Winter Frost

The green leaf for our Winter Frost is plucked from tea plants that are a China plant variety made from a special high-quality clone of the Camellia sinensis sinensis called the CR6017. In contrast, most other tea in the region is picked from Assamica bushes. There is just a short 10-15 day window during the cold period in late January to early February to make this tea. Whilst the days at this time of year are bright and sunny, the low temperatures at night stress the tea plant and cause different flavour compounds to develop. When temperatures are at their coldest, around zero, the lower slopes get hit by frost. At this time, pluckers carefully collect the leaf from bushes on the higher slopes which have not been hit by frost. Once harvested the leaves are withered naturally for much longer than normal so that the water content is reduced by about 40%. Due to this hard wither, the leaf retains its green colour. It also means the leaves are completely dry. The dryness causes particles of the leaf to flake off during the rolling process. It is these green flakes combined with dark wiry leaves that gives the tea its unique spring green freshness.

We recommend 2-3g (2 tsp) of tea per 250ml water at 95°C for 3-4 minutes. This tea can be infused more than once.