Tea Hub

Bi Luo Chun Mania Sale

2010-02-02T20:21:00.000-08:00

Feel the Bi Luo Chun Mania and enjoy 15% off our Spring Dong Shan Bi Luo Chun selections!

If you are a seasoned Bi Luo Chun tea drinker, our premium Pre-Ming Dong Shan Bi Luo Chun will definitely satisfy you with its fine tender leaves, refreshing floral aroma and soft, buttery taste. New to Bi Luo Chun? Try our sample set. Our carefully selected sample set allows you to taste and compare 3 grades of Spring Bi Luo Chun from Dong Ting Dong Shan, the origin of Bi Luo Chun. You will be happy to explore what this fantiastic Chinese green tea has to offer.

Hurry! This sale ends Sunday, February 7^th, 2010.

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3 Day Post Thanksgiving Sales

2009-11-28T00:41:00.000-08:00

Our 3 day Post Thanksgiving Sales kicks in today. Use coupon code THXNGIVING to get additional 10% off at our online store . Hurry, this offer ends Tuesday, December 1st, 2009.

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24 Hr Canadian Thanksgiving Special

2009-09-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

Busy shopping for Canadian Thanksgiving? Check out our unique selections of premium Chinese teas. We will ship your order to Canada for free when your order is over USD$50. Please use coupon code J8UDCZYFZE at check out to receive this free shipping offer.

Hurry, this offer ends at midnight on Sept. 8th 2009!

TeaHub
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TeaHub’s new offering – Tea Pets

2009-09-06T00:12:00.000-07:00

We have received many inquires regarding tea pets since our blog post – Zi Sha Tea Pet. After some careful selections, we are now carrying three tea pets. Two of the tea pets are made of purple clay. The other one is made of materials that will change color when temperature changes.

The two purple clay tea pets are Pi Xiu and Three Feet Frog. Both are symbols of fortune in Chinese legend. The other tea pet is lion, another popular symbol of fortune by Chinese tradition.

Pictures and descriptions of the tea pets can be found at our online store.

Alex
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TeaHub is launching AnXi Tie Guan Yin Tasting Set

2009-07-05T11:11:00.000-07:00

Tie Guan Yin, also known as Ti Kwan Yin or Iron Goddness of Mercy, was originated from AnXi, FuJian. Although lightly roasted Tie Guan Yin is claiming a large market share now, traditional Tie Guan Yin is heavily roasted. Producers introduced lightly roasted Tie Guan Yin after observing lightly roasted Oolong from Taiwan gaining popularities.

Lightly roasted Tie Guan Yin has strong orchid aroma, and light, refreshing taste. Traditional heavily roasted Tie Guan Yin, on the other hand, has more complex taste and aroma. However, the strong roasted aroma takes some experience to get used to. Moderately roasted Tie Guan Yin was then introduced to bridge lightly roasted and heavily roasted Tie Guan Yin. Heavily roasted Tie Guan Yin offers a different experience after being aged for several years.

After receiving many emails from Tie Guan Yin drinkers seeking an understanding on Tie Guan Yin, we decided to offer this AnXi Tie Guan Yin Tasting Set that consists of four types of authentic AnXi Tie Guan Yin:

1) Lightly roasted Spring AnXi Tie Guan Yin
2) Moderately roasted Spring AnXi Tie Guan Yin
3) Heavily roasted Spring AnXi Tie Guan Yin
4) 10 Year aged AnXi Tie Guan Yin

Start exploring Tie Guan Yin with the delightful lightly roasted Tie Guan Yin, and end your journey with a sweet, smooth aged Tie Guan Yin that fills your mouth with strong orchid aroma.

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Pre-Order – 10% off Pre-Ming West Lake Long Jing

2009-06-25T15:28:00.000-07:00

Almost sold out our stock of this year’s Pre-Ming West Lake Long Jing (Dragon Well). We will be getting more from our producer next week. Place your order by Sunday, June 28, 2009, and use coupon code UPEMHPYJ2Y at check out to receive 10% pre-order discount on this popular tea!

What can you expect from our Pre-Ming West Lake Long Jing?

Beautiful flat leaves that Long Jing is famous for.
Sensational refreshing green bean aroma that may make you feel the urge to eat the leaves.
Crispy, sweet taste with a hint of floral lingering at back of your mouth.

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Tea Tasting with Friends – Part II

2009-05-17T16:43:00.000-07:00

The intention of this tasting session was educational. For green tea, we tasted Dong Ting Bi Luo Chun and West Lake Long Jing, the two most famous Chinese teas. We talked about to how to judge qualities of the two teas by dry observing leaf appearance, by tasting. Some people were telling me how wonderful and different they were in comparison to ones they bought at other places.

We moved on to taste Oolong, starting with AnXi Tie Guan Yin. I chose moderately roasted AnXi Tie Guan Yin for this taste session. Moderately roasted Tie Guan Yin is a good choice for green tea drinkers to ease into hard core Oolong. It not only has the refreshing orchid aroma that lightly roasted Tie Guan Yin has to offer, but also has more complexity that attracts many heavily roasted Tie Guan Yin lovers. It has a hint of roasted aroma, but not overpowering. People praised highly about this tea. Jonathan was surprised to find out that Tie Guan Yin can be so sophisticated in taste and aroma.

I brewed up a pot of moderately roasted WuYi Da Hong Pao after the Tie Guan Yin tasting. In comparison to the moderately roasted Tie Guan Yin, this one has stronger roasted aroma. Although everyone was quite impressed by its sharp, strong, long lasting osmanthus aroma, I could tell that not everybody was used to the roasted aroma lingering at the background. Praveen, who has many years experience with Indian teas, seemed quite impressed with it. “This is definitely an acquired taste’, said Praveen.

For black tea tasting, I brewed a pot of Yunnan Black. Its strong fruity/floral aroma was very impressive. Thanks to the widely available earls grey tea bags, people were readily acceptable to this one.

Pu-erh tasting was a fun one. I prepared different grades of green and black Pu-erh for people to taste and compare. I first showed and brewed two different green Pu-erh. Although it was a little bit challenging for them to judge by smelling dry leaves, the winner was obvious after I brewed them. I was quite thrilled to see that they were able to identify the high quality one. People used the words “too plain”, “too watery” to describe the low quality one, which were exactly correct. I did the same types of comparison for two different black Pu-erh. Pu-erh is such a mystery tea, I knew that I could not cover it in such a short time. However, I am confident that when this group people go shopping for Pu-erh on their own, they are now armed with knowledge.

To thank everyone for coming, I brewed a pot of my personal collection – 20 year old Loose Old Tea Tree Pu-erh. The dry leaves have unique rose/plum aroma. Upon brewing it, the sought-after aged wood aroma raised from the cup. And the taste? Smooth, mellow, and sweet. What a great way to end this wonderful tasting session.

Linda
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Tea Tasting with Friends – Part I

2009-05-16T20:52:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Peggy and Mike, I hosted a tea tasting session with a group of friends and friends’ friends yesterday. Twelve people showed up and two and half hour flew by without us even noticing. Everybody was having a good time.

People attending the tasting session have a wide range of experience with tea. Some are new to the tea world, and some have already developed their own preference. However, regardless of their experience, everyone came with an open mind, and left with more knowledge and nice lingering tea taste in their mouths.

I prepared the tasting session in the order of tea strengthens so that stronger teas such as Oolong and black teas would not overpower green teas. This also allowed people to assess their tea preferences in the full range of tea scales. We started with two types of green teas, then progressed into Oolong and black tea, and finished up with a wonderful brew of 20 year old Loose Old Tea Tree Pu-erh.

To be continued…

Linda
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TeaHub is launching Dong Ting Pi Lo Chun/Bi Luo Chun Tasting Set

2009-04-12T17:35:00.000-07:00

Dong Ting Bi Luo Chun (all also called Pi Lo Chun) enjoys a fine reputation in China as one of the highly praised green tea from beautiful Dong Ting area in Jiang Su province. However, its name is far from known outside China. Our recent research shows that not only it is less known to oversea tea drinkers, but also it is confused with Bi Luo Chun from other regions such as Yunnan, Taiwan.

Bi Luo Chun was originated from Dong Ting, Jiang Su. As the production technique spreaded across the country, places such as Yunnan, Taiwan started to produce their own version of Bi Luo Chun. Yunnan Bi Luo Chun are made of leaves of Yunnan large leaf tea trees and Taiwan Bi Luo Chun are made of leaves of Taiwan local tea trees. None of them are same to the original Dong Ting Bi Luo Chun tea trees. Not to mention the unique environment that gives Dong Ting Bi Luo Chun its unique floral and fruity aroma.

Dong Ting Bi Luo Chun has unique fine and delicate taste that can't be found in either Yunnan or Taiwan Bi Luo Chun. In order to introduce this Chinese delicacy to oversea tea loves, we teamed up with our Bi Luo Chun producer in Dong Ting to offer a tasting set starting this spring. More information regarding this tasting set can be found on our site.

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2008 Spring AnXi Tie Guan Yin expected to arrive this week

2008-05-27T11:35:00.000-07:00

March and April are all about green teas. After Gu Yu, people's attentions turn to Oolong. Our 2008 Spring AnXi Tie Guan Yin is expected to arrive this week. We will be offering two types of AnXi Tie Guan Yin this year: moderately roasted and heavily roasted. Heavily roasted type is the traditional type. Most seasoned Tie Guan Yin drinkers prefer this type. Moderately roasted type is a new type that bridges lightly roasted and heavily roased Tie Guan Yin. Moderately roasted Tie Guan Yin has the aroma of lightly roasted Tie Guan Yin without compromising the traditional thick, mellow taste.

Linda
http://www.teahub.com/

Treat yourself with a cup of Bi Luo Chun from Bi Luo Peak

2008-04-14T10:03:00.000-07:00

If you are a Bi Luo Chun lover, you know that real Bi Luo Chun is from Dong Ting, Jiang Su. If you are a devoted Bi Luo Chun lover, you perhaps are obsess with the never ending search of Dong Shan (East Mountain) Bi Luo Chun. Located at peak of Dong Shan, Bi Luo Peak is the origin of Bi Luo Chun tea, and still grows the best Bi Luo Chun today.

Although not everybody can travel to Bi Luo Peak, you sure can enjoy a cup of premium Bi Luo Chun we brought to you from East Mountain wherever you are, and put your imagination to work looking at this picture from Bi Luo Peak.

We offers two Bi Luo Chun from Dong Shan this year. The pre-Ming Bi Luo Chun is absolutely a gem. Those tightly twisted young, gentle tea buds are a joy to watch. According to our producer, we are the only one that offer this grade of Bi Luo Chun to oversea market. We decided to carry the pre-Yu Bi Luo Chun after tasting it. It was harvested right after Qing Ming, and has a quality that matches last year's pre-Ming production. It is a great tea to enjoy everyday without pinching your wallet.

For more info on Bi Luo Chun, check out our Bi Luo Chun Talk. We also offer Bi Luo Chun tasting set for you to compare different grades of Bi Luo Chun.

Linda
http://www.teahub.com/

2008 Pre-Ming West Lake Long Jing expected to arrive next week

2008-04-06T13:40:00.000-07:00

After some long wait, our 2008 Pre-Ming West Lake Long Jing finally is arriving. As expected, quality of this year's production is better. After some careful tasting, we picked the premium batch harvested in the early harvest period of March 27 to 30, 2008. This years' cold weather delayed West Lake Long Jing harvest by more than 10 days, which in turn shorted the harvest period of this year's pre-Ming Long Jing, which ended on April 5.

We are very pleased with this batch. All tender leaves from first flush, very refreshing, purified taste. Another great West Lake Long Jing from renowned Tea Research Institute of Zhangzhou!

We have both Long Jing #43 and Long Jing Varietal for your to choose from at our online store .

Linda
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A Designer Tea House

2006-12-01T13:49:00.000-08:00

I recently showed a visiting friend our Dian Chi Road branch. She was very impressed by the interior design there. Sitting at the upscale Dian Chi neighborhood, this branch serves many affluential customers. Lots of efforts have been put into design and construction of this tea house. Many display items were specially made for this branch. From red lotus lamps to golden Buddha lamps, I personally designed every single one of them.

The roomy main tea room has a large tea table that can sit 12 guests at the same time. Various sized group tea rooms are available for guests who prefer more private settings.

After showing my friend around the tea house, we sat down in a group tea room and sipped 2006 Golden Da Mo… Time flied by and we sure had a great time that night!

Alex
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Ms. Dong Judging Vintage Pu-erh at Yunnan Classic Pu-erh Appreciation Event

2006-11-25T13:06:00.000-08:00

I finally got a chance to sort through pictures from Yunnan Classic Pu-erh Appreciation Event. This event was held by Government of Si Mao City and Pu-erh Magazine. 48 antique Pu-erh were displayed during the event. It is really an eye-opening event for Pu-erh lovers.

Ms. Dong, along with other Pu-erh experts from mainland, HK, and Taiwan, was invited to judge the authenticity of 18 Pu-erh ranged from antique Pu-erh, such as Tong Qing, Jing Chang, to Label Pu-erh, such as Red Label, Blue Label, to modern Pu-erh, such 88 Green Cake, 96 Purple Da Yi. Each Pu-erh was endorsed by experts after passing the judgments and then notarized.

Linda
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JinYuXuan Opened VIP Branch in Kunming

2006-10-09T13:40:00.000-07:00

Our much expected new branch opened for business recently. This branch occupies two floors of a downtown Kunming office building. This is our VIP branch. It has tea tasting rooms, a tea ceremony room, and a large Pu-erh storage room which occupies the whole lower floor. There is also a specially designed Golden Da Mo Pu-erh display room.

Our VIP customers will be able to visit the specially engineered Pu-erh storage room. The picture on the right only shows a section of the storage room. Having such a large Pu-erh storage room in downtown Kunming will definitely allow us to serve our high volume customers better.

Tea Lovers at JinYuXuan Tea House
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2001 Young Green Ancient Tea Tree Small Pu-erh Brick

2006-08-06T13:41:00.000-07:00

I did not pay too much attention to its taste when I started to drink the 2001 Young Green Ancient Tea Tree Small Pu-erh Brick last week. I wanted to get my flat tummy back and turned to this ancient tea tree Pu-erh to rescue. I noticed the “flatting” effect of our ancient tea tree Pu-erh on my tummy several years ago. It did not take long for me to experience the improvement again this time.

I was gulping down at least 1L of this tea everyday without paying too much attention to its nice taste lingering in my mouth. It has been aged for 5 years, and many of its bitterness have given its way to mellowness. Therefore, drinking 1L of this tea everyday has been quite an enjoyment.

Yesterday, without the sense of weight loss urgency, I was in a mood to enjoy and appreciate this Pu-erh. I first carefully peeled off some whole leaves off the brick – the brick has loosened up after aging. The dry leaves have light pleasant floral smell. After quickly washing the leaves, I smelled the wet leaves – fresh, floral, with a hint of plum, nice! I took a small sip of the tea - smooth, although still had traces of bitterness, it is not harsh at all. I happily sipped down the tea. A sweet aftertaste raised in my mouth along with a long lingering aroma of plum. I enjoyed this Pu-erh for hours yesterday. What an experience!

Linda
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JinYuXuan Pu-erh Teas Are Selected as Gift Teas to 2006 NPC & CPPCC

2006-03-10T13:15:00.000-08:00

Our 2005 Golden Da Mo and 2003 Nan Nuo Shan Pu-erh teas are selected as government of Yunnan’s gift teas to 2006 NPC (National People’s Congress) & CPPCC (National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference) that are being held in Beijing from March 3 to March 14. The NPC is China’s national legislature and the CPPCC is China’s top advisory body.

We are very proud that our Golden Da Mo has been selected as government of Yunnan’s gift tea to NPC & CPPCC two years in a row.

Tea Lovers at JinYuXuan Tea House
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A Nice Picture

2006-02-25T14:52:00.000-08:00

I love this picture when Alex showed it to me. We have not figured out where to put it on our TeaHub site. I just could not wait to share it with you here. I think that we are very lucky to have Alex on our team. He is the one that in charge of the design of our tea houses, our product packaging, and our advertising materials.

Linda
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JinYuXuan Unveils 2006 Packagings

2006-02-21T13:48:00.000-08:00

As our continuous efforts to provide our customers superior experiences with our carefully selected premium teas, we are introducing our 2006 tea tins and tea boxes. Our in-house design team has worked on this project for several months. We added some new designs and fine tuned some popular designs from last year. We hope that you like them.

Tea Lovers at JinYuXuan Tea House
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JinYuXuan Vintage Pu-erh and Tea Ceremony Appeared on CCTV-2

2006-02-09T22:55:00.000-08:00

By the invitation of CCTV, Ms. Dong brought a bundle of unopened 70 to 75 year old YiWu Pu-erh to the popular CCTV-2 JianBao (Treasure Appraisal) Program on February 4. Five final contenders were asked to estimate market price for this bundle of vintage Pu-erh. Most of the contenders’ estimations were in RMB$600,000 range. One contender gave it an estimated price of RMB$2,000,000. Ms. Dong later explained that its market price would be RMB$580,000 to $600,000, and the $2,000,000 estimation would be its auction price. One contender from Yunnan was very excited to see this Pu-erh and said that it was not possible to find Pu-erh of this age on market. She further said that you would be lucky to find even 10 year old Pu-erh on market now.

Our Tea Ceremony team also performed Tang Dynasty style tea ceremony later on the program. Girls beautiful performance brought us back to over thousand years ago…

Tea Lovers at JinYuXuan Tea House
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Zen Master MingHai Visited Our Wild Old Tea Tree Plantation

2005-12-20T20:21:00.000-08:00

Zen Master MingHai, abbot of Bailin Temple, visited our wild old tea tree plantation in MengSong on Nov. 20. This 4000 mu wild old tea tree plantation was added to our portfolio of wild tea tree plantations just recently. Tea trees have been wildly growing there for hundreds of years under a naturally developed eco-system. Neither fertilizers nor pesticides are needed there. The plantation is located in high elevation area with plenty of fogs, which is ideal for tea trees to grow.

Master MingHai also visited our tea factory there. Master MingHai later noted “这里的制作程序很注重卫生和环保。进工作间要换鞋，工人穿制服，蒸了干叶用石头压饼时，脚上套专用的靴套。(The manufacture process is very clean and environmental friendly. People need to change shoes before entering the working area. Workers all wear uniforms. Special boot covers are used when compressing steamed dry leaves using stone molds.)”.

Master MingHai, Master MingYi and our tea master Di Liu made few Pu-erh cakes using dried tea leaves on that day.

Tea Lovers at JinYuXuan Tea House
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Four Scenic Areas in Diqing Rated “The Most Beautiful Places in China” (II)

2005-11-27T14:41:00.000-08:00

The other two scenic areas on the list are:

Hutiao (Tiger Leaping) Gorge: Located 97 km south of Zhongdian, now Shangri-La, this 20 km long gorge is one of the deepest gorges in the world. Its narrowest spot is only 30 meters wide. According to a local legend, a tiger leaped over the rough Jinsha River at this narrowest point and gives it the “Tiger Leaping Gorge” name. Well worth the hike!

Lancang River Meili Grand Canyon: Lies at the foot of the Meili Snow Mountain, this 150 km long Canyon is a natural masterpiece. The 4,734 meter deep Canyon is also famous for its rough water. Lancang River rushes through narrow rocks and generates loud sounds. Breathtaking! Both Hutiao and Lancang Grand Canyon are rated “The Most Beautiful Canyons in China”.

Linda
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Four Scenic Areas in Diqing Rated “The Most Beautiful Places in China”

2005-11-12T12:36:00.000-08:00

A recent survey conducted by Chinese National Geography magazine rated four scenic areas in Diqing, Yunnan “The Most Beautiful Places in China”. Yeah! The four areas are: Meili Snow Mountains, Baimang Snow Mountain High Mountain Azalea Forest, Jinsha River Tiger Leaping Gorge, and Lancang River Meili Gorge. They are also our favorite places as well. Alex was lucky enough to be able to spend quite some time in Diqing few years ago. He is still quite excited whenever he talks about the experiences there.

Meili Snow Mountains: Located some 10 km southwest of Deqin County, the mountain range includes 13 peaks, which also known as the “13 Prince Peaks”, all rising over 6000 meters above sea level. It is a holy mountain to local Tibetans. Its main peak, Kagebo Peak, is the highest mountain peak in Yunnan. In spite of many attempts to conquer it, it remains a virgin peak. Meili Snow Mountain was rated one of the “Top 10 The Most Beautiful Famous Mountains in China”.

Baimang Snow Mountain: Located in Deqin County, this natural reserve covers a total area of 187,977 hectares with the highest peak towering 5,430 meters above sea level. Inside the natural reserve, there are vast amount of azalea forests. Many rare varieties are growing in the virgin forests there. During azalea blooming season of April to June, the whole mountain is decorated by colorful azalea flowers. It is quite breathtaking. The azalea forest there was rated the one of the “Top 10 The Most Beautiful Forest in China”.

To be continued…

Linda
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Zen Tea (禅茶)

2005-11-08T11:17:00.000-08:00

Zen Tea started at BaiLin Temple (柏林禅寺), which was ZhaoZhou GuanYin Temple in Tang Dynasty. Master ZhaoZhou’s (778-897) famous Gongan “go to have tea (吃茶去)” is still widely quoted in many tea houses in Korea and Japan. Over thousand years later, ZhaoZhou Zen Tea Conference (天下赵州禅茶文化交流会) was held at BaiLin Temple October 19 to 21, 2005. JinYuXuan (今雨轩) presented a large Thousand Year Tea Tree Pu-erh Bing Cha (千年普洱茶饼) in the worship ceremony on October 19th. Our house tea master, Di Liu （刘菂）, also presented tea ceremony in the conference. Our special edition of Golden Da Mo (Young Green Ancient Tea Tree Pu-erh Bing Cha 金达摩普洱茶) was selected as conference gift tea. It is also available at temple’s religious article shop. Profits are donated to the temple.

Master Jinghui （净慧法师） said in his speech that the spirits of Zen Tea are rightfulness （正）, pureness （清）, harmonies （和）, and elegance （雅）, and functions of Zen Tea are gratefulness （感恩）, forgiveness （包容）, sharing （分享） and forming ties （结缘）. How much have you experienced while drinking your tea?

Linda
http://www.teahub.com/

Holiday Gift Ideas from JinYuXuan

2005-10-29T15:44:00.000-07:00

Need ideas for someone special or simply yourself? Our Holiday Gift Ideas page is a good place to start. Is there anything better than rare to find teas carefully packed in specially designed tea tins/boxes for a tea lover?

Tea Lovers at JinYuXuan Tea House
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