Spring Tea is harvested from February to April, featuring a rich and lingering aroma. The taste is sweet and mellow, with a fuller body in the Brew. The tea leaves are robust and plump, tightly bound and heavy, with prominent downy hairs. Its fragrance is fresh and long-lasting, and the flavor is thick, fresh, and pleasantly refreshing.
The Autumn Tea is harvested from August to October. The internal quality is relatively stable, the leaves are tightly bound but coarse and loose. They contain less Water, making their aroma more pronounced. The liquor is thin yet sweet, the taste is mellow, and the flavor is mild.
The Differences Between Autumn and Spring Tea from Bingdao
In general, spring tea is considered better than autumn tea. After enduring the dormant period of winter, the energy accumulates for vigorous growth in spring, resulting in richer internal content in the leaves.
The picking of spring tea usually starts in mid-March and ends by mid-May. Before the harvest, the tea plants have been dormant throughout the long winter, which enriches the nutritional content of the tea. The amino acid levels are high, giving the brew a sweet taste. If aged for many years, the spring tea becomes even more flavorful, fragrant, and pleasant to Drink – these are some of the defining characteristics of spring tea from Bingdao. Additionally, during the spring harvest, there are no harmful pests, and no pesticides are used, making it completely pollution-free.
The autumn tea has a rich and lingering aroma, a sweet and mellow taste, and a mild flavor. People often say “spring water, autumn fragrance,” which makes sense. “Spring water, autumn fragrance” means that spring tea has a soft and beautiful taste, with a strong flavor and a long aftertaste, while autumn tea has a high fragrance and a long-lasting flavor. The internal content of autumn tea is not as rich as that of spring tea, so the liquor is not as full-bodied, but this also means the bitterness and astringency are lower, making the tea taste sweeter overall. The flavor profile is generally milder, and combined with the gentle aroma, the autumn tea offers a unique taste different from spring tea.
Spring tea boasts advantages such as a lustrous color, a rich and lingering aroma, a thick and sweet taste, and supple leaves. It is typically robust and dense, with many downy hairs, fine veins, and indistinct serrations on the leaf edges.
The appearance of autumn tea is similar to summer tea, with fine white downy hairs and a lustrous sheen, and the leaves have a slightly yellowish color. The internal quality is better than summer tea. When identifying autumn tea from Bingdao, one can carefully observe that its liquor color, taste, and aroma fall between those of spring and summer teas. The aroma is mild, and the leaves are supple, often with a copper-green hue. The leaves are light, thin, and small, with many paired leaves, and the serrations on the leaf edges are pronounced.