Choosing a Top Quality Chun Mei Green Tea

There are many important factors in choosing the highest quality Chun Mei green tea, Which is also known as Chun Mee or Zhen Mei green tea.  This unique variety of green tea is nicknamed “Precious Eyebrow Tea” because of its resemblance to the eyebrows of a beautiful woman.  Chun Mei is also known as one of the best types of green tea. In this article we will teach you how to properly select the best grades of Chun Mee tea.

Chun Mei is mainly produced in Xiuning, Tuixi, Yi County and She County of the Anhui Province, and all of these places are the junction of Anhui province, Zhejiang province and Jiangxi province in China.  In fact, Zhen Mei tea is one of the best Chinese green teas.

Chun Mei tea is an extremely strong and delicious tea. Chun Mee is usually picked in the springtime.  When picked, only one leaf and a bud or two leaves and a bud are picked to produce Zhen Mei.  The dried leaves of the Zhen Mei tea are very thin and needle-like, resembling thin beautiful eyebrows with a dark green color and somewhat oily appearance.   The tea leaves hold a distinct chestnut fragrance which is very strong and lingers for a long time. The brewed tea is fresh, strong and astringent with a slightly bitter and slightly sweet finish, and a beautiful bright clear yellow-green liquor.

Chun Mee is a traditional tea to drink in China, and is a popular tea to purchase in China.  Zhen Mei is also a very popular export from China and is valued highly by many other countries including the United States, with more and more Chun Mee tea produced and sold each year.  Because of its rising popularity, Zhen Mei tea has been steadily increasing in quality due to demand.  Because it has become so popular, Teavivre has created this article on choosing a premium grade Zhen Mei.

The first step in selecting a top grade Chun Mee is to look at the appearance of the dried leaves.  The dried leaves should be very tight and thin.  The looser and thicker the leaves are, the lower the quality.  The color of a premium Chun Mee should be a deep oily green, not yellow-green which is inferior, or grey-yellow which is extremely low quality.

Next you should smell the dried tea leaves, which should have a very strong fragrance with deep chestnut undertones and a grassy edge.  If the leaves have very little aroma, they are of inferior quality.

After this, you can also determine the quality by also observing the liquor of the brewed tea.  Teavivre invites you to also read our article on Properly Brewing Zhen Mei teaProperly Brewing Zhen Mei tea for proper brewing techniques.

The liquor of the brewed Chun Mee should be bright and clear with a yellow-green color.  Avoid Chun Mee teas which brew up darker or opaque, which are of vastly inferior quality.  As mentioned above, the best flavor in a Chun Mee tea is refreshing, strong, and slightly bitter with a barely sweet aftertaste.  A lower quality Zhen Mei tea will have a lighter or much more bitter flavor.

The brewed tea leaves should be soft, green and well-proportioned and not dull or grey, and can be re-brewed several times with good flavor and aroma in each subsequent brewing.  Now that you know how to choose a premium quality Zhen Mei tea, read our article on Properly Brewing Chun Mee Tea to be able to enjoy the uniquely beautiful flavor of the tea to its fullest.