Seasonal Tea

Each year I create a special blend to celebrate both winter and the holiday season. This year’s blend, Northern Lights, was inspired by flavors that remind me of cold, winter nights. The Kilogram holiday teas from the past two years were a black tea blend and herbal blend. This year I decided to use a green tea, but I wanted to take my favorite element from the past two years, which was a baking spice note, and build upon it. But rather than pairing it with sweet flavors like years past, I chose a savory, pan-fired tea from eastern China...

Camellia sinensis, the tea plant, is thought to have originated in South Central Asia, around Myanmar, Yunnan, China, and Eastern India. The indigenous peoples there have produced tea for thousands of years. Numerous cultivars of the assamica variety have been developed by both trial and accident. One of the most unusual is zi juan. It is a cross between Camellia sinensis and another member of the Camellia family, Irrawaddy sinensis, which produces purple-veined leaves and buds. Traditionally used for making fermented tea, it is prized in Central Asia because it is thought to possess great health benefits. For the past...

Drinking freshly harvested tea is a completely different experience than drinking tea even 6 months later. Fresh tea is sweeter, less astringent, and has a subtle complexity. Our commitment to offering a rare glimpse into the flavor of fresh tea is best exemplified by our Early Spring Collection. Each year I select small lots of tea from the very first harvest of the year. I choose a variety of small production China and Japan green teas, an occasional high elevation black tea, but the style of tea that benefits most from an early harvest is white tea. White peony, or...

China celebrates the Qing Ming festival on April 5th to honor the passing of friends and relatives. For tea growers it represents the deadline for the first harvest of the year. Tea harvested before April 5th is called Ming Qian or Pre-Qing Ming tea. Kilogram designates the earliest harvested tea as “Early Spring” since some tea won’t make the April 5th harvest deadline, but will still have the Ming Qian quality.Harvesting early is important for several reasons- tea plants are harvested several times a year, but allowing the leaves a long layoff during the winter will create healthy, nutrient-rich and...

With over 2000 years of tea production, Vietnam is one of the oldest tea producing countries in the world. It is also the 6th largest producer, yet it is overlooked as a major tea producing country. Unfortunately most of the tea in Vietnam is machine-harvested, machine processed for use in low cost iced tea and tea bag blends. It is rare to find great hand-picked Vietnamese teas outside Vietnam. Six or seven years ago I tasted a sample of an outstanding black tea that reminded me of Darjeeling or a high-grown Shi Lankan tea. It was sweet and floral with...