12 teas to buy this year: four from the 2026 spring harvest, four unusual plants, four less common origins
Spring 2026 picks and pressings: a first-flush Darjeeling, a Taiwanese oolong, pre-Qing Ming Longjing and a raw pu-erh cake pressed in May.
Kenyan purple-leaf tea, Malawi’s Bvumbwe cultivar, Vietnam’s Shan Tuyet trees and Assam bushes grown in Taiwan.
Georgia, Nepal, Vietnam and Jeju: places most tea drinkers have not bought from yet.
Prices and availability checked on each vendor’s product page on 2026-10-01. GBP prices are from UK vendors.
Spring 2026 picks and pressings: a first-flush Darjeeling, a Taiwanese oolong, pre-Qing Ming Longjing and a raw pu-erh cake pressed in May.
SignatureIndiaIn Pursuit of Tea
Jungpana, founded in 1899 and sitting at about 5,000 feet, is one of the most remote gardens in Darjeeling. This is lot DJ 10 from the spring 2026 first flush, the first picking...
SignatureTaiwanFloating Leaves Tea
Floating Leaves’ lightly oxidized Dong Ding, rolled like a high-mountain oolong and harvested in April 2026 from the Qing Xin cultivar in Zhushan, Nantou. The shop calls it its...
SignatureChinaYunnan Sourcing
Pre-Qing Ming Longjing from growers around Hangzhou, wok-fried. Yunnan Sourcing describes a pronounced chestnut aroma and recommends brewing in a glass: 4–5 g in 250 ml at 80–90...
SignatureChinaYunnan Sourcing
Huang pian are the larger, older leaves picked out of a batch of raw pu-erh before pressing. They are sweeter and less bitter than buds. This 357 g cake is made entirely from...
Kenyan purple-leaf tea, Malawi’s Bvumbwe cultivar, Vietnam’s Shan Tuyet trees and Assam bushes grown in Taiwan.
SignatureKenyaUpton Tea Imports
Kenya is the world’s biggest exporter of black tea, mostly CTC for tea bags. Purple tea is the exception: high levels of anthocyanin, the pigment in blueberries, tint the leaves....
SignatureMalawiHarney & Sons
Satemwa, founded in 1923 on the slopes of Malawi’s Shire Highlands, is the last family-owned and run tea estate in the country. This black tea is made from Bvumbwe, a cultivar...
SignatureVietnamWhat-Cha
Shan Tuyet ("snow mountain") trees in northern Vietnam are their own variety, pubilimba, distinct from the assamica used for most pu-erh. This 2016 cake from Tay Con Linh in Ha...
SignatureTaiwanRed Blossom Tea Company
Japanese planters brought Assam bushes to Sun Moon Lake in central Taiwan; the area still makes black tea from them. Red Blossom packs it in 10 g sachets sized for cold-brewing a...
Georgia, Nepal, Vietnam and Jeju: places most tea drinkers have not bought from yet.
SignatureGeorgiaWhat-Cha
Georgia grew much of the Soviet Union’s tea, and small farms are now reviving it. This organic black tea from Imereti, harvested summer 2025, is listed as very fruity with no...
SignatureNepalIn Pursuit of Tea
Jun Chiyabari is a high-elevation farm in eastern Nepal, over the border from Darjeeling. This is its oolong, made from small leaves and buds, with a floral aroma and a caramel,...
SignatureVietnamUpton Tea Imports
Eastern (Oriental) Beauty is a Taiwanese style; this one is made in Vietnam. Upton lists apricot, peach and honey with a buttery mouthfeel and a long sweet finish.
SignatureSouth KoreaHarney & Sons
Korean green tea grades follow the picking date; sejak is picked just after the first flush. Jeju is a volcanic island off Korea’s southern tip with tea fields on its slopes....
Every tea here is a real product on its vendor’s own store, in stock when we checked. We picked for something you can taste or verify: a 2026 harvest or pressing date, a named plant variety, or an origin that rarely appears on US shelves. We did not use awards or ratings, and we earn nothing from these links.
Card prices are for the package size shown, before shipping. Click a card for origin, processing and vendor details, each sourced from the vendor’s product page.