From late February, the northern hemisphere harvests its first tea of the year. But what does tomb-sweeping have to do with prized spring tea?

Fifteen days after the Spring Equinox, the people of many eastern cultures pick up their brooms and head to their ancestors’ resting places. The occasion is Qingming Jie (Pure Brightness Festival), also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day or Ancestors’ Day, and it’s traditional for families to spend time tidying tombs, praying to the deceased, and making ritual offerings, from leaving food to burning joss sticks and joss paper.

Started by the Han Chinese about 2,500 years ago, and now practised by groups across Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, Qingming is as much a season on the Chinese solar calendar as it is a festival, and an important one for tea. That’s because tea picked before Qingming (5 April this year) attains the prized ‘pre-qingming’ (清明前 or ‘mingqian’) designation, which often commands a higher price from buyers. But what’s so special about early season tea?

In growing areas where there are distinct seasons, tea is generally harvested from spring to autumn, with the plants becoming dormant in winter. If you can imagine the trees saving up all their nutrients during the few months of winter, you will realise that spring marks the culmination of all that hibernation: the first leaves are simply everything the plants have to give after they’ve been well-rested.

By contrast, subsequent harvests throughout the year come in much shorter iterations, frantic bursts where the leaves have less time to develop so the flavour is not as concentrated as that first pick. Pre-qingming tea thus represents pluckings from early spring, often characterised by a more complex and distinct aroma and taste and correspondingly high prices.

If you’re a fan of new season tea, it has either already been picked or will be soon, depending on the terroir. So after putting away your brooms, be sure to make room in your collection for the new harvest.

This article originally appeared in AUSTCS enews 29 March 2019.