We all know that person - they collect tea wherever they travel and take great pride in telling stories about its origins and traditions. Perhaps they keep a pu’erh cake in their cupboard or special order white tea from some small independent producers. Tea Zaanti is proud to carry some very high end “reserve collection” teas as well as a rotating collection of seasonal specials. Most of the teas in our reserve collection have a story of their own.
Here’s what we’d currently recommend:
Fukamushi Sencha: A Japanese green tea from the Shizuoka tea prefecture in Japan. We had an opportunity to travel to tour the farms and factories of Japan and this sencha was our favorite. Shizuoka is between Tokyo and Kyoto with views of Mt. Fuji, the tea gardens are off of one of Japan’s deepest bays, which is reflected in the tea they produce. Fukamushi Sencha is steamed three times to produce sweet, fresh cut grass notes. It brews up to a deep rich green and only brews for 35 seconds.
Everest First Flush: This Nepalese black tea is hand-picked in April and then hand-rolled We’ve sourced it through a fair trade distributor based in Boston, MA. Scott has built a great relationship with the distributors, who are both from Nepal. They travel there a couple times each year to check on the fields and to make sure that the money they promise to give back to the community is going to the right places. This is a smooth, sweet tea that finishes with vegetal notes.
Organic Assam Reserve: This rich, smooth organic black tea is Scott’s go to morning pick me up. It brews up bold with a deep, dark liquor with those traditional malty notes. For those of you with an English background, this black tea pairs wonderfully with milk and honey. The distributors of this tea travel back and forth to India all the time, and this tea is sometimes hard to get. We are lucky enough to have a great relationship with the distributor and they let me know when it’s on its way to the U.S. so we can get our order in!
