Ingredients · Tea

Chunmee Green Tea

Camellia sinensis · Theaceae (tea family)

Chunmee Green Tea
A pan-fired Chinese green whose name, zhen mei, means precious eyebrows — for the long curved shape of the finished leaf. It has a dusty look and a cup that is more acidic and less sweet than most greens, with a plummy edge the shop's notes pick out. It is one of the old English trade names for Chinese tea, alongside Hyson and Sowmee, and it is graded by number, from 41022 at the top down to 8147, which is mostly broken leaf.

What it’s like, and how to use it

The partLeaf
KindTea
CaffeineContains caffeine
Where it is fromChina
TastePlummy and a little tart; less sweet and more acidic than most green teas, with a dusty-looking leaf
How to brew it
  • 175°F / 80°C
  • 2 to 3 minutes
  • never boiling water

How to use it

Around 175°F, 2 to 3 minutes; boiling water makes its natural tartness sharp. The base for Kashmiri chai, where it is treated quite differently — boiled long with baking soda, then finished with milk, salt and crushed nuts.

With food

Plum and apricot. Rice. Steamed fish. Almond and walnut. Light cheese. Cucumber.

With spices

Cardamom and cinnamon, in the Kashmiri direction. Mint. Ginger. Rose.

With tea

Blended with mint, or spiced for a Kashmiri chai.

Its story

Where it comes from

Originally produced only in Jiangxi province; today it is made predominantly in Taishun County, Zhejiang. Our lot names no origin.

What happened

Chunmee belongs to the world of the old China tea trade — the sorts Robert Fortune watched being sifted in 1852: twankay, hyson skin, hyson, young hyson, gunpowder. The English trade names are anglicised southern pronunciations: Hyson from xi chun, Chunmee from zhen mei, Sowmee from shou mei. It is also the tea behind Kashmiri chai, where green tea is boiled for an hour with baking soda until it turns burgundy, and milk turns it pink — noon chai, from the Kashmiri word for salt.

On the shelf with it

Every product it goes into.

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