China’s new tea export laws

In the wake of the recalls of Chinese food products and the deaths that have happened china has started to finally address the problem and to beef up there export laws in regards to food at least, one of the main areas they are tackling is tea as of 2008 tea companies must register there tea base at the source (the fields they are grown) they must collect soil samples and product samples, along with water testing and the farmer must submit some very detailed credentials like pesticides used and fertilizer types and these must all pass the standards set by the government. All this is submitted to the Quarantine Bureau and Chinese Customs. The company must have its own Chinese Trading License or go through a Chinese trading company. This is true for all products exported from China. Most foreign companies cant obtain these licenses so the go trough a Chinese trading company but these are pretty sketchy and aren’t very reliable, and more often then not the company loses total control of the tea to the Chinese company. The new laws also do apply to the trading companies that the tea companies go through so all parties will be held to the same high standards.

A Tuscan tea company Seven Cups has become the one of the first tea company to obtain there own Chinese business license which allows them to have full control of the tea and gives them the ability to create there own network of tea growers and have quality control standard that they are happy with. Read more about this and seven cups here (link).

Keemun concerto

Tea review: Keemun concerto

This is a strong Black tea with a bit of a wheat taste too it I think this would be a good tea to have with milk and honey but alone the taste is a bit off the smell isn’t very aromatic or as it been described as “Smokey”.

The tea is from Eastern China it is one of Chinas most popular teas. The concerto is a limited run and made to a Mao feng grade. Some people say this is a black tea for green tea drinkers. Another good comment I found was that it does not go bitter if over steeped this is always good because I am still trying to get the whole temperature and time thing down. This seems like a good morning tea to wake up too.