You can tell a lot about a tea by looking at the dry leaves: its bud content, the size and colour of the leaves, the degree of oxidation. This is one of the main reasons for buying tea loose, to appreciate its quality. You don’t need to be an expert, but it’s good to be able to make informed choices about your tea, and the appearance of the leaf plays an important part in what you experience when you drink it.
There’s another reason to buy loose tea: the pleasure of tea doesn’t start with the first sip, it starts when you’re at home boiling the kettle and can’t decide which tea to brew. As the water heats up, you lift the lids off your caddies, jars or tins and recreate the experience of the tea shop: smelling the leaves, looking at them and choosing the tea that feels right for the moment. This process prepares us for the ritual of tasting.
Here, all you have to do is look at these beautiful leaves (the remarkable work of many small Nepalese growers deserves a mention) and you’ll want to get to know them better.
