Cha Crusade

Some tea vendors like white2tea only sell Chinese green tea during one short period of each year. Here I discuss why this is the case and what to expect from white2tea’s brief annual green tea sale. Hopefully this will help you decide if you would like to join the sale and be ready when the window opens.

Summary

• Green tea loses much of what makes it special mere months (or even weeks) after it’s produced.
• The white2tea pre-sale only happens once a year, starting ~March 20 and lasting for ~10 days.
• There is a limited range of high to very high quality Sichuan and Guizhou green teas available.
• Ensure you read up on how to brew and store your fresh green teas to get the most out of them.

Why such a short buying window?

Green tea is unusual compared to other tea types in that it is far better when (very) fresh. It loses a lot of what makes it great quickly – after several months or even weeks, especially if not stored well (i.e. sealed and kept very cool). If you have never tried fresh green tea, you may be missing out on quite a unique experience.

For this reason some tea vendors do a pre-sale to sell green tea just before or soon after it is picked and processed. This will usually only be for the spring flush that occurs roughly around the Qingming festival (depending on various environmental factors). This reduces options and flexibility for customers but it ensures a high quality product. Selling stale green tea is not great for brand reputation.

For white2tea, the result is a limited range of high quality green teas that I have observed tend to sell out quickly; some in just a few days.

When can I buy green tea from white2tea?

The white2tea green tea sale historically runs for only about 10 days starting roughly around March 20 each year. The best way to stay informed is to be subscribed to their newsletter or you can watch out for their posts on social media (Instagram example).

Around this time there is not usually any free shipping promotions, so expect to also factor in their flat-rate shipping cost. This is a good opportunity to arrange a group-buy with friends in your location.

Alternatively, you can subscribe to their monthly tea club, which will probably include one or two green teas in the April edition (example review from 2022). You can sign up for one month and then cancel if you like.

What sort of green teas are on offer?

The range is limited and tends to focus on quality greens from Sichuan and Guizhou provinces. These areas are renowned for their green teas but you won’t find the full range of famous Chinese greens (e.g. Longjing from Zhejiang or Biluochun from Jiangsu).

The range varies a bit year to year and covers numerous price/quality levels. In my experience you will generally “get what you pay for”, so pay attention to the price-per-gram ratio. For example, in 2023 “Book Cover Green” was not just the cheapest pack offered but it was also sold at double the quantity of the others (50g vs 25g), and I found it to indeed be significantly inferior to the next cheapest offering.

My favourites from previous years have been “Cloud Mist Green” (great value for the quality) and “Ganlu” (for a very high-end experience). I’ve also tried “Book Cover Green” and “Mao Jian King” but I didn’t think they stacked up quite as well for their respective prices.

How should I brew my fresh green tea when it arrives?

Check out the “How to brew green tea” section at the bottom of this white2tea article for their own recommendations. After that, my own tips follow below.

• The main risk is accidentally over-steeping, so start with your cheapest green tea first to get a feel for how to brew it according to your taste.
  • Brewing at lower temperatures (e.g. 75-85ºC) will give you a lot more room to move than 100ºC.
• Skip the fine mesh strainer to ensure you don’t miss out on those delicious trichomes (said to improve the mouthfeel of the tea).
• Consider brewing grandpa style, which green tea is well suited to.
• Brewing in glass (gaiwan, pot or cup) works well for both aesthetics and effective heat dissipation, which can help reduce the chances of over-steeping. But watch you don’t burn your fingers!
• These green teas have a delicate taste, so avoid consuming things with a strong taste before/while trying them.

How should I store my fresh green tea?

The goal with storing green tea is to preserve its fresh taste, which means keeping it as dry, sealed and cool as possible. If, after you’ve opened your new bag of green tea, you just put a peg on it and put it at the bottom of your tea cupboard you will likely notice a rapid drop-off in freshness/quality/enjoyability in a matter of weeks or even days. If you plan on drinking it all within a week or so, this is probably fine.

If you want to store it for longer, you will want to consider sealed/airtight storage, or even go further with partial vacuum (e.g. Tightvac) storage. This is a great way to slow oxidisation and preserve freshness for longer without any downsides (except for the purchase of the storage vessels).

Storing the tea in a fridge or even a freezer is going to the next level but I’m hesitant to recommend it due to the risks:

• Other odours in the fridge / freezer influencing the tea (airtight storage helps with this).
• Condensation causing water to come in contact with the tea leaves (this one is a tricky problem!)

I’d be keen to hear other people’s experience storing their green tea (whole leaf, not matcha powder) in the fridge or freezer and what steps you take to eliminate the risk of condensation.

What other vendors do annual green tea sales?

Another popular tea vendor that does a once-a-year fresh green tea pre-sale is Bitterleaf Teas. They take a bit of a different approach by offering pre-orders (starting early-mid March) for the famous Shifeng Longjing (2024 example) at various quality/price points. This year they are also offering a Mengding Ganlu too.

They do sometimes also offer other green teas throughout the year. I quite enjoy their “Hulk” Simao green tea (2023 example), which is nowhere near as delicate as those above but excellent value.