Welcome, tea drinkers, to 2025: the Year of the Snake! With hard work, a little luck, and many cups of tea, the Year of the Snake is poised to bring us happiness and prosperity.
What is the Year of the Snake? We are referring to the celebration of the Lunar New Year, also known as the Chinese New Year, or the Spring Festival. The Lunar New Year is a traditional Chinese holiday that commemorates the beginning of the new agricultural season. Each year is heralded by a corresponding animal in the Chinese Zodiac.
While there are several fascinating tales that spin the tale of the Zodiac’s origin, one thing remains the same: in each version of the story, a race is held to select 12 animals representing each Zodiac sign. As the animals cross a rushing river, the horse is poised to cross the finish line next, but he is spooked by the clever snake who slithers ahead of him to come in sixth. The snake is the sixth sign, halfway through the 12-year cycle.
People born in 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, and 2001 were born in the Year of the Snake. The most recent Year of the Snake was 12 years ago in 2013, and the next won’t be here until 2037. Because it is over a decade between each sign, it is important to celebrate before the year slips by! We invite you to sample our newly arrived selection of exclusive, premium Chinese teas, along with a snake tea pet companion. What better way to celebrate the Lunar New Year? Enjoy!
The beautifully crafted leaves of this “black peony” selection produce an exemplary cup with a ripe peach fragrance that hints of honey, spice, and vanilla. The light golden-amber liquor is smooth and medium-bodied, with a full mouthfeel and complex flavor profile. Notes of juicy stone fruit are complemented by spicy floral hints and vanilla sweetness. A nutty undertone leads to a clean finish that lingers with hints of earth.
ZH103: Lunar Shou Pu-Erh Tea Cake
Shou Pu-Erh tea leaves have been molded into a unique cake that celebrates the Year of the Snake. Embossed with the characters Fu, meaning happiness and good fortune, Si, the sixth earthly element, and Shi, meaning snake, this compressed cake steeps a dark mahogany liquor with a pronounced fresh earth aroma that hints of oak, spice, and molasses. The rich, full-bodied cup has a buttery smooth mouthfeel with notes of earth, mineral, and a pinewood nuance reminiscent of a forest walk. A refreshing fruity sweetness lingers in the finish.
Have you ever steeped a Pu-Erh tea cake? A unique method of tea processing requires this tea to be compressed into flat discs. It is an ancient and uniquely Chinese fashion of making tea. To steep a large tea cake like this one, begin by breaking off a piece of the compressed cake so you can measure the leaves as you would with loose tea. A Pu-Erh knife is traditionally used for this task, but at home you can insert a fork, cheese knife or butter knife into the side of the cake and pry upward to loosen a piece. The key is to pry, not cut. Use caution with sharp objects, as the tea is quite dense. When you have liberated the tea required to steep a cup or pot, you can return the rest of the cake to its packaging intact. Storing the tea compressed preserves its rich flavor.
Symbolizing good fortune, a tea pet is a ceramic figurine from China, usually made from yixing clay. A traditional practice in China is to nourish your tea pet by rinsing it with tea liquor, which helps it to develop a beautiful aroma and patina over time. Part of a Chinese tea ceremony, it is usually placed on a tea tray when one is making tea. Handcrafted from authentic purple yixing clay (Zi Ni), this charming tea pet celebrates the year of the snake. Throughout the world, snakes symbolize transformation and renewal, and this tea pet is the perfect companion for the new year.
The aforementioned Gong Fu tea ceremony is another delightful Chinese tea custom to observe this Lunar New Year. It offers an older, more traditional method of steeping tea. While the ceremony itself is an art and too complex to be explained in a short blog post, many tea drinkers are inspired by its use of multiple steepings. To steep, for example, the Black Mu Dan, you may use 3-4 tsp of loose tea for 6oz of water rather than just 1 tsp. Rather than steeping it for 5 minutes, you would steep the leaves many times in short, quick intervals to enhance the flavor and bring out the complexity. You could start out by steeping the tea for 30 seconds, then adding 5 seconds to each subsequent steeping.
The Year of the Snake is here, and with it our Lunar New Year tea collection has arrived. No matter what kind of year it turns out to be, we wish you and your family happy tea drinking!