On Sep 21, 8:00 am, Tea Sunrise > wrote:
> Hello, Does the tea leaf size after you steep the tea an indication
> of quality of the tea batch? I've noticed some greens I have have
> big full leaves. Some are mostly broken particles.
>
> For example, I recently bought some Sencha from an Asian mart, and
> although it tasted very good, I noticed from my Ingenuitea infuser
> that the leaf particles were small and broken, it seemed. (so much
> for Asia Marts)
>
> Since I'm new to brewing loose leaf tea (especially greens), I have
> limited experience. So I ask the tea community if this is normal, or
> should I always look for full leaf sizes and bigger particle sizes.
> And not to promote websites, but which ones sell fresh and new season
> teas.
>
> thanks so much and just a note to say I enjoy this forum very much.
>
> Bernie

Generally, and I didn't read the subsequent posts in this thread,
fuller/non-broken leaves can sometimes indicate if the tea was picked
and processed by hand or with the use of a machine. Usually, in
Chinese teas, if you have nice, full leaves, you have a better quality
tea. This isn't always the case.

With many Taiwan Wulongs, you can see how edge of the knife that cut
the stems of the tea and that it was processed by hand because of how
tender the leaves remain even after processing. Compare this to any
TieGuanYin and you can see a huge difference.