Mrs. Li has been picking tea since age five. One of the few growers of real Shi Feng Dragonwell, she is a respected village leader with a dream to share her craft with the world.
Dragonwell varietal #43 has been carefully bred and selected in the last fifty years as a new tea well suited to Shi Feng’s terroir. It buds earlier and in colder weather than classic Longjing Qunti varietal and yields yellower plumper buds that make for gorgeous steeping in glassware. While classic Dragonwell is all about rocky mineral texture, the new #43 is a crisp, bright focused experience centered around stronger flavor and aroma and more pronounced sweetness.
Mrs. Li’s #43 varietal is true Shi Feng Dragonwell, growing on one of the highest slopes of the tiny microclimate that Emperor Qianlong declared as one of the best in the world for tea. The soil is full of quartz and white sand while the water comes from natural mountain springs, yielding a flavor that simply can’t be matched outside of Shi Feng itself.
Mrs. Li expects to pick her 2018 classic harvest in the first days of April; pre-orders will packed and air-shipped directly after picking, shipping to you by the first week of May (or earlier).