal tribute tea for the Empress Dowager. During that time, there were so many stories about the tea and the area that “Long Jing Records” 《龙井见闻录》 was compiled.
Of course, this tea is famous because it is well made and delicious. Ming dynasty records mentioned about the tea’s “flag and spear” shape. Because the higher grade tea is often made with one tip and one leaf and flattened using pan-frying, the finished tea often looks as such - the tip stands straight like a spear, and the lone leaf slightly leaning to one side like a banner flag. Another late Ming dynasty record mentioned the distinctive soy bean flavour from tea from “Old Long Jing” area which was the area where Emperor Qianlong ringfenced the 18 shrubs. Indeed, the area has a long history and already a tourist site since ancient times. The West Lake immediately to the northeast of the tea production area is praised for its scenic beauty. Surely, this was one of the most beautiful places in China when Hangzhou (the city) and Suzhou (capital of Jiangsu province) such that Song dynasty academic Fan Cheng Da described them metaphorically to be like heaven. It is said that Long Jing is best brewed using water from Hu Pao Spring (大慈山虎跑泉). Some research tells us that Hu Pao Spring has water with low Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and 30 micronutrients. As such, we choose to brew this tea using filtered water at 80°C with our tea evaluation set. We attained soy bean flavour, finishing with complex notes of nutmeg, frangipani and raspberry. We continued to stress the tea using 95°C but still did not detect any astringency albeit having slight bitterness.
Pre-qingming green teas are picked before Qingming, which is one of 24 time periods in the Chinese agricultural calendar. Qingming, usually on the 4th or 5th of April, is during a period of bright and clear skies. It is a good time to visit ancestral graves often sited away from population far into the mountains. The Qing royal family designated this tea to be part of the offering during their official Qingming ritual. This explains why the need to change horses to transport the prized tea from its harvest ground in Hangzhou to the royal palace in Beijing, covering 1,300km over 2 weeks. Because this tea is a reserved Royal Tribute Tea, the status of this tea became elevated and is highly sought after. Today, the best grade could fetch SGD8000 peer kg. Pre-qingming picking yields tea leaves which are not yet green, due to the low levels of sunlight that prompts slow growth during early spring. After Qingming, enough sunlight would allow the leaves to turn green.
We are brewing this tea in our Parchmen Glass Gaiwan, at 3g to 120 ml of 80°C water, for 30 sec. The dry leaves are yellowish green, one tip and one leaf, neat and flat. The brewed leaves smell like soy milk, some sort of soy sauce and seaweeds. Laden with umaminess, the brew is sweet and syrupy, with floral and green notes that reminds one of the sea or forest after a rain. The tea is smooth and sweet from hot to cold. The second brew can be done with the same brewing parameters.
Anji is a county in Huzhou, which is known for its silk industry and its history as one of the birthplace of silk production. Anji is famous for its production of Anji Bai Cha - literally translated to Anji White Tea - which we have featured last month. Another tea that is gaining attention from Anji is its Huang Jin Ya - literally translated to Golden Tips. As much as Anji White Tea is not a true white tea, neither is the Huang Jin Ya a yellow tea. In fact, both are green teas. They are so named because of the colours on their leaves during budding. Notably, Anji Bai Cha grows whitish looking tender leaf buds, while Huang Yin Ya grows yellowish buds. These visual characteristics follow the tea into the dried and brewed forms as well, teasing the tea drinker on what exactly they are. They are known for their higher levels of theanine as compared to other teas. An amino acid, theanine carried the tea identifier of 'thea' because it was only found in Camellia sinensis for a sustained period of time after its discovery. In the taxonomy of the tea plant, the tea family is named as theaceae, with the root word of 'thea' the Latin spelling of tea's Hokkein pronounciation of 'teh'. Usually tea cultivars develop theanine levels of 3-4%. The Anji Bai Cha has 5-7% theanine, while the Huang Jin Ya has up to 9% theanine. As theanine is sweet and umami, you can expect the Huang Jin Ya to be smooth without much astringency.
In Zhejiang province, there are two places producing Huang Jin Ya - Ningbo and Anji. It was generally agreed that the Anji teas are more superior in terms of fineness of flavour. Our tea today is grade 1 from Anji. Grade 1 means it is a later harvest, such that the tea leaves have grown longer. The theanine will be lower than Special Grade but still obvious as compared to other teas. It also indicates the less stringent standards in removing stems, oxidised leaves and leaves of non-standard sizes.
We are brewing this tea in our Parchmen Glass Gaiwan, at 3g to 120 ml of 70°C distilled water, for 30 sec. The brewed leaves turn a golden yellow, with chicken stock as overtone and aroma forward on marigold. The brew has crystalline sugar cane sweetness, and is smooth with medium light body from hot to cold. The vegetal character associated with green tea is not obvious. It can brew twice at the same parameters.
Tie Guan Yin varietal originates from Xi Ping Township of Anxi County, Quanzhou City, Fujian province of China (泉州市安溪县西坪镇), on the west of the county. Tie Guan Yin is harvested a total of 5 times in Anxi but recent years see only 4 harvests - spring, summer, early autumn, autumn and missing the winter tea. The farms we work with only harvest Tie Guan Yin twice a year - the 2 more valued harvests of spring and autumn. The farmer's adage rings loud: Spring water (i.e. a rounder tea body) and autumn aroma (春水秋香). After a long winter, the bush would have accumulated substantial nutrients to brew a thick tea. Through summer till autumn, the bush would have bathed in enough sunlight to create aromatic compounds to brew a tea of higher aroma with a longer aftertaste. The abundance of sunlight in the middle two harvests usually produce teas of lesser elegance and coarser mouthfeel, and are usually sold in the mass market to Chinese restaurants. In Tie Guan Yin making techniques, there are three styles - lightly roasted (清香型), heavily roasted (浓香型) and aged (陈香型). Ultimately, the tea drinker decides his preference.
Our spring tea is from the tea fields northeast of Anxi county, on the tea mountains about 45 min's drive from Anxi urban centre. The tea farm is around 400m, located right on the ridgeline formed by Chinese eucalyptus trees (桉树) used for paper making. Growing amongst wild flora and fauna, osmanthus trees are planted with the tea shrubs to encourage cross-fertilisation between them for a more floral tea. The processing factory is right in the tea farm, allowing prompt processing and avoiding the uncontrolled oxidation experienced by leaves harvested a long distance away from factory. The farm does not use any chemical fertilizer but the tea shrubs benefit from the dung from cows which move through the farm. For speed to market, recent years see spring Tie Guan Yin being harvested before optimum maturity of the tea buds. Our tea avoids this commercial trend and is harvested on time. At the start of May when the best Tie Guan Yin leaves are harvested, noon temperature is high at about 27°C and night temperature drops to 17°C. The diurnal range is beneficial to the development of quality Tie Guan Yin.
2024 Spring tea was made by Parchmen & Co together with our tea master in the mountains of Anxi, Fujian. The leaves are harvested on 3rd May 2024 and roasted at 2 am on 4th May 2024. We have sold out this tea in four months mid September. In 2025, we once again made tea with our tea master in the same tea field as 2024. In 2025, we examined the weather pattern and carefully chose the date of arrival at Anxi. We were lucky to be able to meet good weather to harvest the day after we arrived, on 27th April 2025. Although the field has started harvesting less common varieties like Ben Shan (本山), it was its first harvest for Tie Guan Yin. Parchmen & Co had the first pick Tie Guan Yin from that field in spring 2025. In 2024, we made lighted roasted tea. In 2025, we made both light roasted and dark roasted. In this tea subscription, you are enjoying the light roasted tea, which took 48 hours from harvest to finish. Our journey is captured in our Instagram story here.
The tea master who led us to make the tea is Xu Liang Hu (许良虎), who is the Chinese government appointed custodian of the intangible heritage of Tie Guan Yin making techniques (非物质文化遗产铁观音制作传承人). In 22nd May 2023, Tie Guan Yin technique was recognised by United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO) as a globally important agricultural heritage system.
We are brewing this tea in our Parchmen Glass Gaiwan, using 3g of leaves to 150ml of 95°C water, for 45 sec. We can also use the gongfu tea method, by brewing 6g of leaves to 120ml of 95-100°C water, for 15 sec. Such a method will allow a changing profile for each brew. The good stamina of Tie Guan Yin allows it to be rebrewed multiple times, living up to another adage that there is residual aroma even after seven brews. For the dark roasted tea, the dry leaves are less green and darker tone. In a gongfu style of brewing, the caramelly note from the darker roast is the perfect base for the elegant magnolia and orchid notes are well harmonised in the brew. Bolder with a heavier and creamy mouthfeel, there are also notes of vanilla, chocolates and even a hint of umami and rambutan. For a moment, the tea tastes like sugar cane juice, which extends into the afterflavour - sweet and quenching, with a slight bump at the throat when one swallows the tea. With more brews, the aroma fades out but the sweetness remains.
Enjoy your teas of June 2025!
Thank you for coming onboard Parchmen & Co and travel with us to savour our world in a cup!