What is a Tea Orange? Tea oranges, known as “Xiao Qing Gan” in Chinese, are tea leaves packed inside a special type of fragrant mandarin orange grown specifically for its aromatic peel. The inside flesh of the fruit is scooped out, the peel is dried, and then filled with loose leaf tea. The result is a fantastic citrus scent during brewing, and a smooth, natural orange note in the tea. The tea oranges in this series are the end result of over a year’s worth of tea scouting and sourcing, where I went in person to the orange fields and the tea mountains to find the best ingredients, put them together, and develop a complete line of amazing flavors, including both classics and innovative unique tastes. What’s in the Box? Each box contains ten tea oranges (around 80g total), filled with Moonlight White Tea from Yunnan province. The Moonlight White tea explodes with floral scent, and releases a very clean and sweet flavor when brewed. It starts out as the lightest of all of the teas in the Tea Orange Series in the early steeps, though as it brews and the leaves become inundated, it builds a strong body with herbal tasting notes. Unlike Fujianese white teas, which are separated into various grades by separating buds and leaves, Yunnan Moonlight White tea is made with both leaves and buds, lending scent from the buds and deeper flavor from the leaves. The tea is called “Moonlight” because of the beautiful contrast between the darker leaf backs, which can sometimes look almost entirely black, and the pale white of the underside of the leaves. White tea oranges are very unusual and I am glad to give everyone a chance to try them in this series! What is White Tea? White tea is the simplest, least-processed form of tea. While other types of tea go through many types of rolling, fermenting, and heating, white tea is made simply by plucking tea leaves by hand and allowing them to wither on a drying table. The table is made with a mesh bottom, and airflow is increased by running a fan below the table to constantly bring fresh air in contact with the leaves, aiding the withering process. The leaves wither, dry, and then that’s it! The result is a clean, fresh, natural tea that keeps the sweet and herbal nature of the tea leaf. White tea also has the benefit of continuing to oxidize over time, which deepens the flavor and color of the tea. As such, you never need to worry about white tea “going bad.” Not sure which flavors you like? Try the 5-orange sampler! Why Make Our Own Tea Oranges? While tea oranges are not difficult to find in China, they are usually filled with lower quality tea, with most vendors hoping the interesting shape will be enough to attract customers. Eventually, we decided that if we wanted higher quality tea oranges, especially those that would pass EU export standards for pesticides, we needed to start from scratch. We sourced the oranges, sourced the teas, put the tea in the oranges, and made our own line of products that simply can’t be found anywhere else! Click here to check out the timeline of how these oranges were made! Our Orange Guy: Jie Ge Jie Ge is a third-gen tea orange farmer from Xinhui, China, the best location in all of China to grow tea oranges, thanks to its unique geographical position in a rich flood plain and their special varietal of orange. His family has been growing and aging oranges for decades. The orange varietal he grows has 27 volatile scent compounds contained in the dried peel, compared to normal oranges which have under 10. Jie Ge’s oranges come from the core area of Meijang and are grown fully organic, using only organic fertilizer he makes himself by fermenting ingredients like peanut shells, soybean powder, fish and fish bones, seashells and seaweed, amongst other ingredients. Our Tea Lady: Tian Zong Tian Zong has been in tea tasting and sourcing for over twenty years, and has spent much time in the last decade helping local farmers grow to organic and EU export standards, as a way of increasing incomes for farmers and helping them reach overseas markets. Tian Zong connected us directly to local farmers, and serves as our quality-control specialist for making sure all teas fit the highest standards of pesticide, heavy metals, and other health-related topics. She also ensures the farmers get the proper export papers needed. In addition, Tian Zong is also a certified tea-tasting expert, as granted by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. Her insight on which types of teas might be a good fit for the Tea Orange Series was very valuable. Jesse and the team testing tea oranges in Changsha Pesticide Testing: Best-In-The-World Quality Jesse Says: I spent over $4000 on pesticide testing for these products so they would pass EU regulations, which are the toughest on the planet. The challenge for orange peels to pass pesticide testing is immense because the peel stays on the fruit all throughout its growth. This means any pesticides used on them accumulate, and so virtually no chemical pesticide can be used during the growing process. Jie Ge uses natural methods on his farm to resist pests, including creating a biodiverse growing environment where wild animals help control pest population, as well as fermenting his own organic fertilizer. The end result: lots of “ND”s (meaning “not detected”) on the final pesticide tests and my personal satisfaction that we’ve made the best tea oranges from a health, safety, and ingredient quality perspective available outside of China - and maybe even inside of China! Note: Jie Ge’s family has several farms in Xinhui and we use different batches for different countries, so that we are compliant with all import regulations. All the different batches have passed and exceed the regulations for their local markets! Questions about the Tea Orange Series?Email [email protected] and ask!
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