Like the very mild old Wen or the radical Chan, these tea professionals live among a population that eat, drink, live, and worship with simple devotion and particular requirements. Forget about canned drinks or fast food. They are more concerned with the maturity of a wine or the age of a game meat, the quality of the air or the soundness of a nap. It is the quality of life that counts. Taste and Character Phoenix teas are best three months to two years after being harvested and can be stored for an incredibly long time after that.
Some people actually prefer the aged tea.
It is a practice to slightly brown the stored teas and age them for five to eight years, and these fetch a higher price in the market. However, this is more commonly carried out with Wuyi teas. For easy differentiation, we refer to the non-brown versions as light, and the browned versions as classic. For the products of the MingCha brand, which specializes in premium Chinese tea, a colored chop on the label denotes this. The chop also identifies the harvest season and the type of plant that yields the tea.