Daily Life in China                  

Tea Drying:

The best "needle" teas are generally hand dried. The bamboo basket is heated over a charcoal fire. Needle refers to the leaf shape. Some teas are picked before the leaf unfurls. It requires a delicate hand to pick and not crush the leaf veins which would affect drying.

There are two basic needle teas.  Early small leaves and later larger leaves.  The early small leaves being the most desirable.

The basket drying is used to fully dry the tea or tweak already dried tea.

The broken leaves are sifted out of the mix. Tea is prepared without tea bags so small broken leaves must be removed.