Tea is heavily influenced by the world around it. You may have noticed this in your own home: if you store your tea near any strong aromas, the leaves will absorb that and the flavor will be affected (this is why you should never store tea in a spice cabinet or refrigerator). This is equally true when the tea is growing. The aromas of nearby plants, the air quality, the water and earth that feed the plants, these all contribute to di wei - the ‘earth flavor’ imparted to the tea.
Climate plays a huge impact on the resulting tea. Farmers carefully pick the day to do their picking and drying, watching the skies for rain, moving the drying indoors or outdoors as needed (picking tea on a rainy day leads to a lack of flavor). As a result, teas from different places around the world have very different qualities - even if they are the same cultivar and using the same processing methods. Even leaves from one side of a mountain versus another will provide a range of experiences.
It’s a great time to be a tea drinker, as more teas from all over the world are becoming accessible everywhere. Want to know how Kenyan black tea differs from Indian? How roasted green tea from Assam, India compares to the same from Kyoto, Japan? What difference does the earth flavor make? A lifetime of teas await you.
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