A Chinese lady gave me this lovely box of tea but could not add much
information about it. I have taken some pic: does any one know more
about it?

<http://i2.tinypic.com/qxrx44.jpg>

<http://i2.tinypic.com/qxrynr.jpg>

<http://i2.tinypic.com/qxryvk.jpg>

<http://i2.tinypic.com/qxrz0g.jpg>

Colour of infusion is very pale, taste mild, very distinctive coffeine
effect. I would list it as a high quality, but would be glad to trace it
down

Thank you

--
a.

angela wrote:
> A Chinese lady gave me this lovely box of tea but could not add much
> information about it. I have taken some pic: does any one know more
> about it?

Looks like a white tea to me, and a fairly decent grade at that. White
tea is brewed similarly to green: Water just below boiling (bring water
to boil and wait about 30 seconds off of heat) and steeping time
varies. Some whites need just a very brief steep of 30 seconds to a
minute, while others need more time upwards of 3 minutes.

I will have to work on translating the packaging, I'm no expert
there... but I do know there are many on this newsgroup who are so they
may beat me to it.

- Dominic

Hi Dominic,

I'll let you work on it then. :")

Angela, your pictures of the box isn't complete, is it? There should be
another picture of it, or the top and bottom, or of the packaging that holds
the tea. The name of the tea is very hazy, as 3 areas in China that produce
teas have the same name.

Danny


"Dominic T." > wrote in message
oups.com...
>
> angela wrote:
>> A Chinese lady gave me this lovely box of tea but could not add much
>> information about it. I have taken some pic: does any one know more
>> about it?
>
> Looks like a white tea to me, and a fairly decent grade at that. White
> tea is brewed similarly to green: Water just below boiling (bring water
> to boil and wait about 30 seconds off of heat) and steeping time
> varies. Some whites need just a very brief steep of 30 seconds to a
> minute, while others need more time upwards of 3 minutes.
>
> I will have to work on translating the packaging, I'm no expert
> there... but I do know there are many on this newsgroup who are so they
> may beat me to it.
>
> - Dominic
>

samarkand > wrote:

> Hi Dominic,
>
> I'll let you work on it then. :")
>
> Angela, your pictures of the box isn't complete, is it?

now it is, unfortunately (please see the last two links I just posted).
In its full splendor, the box it's he

<http://i2.tinypic.com/qz42ud.jpg>

Thanks again. By the way, I like it very much and would be glad to know
a bit more about it...

--
a.

angela wrote:
> Thanks again. By the way, I like it very much and would be glad to know
> a bit more about it...

Thanks for the extra info Angela... however, I am at a loss for any
information. I have never seen this packaging and there are no
instantly recognizable characters to me on it. There are no "cha" (tea)
characters even.

I still am almost 100% sure it is a white tea, and as I said before a
very good grade. I'm really hoping someone else around here will shed
some light on this as I'm now interested to find out as well.

- Dominic

> I still am almost 100% sure it is a white tea

I agree, it looks to me like a white tea.

Well, looking at the packaging, it seems the name of the tea is Ling
Yan Ming Qian Cha �岩明�茶。 Never heard of it before.

But from the name, it's a spring tea, picked sometime before the Qing
Ming Festival, which usually falls on April 4 or 5.

Other than that, I have no idea. Web searches in Chinese don't pull up
any info on this tea.

hi Dominic,

The box packaging is generic. The company that produces this box has
several of similar designs in different colour. These boxes are designed as
gift-packs. Hoever, some tea companies who prefer to package their own teas
but refuse to pay a design fee on the packaging will approach this company
and have their teas packaged in the design as you see. The tea company can
also customise the package to include the name of their own tea.

In this case, Angela's last post with the pics showed that the company *may
be* called 'Ling Yan'. The name of the tea is in the 4th pic of the
previous post, called "Ling Yan Ming Qian Cha" - The pre-Ming (early spring,
around early March) tea from Ling Yan.

Unfortunately, both the name of the tea and the area of production are
ambiguously generic. However, since it says "Ming Qian", early srping tea,
this rules out very much the White Tea speculation. White tea is produced
in the later months. It is a green tea using young flush with lots of down,
similar to the Bi Luo Chun.

The other 4 characters all over the box in pic 3 are "Han Mo Ming Xiang" -
Han Mo means to pen a letter, here it indicates also the fragrance of the
ink; Ming Xiang means fragrance of Tea.

The lines of characters at the bottom of the gold box in the centre are
excerpts from a poem by Admiral Zheng Ban Qiao, but it is misquoted in the
large print...the lines read, in translation:

A few sprigs of black inked Orchids
On paper from Xuan De,
Bitter Tea in a cup
From the kilns of Cheng Hua.

Kinda *Hakku* I guess, to evoke a tonal picture.

The tea, is from Ling Yan. Ling Yan can be a company, or a place. As a
place, there are at least three with the same names in China, but my guess
is the one in Jinan city in Shangdong province. This is the place where the
monks first advocated drinking green tea to stay alert through long prayers.
This area still produces green tea that looks similar.

I think that's about all.

Danny