Six-tea comparative tasting

What you get

• Six gaiwan stations, one per category — Lù Chá (绿茶) through Hēi Chá (黑茶) — brewed in parallel by the leading master

• A printed tasting grid with aroma, liquor colour, mouthfeel and finish columns, filled in across three infusions

• A 10g sample of each of the six teas to take home, labelled with origin and brewing parameters

• Hot water at 85 °C and 95 °C from separate kettles, so green and white sit beside oolong and Shú Pǔ’ěr (熟普洱) fairly

• A 30-minute close where Zhou Xiang and Chen Hui Yi answer questions on what you tasted and where to go next

• A follow-up email with the same six teas listed on tea.school and puerh.app for self-study

How the two hours unfold

Guests arrive fifteen minutes before the hour. Tea is already waiting, weighed on a 0.1g scale: 3g of Tài Píng Hóu Kuí (太平猴魁) from Anhui, 3g of Bái Háo Yín Zhēn (白毫银针) from Fuding, 3g of Huò Shān Huáng Yá (霍山黄芽), 5g of Tiě Guān Yīn (铁观音) from Anxi, 4g of Zhèng Shān Xiǎo Zhǒng (正山小种) from Tong Mu, and 6g of a 2014 Shú Pǔ’ěr (熟普洱) cake pressed in Menghai. Six identical 110ml gaiwans line the table left to right, lightest to darkest.

The first hour is the substantive work. Zhou Xiang leads the first three brews — green, white, yellow — pouring 85 °C water in a single steady stream, lid on, ten seconds. Lids come off in unison. Guests lean in. The green smells like cut bean leaf; the silver-needle white is sweeter, almost melon; the yellow sits between them, with a faint roasted-rice edge that catches everyone off guard. Liquor goes into white cups so colour can be read against the porcelain — pale jade, pale gold, pale straw.

Chen Hui Yi takes the second half: oolong, black, dark. Water shifts to 95 °C. The Tiě Guān Yīn opens floral and creamy. The Zhèng Shān Xiǎo Zhǒng arrives with longan and pine smoke from the bamboo drying lofts. The shu pu’er from Menghai is the last to be poured — deep mahogany, the cup heavy in the hand, a thick clean finish that coats the palate without bitterness.

Three infusions are taken from each gaiwan. Notes are written between rounds, not during, so attention stays on the cup. Wet leaves are turned out onto a white tray at the end so guests can see the structural difference: whole buds, twisted strands, rolled pellets, loose chunks of pressed cake.

The last twenty minutes are open. Guests revisit any two of the six side by side, with their own questions. Most ask about water, leaf-to-water ratio, or where to source the teas honestly. The session closes with the printed grid, the six labelled samples, and a short reading list pointing to tea.school and puerh.app.

Who leads the table

• Zhou Xiang — Leads the green, yellow and black flights — Anhui and Fujian classics, calm pace, decades of cupping.

• Chen Hui Yi — Leads the white and oolong flights — Fuding silver-needle authority, sharp on aroma vocabulary.

Practical details

• Where — Saint Petersburg studio (Petrogradskaya) or Berlin studio (Mitte) — exact address sent on confirmation

• Guest count — Two to six guests per table; private bookings for one party only

• Dress — Anything you can sit comfortably in for two hours; no strong perfume, please — it interferes with aroma work

• Food and water — Eat lightly an hour before; avoid coffee that morning. Still water and plain rice crackers are provided

• Accessibility — Both studios are step-free at entry; seated format throughout, table height 74 cm

• Language — Sessions run in English or Russian; Mandarin notes on request