Ned Heagerty: “Tea Talk” @ Talks at Google (Full Transcript)

So all the trends were there. But it still is here and there. And so my concern was, how do I validate that I can do what David did? Is this a doable business model? Because I’ll qualify, I’m a tea trader. I sell tea. That’s my business. I’m not in the business of the ceremony or necessarily the cultural side of it. I sell tea.

But I recognize at the same time that that’s a relationship. It was my understanding of Asia from prior business in Asia that it was very much based on relationships. So when we went to China the first time, we actually gathered all of the key suppliers that we could identify, which was about eight people from various provinces in China, easily six different provinces. And we all gathered in the city of Fuzhou along the coast and spent a weekend together– essentially just visiting, and talking about tea, tasting tea, taking hikes, eating food. And that was sort of– that was my first introduction. And it’s a cast of characters– Mr Song, Mr [Square] Mr [Chen Fin] [Chen Lu].  So there’s a group, and that group’s pretty much remained intact with some new players always.

But that initial weekend and then travel in China was sort of– it confirmed for me that it would work, that this was a way– that model that David had could work. It needed some work on the business side. It needed to become a little more practical, if you will, a little more focused on what markets exactly we could supply and what we couldn’t do and refined. But the essential model was there. Particularly that it was specialty tea, high-grade teas, unusual teas that I really felt the US market was ready for, was interested in. And I think over time that’s proven true.

PAIGE SCHOENING: And so you spent a lot of time cultivating these relationships. What’s it like when you go now? What’s it like to work with– Mr Song, correct?

NED HEAGERTY: Mr Song.

PAIGE SCHOENING: So does he set up places and times for you to meet with folks? Or if you could just describe how that works.

NED HEAGERTY: Well, to an extent, I think because we do business in roughly six to seven provinces we’ll draw from every year, with emphasis on certain provinces for a larger share of our tea, of course– but through our specialty teas, we’ll go into a particular province to secure. So generally speaking, the way we approach it is we believe that the best teas are early spring when the plant’s fully alive. It’s coming out of the winter dormancy. And all of that vibrant growth is going up into the leaf and bud, always in that endless pursuit of procreation.

But that bud and those first three leaves are wonderful teas at that time of the year. The flavors are very nuanced. They’re vibrant. The leaves are tender, everything. If you taste good tea, that’s the time. That’s the best tea there is in the world, in my opinion. So somewhere along the line, like right now, I’m beginning to think about that. It’s early March Late March is when the first teas will start to come out in a province like Fujian, early whites and green teas. So we’ll begin– I’ll, latter part of March, travel to China, try to get there before the 1st of April.

Hopefully if the weather’s been warm, the first teas will be coming out. We’ll start seeing green teas. I’ll meet Mr Song in Fuzhou, for example. And then we go into the tea market and visit with certain people in there that we do business with. And I will usually have a list or references of teas that I’ve either bought prior years that I really enjoyed and that our customers seemed to really enjoy and some new things that I might be curious for and put that word out. And these men channel sort of– they’re our conduit, if you will, to small farms in the area. Word goes out. And then over the next week or so, we begin to see samples come in. And we’ll spend the day in the tea market sampling tea. That would probably be– early on, it’d be the Mao Feng green teas and variations of that. There’s just a raff of varietals of Mao Feng now. If it grows on the north slope, it’s one taste and look. If it’s on the south slope, it’s this East and West, each one– in each soil, the elevation– develops over time in a farm a different taste, just like wine.

So we’re in pursuit of that. And here’s sort of our wish list, if you will. And it’ll go out. So Song and I will spend time tasting basically all day– from early in the day until evening tasting tea. When we find a lot we like that makes sense, fits, what would you like for it? How much is there? What can we do? Song then steps in and sort of handles everything from there.

Once we’ve made the purchase, procured the tea, it will be shipped to a warehouse where we repackage it, get it into what we would call high-grade packaging, and vacuum seal it if the leaf can handle that or do a light vacuum, and put it into a high-grade carton, stuff a container, and ship it here. And Song handles all that side. It’s not easy to get tea out of China necessarily, particularly when you’re collecting from various areas. So he’s extremely good at that and has honed his skills. So I rely heavily on him to do that.

PAIGE SCHOENING: Right. And it sounds very complicated. And I’m curious to know more about when you’re sitting there tasting teas. How many are you tasting in a row? And what notes are you looking for in the different teas? And are you thinking about your customers’ tea preferences or your own? Or how does that all work?

NED HEAGERTY: Yeah, that’s a– I think it’s extremely important to think about the customer I’ve learned over time– this’ll be the 17th or 18th year I’ve been to China to taste tea and buy tea. One thing I’ve learned in that time, what I like may not be what my customers like. So there’s always that kind of– that’s the challenge as a tea buyer. You need to find the very best tea that you can, but at the same moment be mindful of, what would my customer– would they follow me on this? Would they recognize this tea? Would they appreciate this that I’m appreciating? Because it can be quite expensive. And I don’t have a secondary store to sell If I can’t sell it, it stays in my warehouse and becomes an issue.

So you really do spend the day– basically, it would be the same set for tasting tea as we’ll use today, where we set certain guidelines. The water in China will always be filtered, and that’s important. They generally like to use water right at boiling temperature. So even when we’re tasting high-grade greens and whites and other teas, it is going to be heated with very hot water. And some things are going to probably be muted. There’s ways to work around that. And we do. If it’s a particularly interesting tea and very expensive, I will have them do an extra step of cooling the water. But for the most part, we’ll sit down. We’ll set rules.

Water’s filtered. Water temperature’s here. We’re going to use two grams for every five to six ounces of water. We’re going to steep it two minutes. And those are the ground rules. So everything that comes through during the day– and literally what happens is people arrive, farmers will arrive, and have tea that they’ve just processed. And it’s ready for market. Or it comes in via carrier, or other tea shops, or other farmers, and cooperative representatives come in and bring their samples. And we’ll work through them. So we might taste anywhere from 10 to 30 teas in a day, doing the same process– sitting at a table, brewing, steeping the tea, tasting it, and slurping it, listening to it.

And for me, each lot is noted and then what taste profile I gained from it. If there’s a price, what was the price? All those attributes, so that I have a long reference, pages of notes, that I can reference back and sometimes go back the next day and say, I really was interested in that lot that we tasted yesterday. It was lot A or whatever we labeled it. Is it still available? But you work through those teas and, in the course, find the teas that you like, inquire as to quantity that’s available, pricing, and see if you can strike a deal for it. And then word goes to that farm and says, hold that lot.

Silk Road Teas is taking that lot. I think it’s indicative of China that there is just a vast amount of tea that comes out of the mountains– particularly in an area like Fuzhou which, for many years because it’s at the end of the Min River there, was an international port and has a long history of tea. It just flows down from the mountains, and that’s an ideal location– high mountains in the area, great amount of rainfall. It cools at night and warms during the day. So tea really enjoys that, and grows very well, and gets very lush.

So it’s a great spot to start. And then from there, we work our way to maybe the Wuyi Mountains or sometimes up to Fuding, a different area, to procure different varietals or to visit a farm we haven’t been to in a while and see what’s going on. And you end up with some very interesting teas.

PAIGE SCHOENING: I bet. And so when you’re in these different places, what are the different provinces known for? Are there certain areas that are known for certain teas?

NED HEAGERTY: Yeah, very much so. Well, like Fujian, for example, is widely known for white and green tea, and for what I would call elegant black teas– such as golden monkey, a black Mao Feng, things of that sort, really delicious teas. The Wuyi blacks also.

PAIGE SCHOENING: What do you mean by elegant tea? What’s the difference between an elegant tea and a non-elegant tea, or black tea?

NED HEAGERTY: Well, I think that there’s different styles. From my perspective, the Fujianese like to make a black tea that has really a wonderful mouth taste and feel. But then what really is impressive to me is how it finishes and lingers and what you feel like in your upper body as you finish tasting it. That sensation, there’s an elegance there between not only is the leaf usually beautifully shaped and quite small– and the coloration is wonderful, so there’s some elegance coming up out of that– but then it makes me feel that way as I taste it and then as it finishes. Say, for example, an Assam from India tends to be much more aggressive in the mouth. It’s much stronger in the taste feel. They really like a lot of mouth. So as each culture develops their taste profile, it sort of plays out.

And Yunnan of course in China, the Yunnan province, that taste comes– it’s a different varietal. And the flavor that they look for is different also and the finish. Although, again, I think the Chinese– for me, it’s just a characteristic that I carry in mind that I think of — when I think of China is the finish, and how you feel as you drink tea with people, and then as you feel after you’ve consumed. Yeah.

PAIGE SCHOENING: Now I want to go back to the spring harvest because I’m very curious. Is that– are all tea buyers around the world going to China in the spring, or is it just the specialty tea buyers? Or are people buying tea throughout the year? Is this just the special time of year?

NED HEAGERTY: Well, it’s changed a little bit over time. That’s one of the notable differences in the buying pattern for the US. It used to be– well, I should qualify in the specialty tea segment, which is what we compete in or offer teas in, that those teas come out. And if you don’t procure them, then they’re gone. So you’re on an annual buy basis. That tea comes up, comes into the market, or is available in the specialty tea area. And then it’s sold, and it’s gone. What happens is that’s the specialty tea, and that’s very characteristic I believe of the traditional Chinese tea culture, or tea market, tea business in that it has always been many, many small farms. And then each province having special teas. And there’s a real sense in China like if you’re in Zhejiang province, maybe you don’t need to go to Fujian because we have really great green tea and white tea.

And why would you go over there? You have it here. But for a tea trader like myself, or a tea purveyor, you want to get the best of each one. So that necessitates travel to cull those out. But if you’re not in that specialty segment and not buying smaller lots, which is what we do– we buy lots, and we try and preserve them– when you get into the larger tea market, the export market that’s more controlled by larger companies and brokerage and things of that sort, you need to take various lots and blend them and create what’s called a standard. Until China became a free market economically, everything in the tea business was run by a standard.

So if you wanted Keemun 1110, every year it would be exactly the same. And that tea in particular is still pretty much the same. But all of the teas had a standard, and you bought to those. But to maintain a standard necessarily meant you took varying lots and combined them to create an appearance and taste that fit that standard that the export market expected. And so that still holds true. And in that case, you can buy tea sequentially across the year. It could get difficult because sometimes those teas– if China’s domestic market turns on to that tea for some reason, that’s instant, huge competition for that tea. You suddenly can get the word that, I’m sorry, but no, that tea’s gone for this year. And it would’ve been the last thing you’d expect because it’s from a large factory maybe in Yunnan. And it’s a black, and it’s always been there.

But China’s starting to drink black tea. It gets absorbed. So there is that– it’s becoming different on the supply side. But you’ve had a little bit in the specialty market where we still have to buy that tea and commit. And that’s where I think it’s beneficial for the small farm because they know we’re there, and we’ll buy that tea. But I think that for the US market has been primarily driven by blended teas and more standard teas. And most US tea companies operate from some sort of relationship with a tea company in China, a tea factory, or a broker of some kind. So their universe of teas is going to be necessarily defined. And here are your options for the year, and you pick one of them. We, of course, have said, well, we’d like to have a wider option. But you have to put that time commitment in, and that means travel for a few weeks in China at least. Yeah.

PAIGE SCHOENING: Wow. And speaking of American and Chinese markets, how has the tea industry changed or evolved since you’ve been in it?

NED HEAGERTY: Well, I think that certainly there’s pressure on China’s side always to respond to the market. So for specialty teas have become increasingly popular in domestic market China. Young Chinese, for example, unlike their parents– their parents always drank green tea– increasingly drink white tea and black tea. So the prices of white tea and black tea have changed dramatically in the last few years. And you just see more pressure. I think also you see it for high-grade green teas. You might have seen many lots and wonderful lots of something made from a Mei Zhan varietal in Fujian province.

You don’t see so much of that anymore just because the pricing for export has become very high, so it becomes impractical to sell it outside of China. But the domestic market is also there to buy it. And they can get– as per capita incomes rise in China, there is a robust market to buy that and consume it. And I think you’re just seeing an awakening on China’s side, just like we have to food. It sort of trails. As incomes rise and education levels rise, people look for better food, better clothes, better electronics. They want those things. So tea meets that same criteria or change. So pricing changes. Availability changes.

And then you also– as we become more stringent or more strict, if you will– and I realize it’s all for the better– with organic and EU standards and just FDA regulations for this side, there’s a little bit on China’s side, why would we bother to battle that out? We can sell it China side for pretty much the same price, if not even sometimes a better price. So you’re getting a little bit of that hedging also in the specialty tea markets. So some companies a little less interested in doing business in the US over the last few years. So I thought today we’d try some specialty teas. And we’ll go through quickly just a survey.

You probably know there’s arguably– or there are six varieties of tea in China. We’re only going to discuss five because there’s a little bit of overlap. There’s white. There’s green, oolong, black, Pu-erh, and yellow tea. And yellow’s probably the least known in the United States. And that’s generally because it’s very similar to a green tea, but it does have an extra steam in the process to heighten its sweetness. But I think that’s a small enough differential there that we’re not going to touch on that today. So I’d like to start you with what I think is indicative of our company. It’s called Drum Mountain White Cloud. This is a white tea.

And white teas– why don’t you, if you’d like, just — I should tell you, when you buy tea, there’s three things that you want to do with tea. First, of course, you look at it. And you say, well, does this even look interesting? Would I want to consume this? And let’s assume that you do. Then you want to see what the aroma’s like. And with tea, hopefully without getting too much up your nose, you do a [SNIFFS] just a quick sniff like that. And it should hit you, and it should tell you. And that’s the second test. Does it smell– is the aroma something that I think I’d like to taste? And if it passes those two steps, you’re on your way.

And you do what I’m doing here. You do the infusion, and steep the tea, and see in fact if it does taste, according to you, to be something that you’d like to drink or buy. So Drum Mountain White Cloud is from Fujian province on the coast, very near Fuzhou, which I mentioned earlier is our point of entry generally to the tea harvest in China. And Drum Mountain White Cloud grows on a mountain called Guo Shan. Its origination was Buddhist monks. They cultivated it, one, to assist them with the caffeine in meditation. But then it quickly became apparent that it was quite popular and had commercial value. So they began to market it and sell it. And so it’s become quite a popular tea actually, probably more so on China’s side than US side. Now, we’re ready.

PAIGE SCHOENING: To pour.

NED HEAGERTY: I think we could pour those off. Yeah, thank you. So white tea is the least oxidized, arguably the most natural of teas. It essentially gets plucked, sorted, cleaned, if you will. And then it’s dried, essentially. So it’s very natural, as you can see by the leaf structure. There’s no shaping to it. It comes straight across, pretty much as it came off the plant. And the silver is unopened bud. I think it’s important at this point to articulate another thing about why these teas taste the way they taste and why it’s so important to buy the early pluck teas. Tea plants are what you call apical dominant. So in other words, you have a stem that grows up in the spring and shoots up. And that’s going to have a bud at the top, a leaf, and another leaf. So you get that classic– that’s called a fine pluck.

That either one leaf and a bud, two leaves and a bud, even down sometimes to three leaves and a bud, and up is called the fine pluck. For high-end specialty teas, you’re not going any lower than that. How does that taste? Is it good? It should be sweet side and nice, soft mouthfeel. But apical dominance– so the plant– in other words, larger leaves down below are left on the tea bush to photosynthesize to send energy up. And of course, the roots are gathering all they can of the nutrients in the soils. Everything’s going upward to get to procreation, if you will. But you want to pluck that before that bud opens to a flower. The flower is not used for drinking tea, generally speaking. Some people drink them, but mostly they press that flower to cull an oil which is used in processing of tea leaves. For example, with Dragon Well, in the wok to create an oil, the tea flower has an oil that they use to help lubricate that leaf on the wok.

So white tea is generally one of the first teas up certainly in the spring. And primarily in Fujian province is where these– this particular tea is near Fuzhou, Ghu Shan mountain. But then another famous area is Fuding. And Fuding is more known for the Silver Needle Yinzhen and White Peony, which we also have here but have opted not– but we won’t taste today. But I did want to mention one other. This is called White Empress. And this gets back a little bit to that earlier notation about Chinese tea culture and the small farm. So this is made to white tea. It’s a Mei Zhan varietal, which I mentioned earlier. And we’ll see a thread here where it starts with this white tea.

But it’s also been made to a green tea, which we’re going to taste, called Wild Green. And then it ends up also as a black tea. So the farmer’s taken the same bud and leaves and created three different styles of tea. And that’s I think highly indicative of the Chinese tea culture, where you don’t have the large monoculture like you do in India broad. You do in the Darjeeling. You have quite a bit of this customization, if you will. But generally, there’s a cloning going on. And the factories get very large and create large, large lots China still is very much driven by the smaller, specialty aspects, or tastes. So we’re going to taste Wild Green, which is also a local green tea, Fujian province. This one is also grown very close to Fuzhou. I’m sorry. This is a handmade green. As I mentioned earlier, it’s made from a varietal called the Mei Zhan. M-E-I Z-H-A-N is one spelling. And I will admit in China, these things tend to be spelled very often differently and articulated differently. Again, that’s a little bit of the localization of tea. But in this case, this tea is made on a small farm by a gentleman by the name of Mr Wen And I think Mr Wen deserves a little bit of notation here because Mr Wen for many years was our supplier of Jasmine Pearls. He’s an excellent person with jasmine. The scenting is very difficult to do well. Wen now is retired and has a small tea farm. And every year, he invites us out to taste tea. And he will create– he did White Empress. He’s done the Wild Green. And he’s done the Black Fragrance. Those are all made from, as I mentioned earlier, the same pluck, if you will.

But he’s made three different styles of tea from them. And they’re very high-grade. They’re great tasting and I think very indicative of tea culture. So I’m honored that he thinks of us, and brings us out, and allows us to taste tea. And they’re always delicious. He makes very small lots. We buy enough to supply hopefully our customer base. We don’t wholesale these teas. These are made for our individual customers, our tea lovers if you will. I think we’ll try that, yeah. I should note here also as we go, I realize I’m passing a bit of information here. But this is a traditional Chinese tea service table. And in China, it’s very typical I think, generally speaking, to brew your tea in the gaiwan, which is a long, long service tea vehicle, if you will, and then to decant to the service pitcher at the moment where you like the taste of the tea. So it doesn’t continue to steep. The gaiwan is great because, again, when you’re buying tea, as I mentioned earlier, you’re going to look at it.

You’re going to smell it. And then you’re going to brew it. And then it’s going to be you’ve poured off, and you’re now going to taste it. And herein is where you get from the lid, there’s the aroma. That tells me– I’ve got a glimpse now of what this tea– the aroma of the tea and a little foreshadowing, if you will, of the taste profile of the tea. Plus, I’m now seeing the leaf– in this case, a very strong leaf, deep green. This is a classic example of a steamed green tea from Fujian province. What do you think? Reasonable? OK So five or six varieties of tea. So we have the white, which is minimal.

It’s pretty much just natural as it’s plucked. You have green, which is kept green by doing a primary or preliminary– primary’s what it’s usually called– firing to stop the oxidization process. And then you’re making your decision from there about the chemical side of it, how you’re going to process the tea to make the flavors that you want inherent in it. But it’s important to stop the oxidization process at that point, and shape it, and then fire it. It holds it as a green tea and locks in the flavors and aromas that you have decided that you want your tea to hold.

So midway between a white tea and, say, a Pu-erh or a black tea is oolong tea, which is semi-oxidized. It’s by far the most complex of Chinese teas and by far the most arduous in the manufacture. Anywhere from eight to, say, 18 steps may be required to make the tea, depending on what the tea maker wants as an end product, and/or the flavors that they’re looking for, the traditions in the area. There are generally two oolongs in China. There are two styles of oolong. There’s the Tieguanyin, which is what we’re tasting here, which is principally Fujian province. And then there is the Dan Cong style, which is higher mountain and higher fire and is from Guangdong province. In both cases, they are prize teas in China and are considered to be the most complex in flavor.

Another– by rattling these leaves also you get a little– again, you’re building to see what this taste has. And what I’ve done there is I’ve given it a preliminary wash, which is done to awaken the tea leaves. This tea, I think it’s probably in the neighborhood of about 18 steps, considerate of all things, to make this tea to the rolled format it is, which is what– if you look at it closely, it somewhat looks like a golf club. It usually has a little stem off of it and a rolled ball. So mindful of all of that process it’s been through, you want to give it a quick rinse to begin the process of unbundling that leaf, unfurling that leaf, and letting its flavors and aromas cut loose. Do we have some hot water for this? We need a nice– I would recommend with oolong tea that we use a boiling water. You need it to really wake this tea up and get those leaves opened. It’s generally held that the first steep is for aroma. And the second, third, but arguably, typically for a very high-grade like this, a low oxidized Tieguanyin style, it’s going to be in the third or the fourth steep that the aromas and flavors really start to come out of the leaf. It takes about that long. And then I would typically steep up to seven times before the leaf is spent. These are going to be quite large leaves.

Tieguanyin comes out later than the greens and white teas. So you have the areas, the more inner areas of Fujian, active, and there’s lots of green teas and white teas and some black teas coming out. And then about four to six weeks later on the coast of Fujian, the good oolongs start to arrive. There is– one class of the Tieguanyin is called Huangjin Gui. Many people market it as a jade oolong. It’s a very much smaller varietal. It does come out early in the spring. But for the most part, these higher-grade Tieguanyins, low-oxidized, come up a little later in the harvest. This is a low-oxidized Tieguanyin China has traditionally liked a more oxidized, medium oxidized Tieguanyin, which is– you hear it more marketed as Iron Goddess.

And it’s more brownside as they let it oxidize a bit more. These teas, I think arguably it was the influence of Taiwan moving– Taiwan has always had the Li Shan and other high mountain Tieguanyin-style oolongs. Theirs have always been low-oxidized. The world market was so appreciative of that, China’s side mainland started to really amp up its production of those years ago to compete and get some exposure as well, gain some of that market. So you saw a little bit of movement away from the medium oxidized Tieguanyins. This, that we won’t taste but I can certainly show you, is Plum. This is the Dan Cong style– as you can see, diametrically different. It’s a long leaf. It’s called Plum Fragrance not because it’s been infused with anything. There’s nothing added to it. It’s just reminiscent of it. The varietal reminds people of plum. It’s very aromatic. It’s quite toasty, almondy almost, in flavor. And again, it’s a very high fire tea that takes quite a while to open and taste.

PAIGE SCHOENING: Ned, we talked a little bit about it earlier. But how do these teas get their names?

NED HEAGERTY: That’s always– some are traditional, go back to the beginning. In some cases, locals will name a tea. In some cases, we have applied names to them Drunken Concubine, of course that’s a name we put to the Tieguanyin for the US consumer. We think it sort of makes it more inviting, if you will. It opens the door, if you will, to this tea I can imagine trying to sell Tian Mu Qing Ding in a grocery store in Ohio could be difficult. It could be difficult in San Francisco Heavenly Blue Peak, on the other hand, evokes some ahh, something ethereal, something a little more relaxed and adventuresome, if you will.

So we’re respectful of that and mostly wanting to get good tea into people, into their lives. I think one thing I wanted to mention—you’re asking that has reminded me that one of the processes that I think you use when you buy tea and drink tea– our minds have a great ability when we’ve tasted something really good to recognize that. And so when you’re buying tea, when you know a taste that you’ve liked, and you’re in the situation of sampling tea or tasting tea, you have that moment. If you concentrate, you’ll pull back up that taste. There it is.

And then you know that’s good tea. And I know from my side, that’s incredibly important because in a marketplace environment trying to buy tea, there’s usually a lot of things going on, a lot of pressure to buy. Let’s make a deal. And somehow or other, you’ve got to pull up that resource and remind. But I’ve always been impressed with our ability to remember things we like. And I think you apply that in the process of buying tea, and you will succeed.

QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION

AUDIENCE: I have a question for you. You mentioned that the plum scent was not infused with plums. But one of the things that I’ve seen is a lot of oolongs are one of the ones that are more flavored, like the [inaudible] or the ginseng. Do you do any of the flavored oolongs?

NED HEAGERTY: No. I mean we don’t. We’ve never ventured into the flavored market. As close as we come– but I like to respond to the opportunity. And I have noticed, for example, an interest in white chrysanthemum being put into a low-oxidized Tieguanyin. That makes a wonderful taste. Well, joining those two naturals to create something, yes, we do that. We will blend. But the additive market is– I don’t think we’re going to go there. That’s respectful again of that– I look at if the– if we’ve done our job, we’ve found somebody who has taken a tremendous amount of time to cultivate and manufacture a flavor. And we go to China, and we taste those. And we say, this is good flavor. This should come home. And I want to– as we say in Silk Road Teas, we want to get out of the way of the tea. Let the tea come through to the customer, and they’ll recognize. So are we doing a second steep on the Tieguanyin? That’s great. I think I’m going to push us because I know you guys want to get back to work. Right?

This is Black Fragrance. On that theme again of China, and respectful of the specialty tea market and its individuality and the small farm, again, Mr Wen in his resourcefulness made White Empress, Wild Green, and Black Fragrance. Same varietal, and this tea is now black. So it’s fully oxidized. Essentially, what he’s done is he’s plucked it. He’s sorted it. He’s withered it. He’s then let it oxidize. And then he’s shaped it. And then he’s fired it. But now it’s black. It’s fully oxidized. And the leaf has been shaped to a certain extent.

And there’s a little bit of mix of bud in there, but generally speaking just high-grade top of the leaf or the stem, bud, and top two leaves. Thank you. Now you’ll notice that I am not measuring this out, other than visually. And that’s purposeful in the sense that I really like to try and demystify tea. I’m very respectful of making the best possible cup you can. But I also don’t like to see people agonize too much over how much tea I’m using. It’s an exploration. As I mentioned earlier, when we’re buying tea, we tend to– if you would, there’s for the aroma. You go through your process, and you taste the teas that you like. And then as you get to know a tea, you begin to realize, I like it at about this amount of time, about this amount of leaf.

And you get that visual set up. And that’s the exploration of tea is finding that spot that’s your sweet spot that you enjoy. And it’s very easy. So what I’m trying to do there is somewhere around 3 grams. That’s a 7-ounce gaiwan. Around 3 grams, but I’m just doing it visually. And I’m going to keep the steep time probably about a minute and a half on this tea because it is quite strong. And I think at that moment, my sense is with tea that you’re getting the full flavor profile, if you will. Teas– at that time, there will be notes that the tea maker has left in the leaf or accentuated in the leaf. And those notes open early on. The longer you steep a tea, the more compacted the flavors become. Stronger flavors begin to overwhelm lesser flavors. So I recommend with high-grade, specialty teas, you keep your steep times down so you get the range. But of course, if you like a lot of flavor in the morning and a little more punch, let it go. But you ascertain that.

But relax about the quantities. And you’ll know when you’ve put too much tea in. I do it often, even in these types of situations, where I taste it, and it’s not the taste I was hoping to give you. But I think this will succeed. So with the gaiwan, you can encourage it like this also to speed up in its process. I think we can taste this. It smells pretty good. So fully-oxidized black tea, of course, should– if you like, that’s a very enjoyable aroma– should be this kind of coppery to red, which indicates oxidization. If it was a Yunnan red, it would be bright red. But this Mei Zhan varietal, that’s the coppery sort of reddish color that it comes to when it’s steeped. I think in this process, the leaf is slow growing. And so the processing of the leaf is actually quite delicate. A little bit too much temperature, and it knocks its nice, sweet, multi flavors into a bakey note pretty quickly. It’s a fine line that the tea maker has to maintain.

PAIGE SCHOENING: Thank you. Yeah This is all really excellent. Does anyone have any other questions?

AUDIENCE: I was wondering if you have an opinion on where Europe stands compared to the US in appreciating green tea. Do you see lots of traders– I mean, traders from Europe– competing for the same specialty teas that you buy?

NED HEAGERTY: Yeah. The Europeans—

PAIGE SCHOENING: Go ahead. Let me repeat the question real quick. He was asking about kind of how tea is in Europe, right?

AUDIENCE: Well, if it’s the same level of interest or more—

PAIGE SCHOENING: Right. So if there’s the same level of interest in tea in Europe as there is in other places.

NED HEAGERTY: Yeah I would venture, if it was a race of some kind, that Europe’s a little bit ahead of us. I think certainly the Germans and the Dutch made early entry into China. And they have great teas, yeah. There is a high level of interest in specialty teas. Europe, though, is a little bit like the US– a lot of blends, frankly. People have really taken blending to another level. And I think what we’re seeing is a little bit of that’s been sort of the tea model, if you will, blended tea. Everyone thinks, this is really great. We’re seeing a little bit of unbundling of that and getting back more to something like this– single origin, nothing done to it. Enjoy it as it is. But Europeans definitely I think appreciate tea, have it more ingrained in their culture.

So yeah, we’re young at tea, frankly, in this country– the Northeast United States pretty active, Southeast United States. Out here, we’re very active in the greater Bay Area. But it falls off precipitously also in other areas. But the specialty tea market is growing dramatically also in the United States.

PAIGE SCHOENING: So the question was, we drink a lot of coffee in this office. How do we encourage maybe more people to drink tea?

NED HEAGERTY: There’s a few good reasons for that. I think coffee’s sort of ingrained for that startup in the morning. I don’t see us getting around that other than maybe a Pu-erh tea because you can brew it very strong. It looks like an espresso– deep rich color, full-bodied. And it makes you feel good. I think the key for people working during the day, particularly who are in offices, is that the caffeination in tea mostly activates in the mind, in the brain, the hippocampus areas, areas like that. And you don’t need your body that much. In fact, you’d like to kind of hold it in reserve. And so tea is very good at stimulating mental activity. It takes about seven hours for the caffeine in tea to work through.

But I think the model that I promote is, we’re going to be a coffee culture in the morning. Great. But once you’re here, and you’re settled down, and you’re good, you’re working, oolong tea or other teas are very much more refreshing and stimulating for the mind. They also go better with food. It’s not so obstructive of food, much less acidity. And you’ve got health benefits, of course. You can always market to the health. But I think for practicality’s sake, if people get in the rhythm of a little coffee and then maybe transition a little tea or maybe a little mix of the two– but tea can really be very beneficial just in allowing you to think clearly and not have to wear your body out at the same time.

PAIGE SCHOENING: Thank you so much. I really appreciate having you, so thank you.

NED HEAGERTY: Thank you.

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