This rare green tea known as Yu Ya “Jade Buds” emerges once per year in very small quantities. Yu Ya is a traditional and exclusive production of classic green needles “Lu Zhen” which is a local type of vibrant and energizing pine needle-shaped green tea from Hubei Province.

Yu Ya Jade Buds is produced from the single-bud plucks of a tea bush cultivar local to Hubei known as E-Cha #1. This cultivar has a complex tannin profile with woody, herbaceous and fresh evergreen aromatics when the first growth is harvested during the cool temperatures of the early spring season.

E-Cha #1 is so strong that we only make “Jade Buds” green tea during the first few days of the spring harvest. Then E-Cha #1 is designated for special black teas due to its high polyphenol density.

The high mountain rocky soil gardens of Xuan’en produce amazing and pristine organic green teas like Jade Buds, Green Needles and our everyday Jade Cloud.

Since 2005, we have traveled to this area and are taken by the commitment of the local people to steward real organic agriculture from soil to overall management of not just their tea gardens but all the foods, produce and animal husbandry in their villages.