Organic Gunpowder Tea

🍵 Tea Name

Organic Gunpowder Tea (Zhu Cha)

📍 Terroir & Origin

• Precise Origin: Zhejiang Province, China. This lot is built from the Pingshui / Jiu Keng cultivar group long used for pearl-rolled green tea in the Shaoxing hills.
• Altitude & Environment: Gardens around 600 metres, in misty Zhejiang uplands. Cooler nights and frequent cloud cover slow the flush and keep the leaf dense enough to survive tight rolling without turning brittle.
• Cultivar: Jiu Keng and Pingshui local cultivars. The leaf is chosen for a compact roll and a full, slightly smoky cup rather than a flat, pan-fired Longjing shape.

🌱 Plucking Standards

• Harvest Timing: Pre-Guyu (the flush before Grain Rain). The leaf is taken after the earliest Mingqian window, when the shoot is still tender but has enough body for pearl rolling.
• Plucking Requirements: Shoots are sorted before fixation so broken or rain-soaked leaf does not enter the roll. The aim is an even pellet, not a single-bud showpiece grade.

🔥 Processing Techniques

Gunpowder is an unoxidised green tea. The pearl is a storage form: a tight roll that limits the leaf’s contact with air compared with open, flat greens.

• Fixation (Shaqing): Fresh leaf is pan-fired to halt enzymatic oxidation and lock a green, slightly toasty character before any rolling begins.
• Rolling: While still hot and pliable, the leaf is rolled to break cell walls and start the pellet. Juices coat the surface so later infusions extract cleanly.
• Intermediate drying: A pause in the heat lets moisture move from stem to leaf so the pellet does not case-harden — dry outside, wet inside.
• Final rolling and drying: A second roll tightens each piece into a small round pellet, then drying brings moisture low enough for export. The finished pearl should be heavy, round, and dull-green rather than shiny or dusty.

👅 Tasting Notes

• Appearance: Small, tight pellets, dark olive to pine-green. They should unfurl in the cup rather than sit as hard shot.
• Liquor: Bright yellow-green when the pearls open. A well-made lot stays clear, not dull or grey.
• Aroma & Palate: Full-bodied for a green tea: nutty, lightly smoky, with a clean finish. It is the classic base for Moroccan mint tea, and it also stands on its own without sugar or herbs.

🫖 Brewing & Storage

• Recommended brewing: Use a tall glass — to watch the pearls open — or a white porcelain gaiwan. Water at 80°C–85°C. Start around 3 g per 150 ml; the first infusion may need 45–60 seconds because the pellet has to unfurl. Add a little time on later steeps.
• Garden certification: This tea comes from a garden certified organic under EU 2018/848. No synthetic pesticides or fertilisers are used in that garden. Sun Time Tea is not the certificate holder.
• Storage & shelf life: Keep sealed, dry, dark, and cool, away from strong odours. The compact roll helps the leaf keep its oils longer than open-leaf greens; the labelled shelf life is 24 months from production.